The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-26
THE WATCH ON THE RHINE.
Frances Service TO Civilization and
the Treaty OF Alliance.

country SnOulu De grateful TO General
March for again turning its attention to
the truths which, darkened during the
years preceding the German war were
lllumined by its flare and. unless they
be recalled again and again, may soon
be forgotten. Among these truths none
Is better established than the completely
of the pacifists of allied countries with
the Junkers OF Germany in bringing on
the terrible scourge from which civiliza-
ton and liberty will not be free or safe
Cor years to come.
Those who Iidiculed Lord Roberts in
England and Theodore Roosevelt in the
United States. who bid America put her
trust in arbitration treaties without
sanctions, viii share forever with
Treitschke and Bernhard the guilt for
the agony humanity has endured and in
the throcs of which Russia still Is at
this time under the heel of the tyrants
whom Germany put in power at Mos
COW. While the Junkers went on piling
up ornaments. inventing poison gas,
planning wholesale murders. outrages
and arsons, scheming on a world scale
the ends which bandits have ever
sought and reawakening the millennial
u TIC NfcIiiitLH lol PUN
der, the pacifists of the Anglo-Saxon
world were hard at work. They spread
the idea of the impossibiity of war.
they fought British and American pre-
paredness, they did their worst to keep
their countries in state such as to
convince the Germans they might set
their war machine loose with impunity.
So far as Great Britain and America
are concerned, the aggression failed.
They weYe spared the horrors OF Hun
invasion. Why? The oftener said the
better, lest we forget: because, aided by
1 Belgium, France stood in the way and
not only said ''They shall not pass"
but fought them to a standstill until
Britain and America could come and
Join in the defence of what every re-
sponsible statesman of both countries
has since acknowledged was from the
first day their own cause as we'll as
that of France and Belgium.
When that first day came our paci-
fists and those OF England did not fail
the Junkers. Mr.. Gardner's Daily Netcs
in London-the same Daily Netcs which
Is still pro-German-publish editorial
articles which might have been written
In Berlin, so fiercely did they deprecate
British aid to France and Belgium. AS
for our pacifsts. they were less out
spoken but not less effective, for their
British confederates lost the game then
and there; while they on this side, under
Bernstorffs spell, kept us out of war
until it was all but too late.
Some of US may have forgotten yet
history will record the paralytic state
1l.~f. faf aff nj
days when resolute word from Wash
ington in behalf of world peace-in
which we were vitality concerned
might we'll have proved decisive. There
is no doubt that the greathearted Amer
lean who was our Ambassador in France
during those fateful days, Myron I.
Herrick, the American most beloved by
the French people, warned of the APP
preaching crisis and of the enormous
Importance which a friendly but firm
message from America on behalf OF
peace would have at that stage.
Instead silence, then feverishly issued
declarations Of neutrality and. after the
war was already on in earnest. a futile
offer of mediation made, as contcmpo-
raneous records show. in a spirit of neu-
trality not only of deed but of thought 4;
moral neutrality which it's initator
sought to invest with a sort of halo
during the thirty months which ensued 4;
neutrality which had its climax in the
formula of peace without victory
since revived under the name League
of Nations, the label of n pact which
alphabetically commits all nations to
fight against their friends wars on be-
half of their enemies but which con-
cretely contemplates nothing in the way
Of common action by free nations in de-
fence of their liberties. As to the lat
ter we have this very day the assurance
Of Lord Robert Cecil. Mr.. Wilson'S
junior partner in the enterprise.
There is another pact. the so-called
French treaty. which in essence Is not in
the least hypothetical but. ON the con-
trary, wholly concrete. 1t presupposes
the recognition by America of the great
fact which the war proved, to all who
care for facts. that the Franco Belgian
border with Germany is the frontier of
civilization, not only Frances but Brit
aims and Americas first line OF defence
All who know history and whose par
amount thought is that war shall be dis
couraged in the only effective way. by
making It a losing proposition, realize
first that the Rhine is the place where
that first line of defence can best hold,
and, second. that If Germany is com
PEELED to make good. though it take her
fifty years, the ruin she inflicted on her
neighbors Junker propaganda will be
unpopular in Germany for "a long time to
como otherwise the contrary will be
true.
While all this is going on our press is
flooded with propaganda matter full OF
threats by Germans that If they are not
given the leniency which their friends.
Mr.. Keynes and others, advocate they
will turn Bolshevik: in fact, that they
are willing TO contemplate every con-
tingency save only making real repara-
ton for their depredations and resolving
TO live at peace with their neighbors.
These are all good reasons for passing
the French treaty. whatever may happen
TO the League The British Empire
whose losses on the basis of population
were to Frances 8. the United States,
whose losses we're comparatively trifiing,
will not wish to promote their own over
throw by returning 70 the pacifist no
lions OF 1914. MAURICE LEON.
NEW YORK. November "a.
Tailor Claims Title of Baron.