Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-01-20
ENLIGHTENMENT FROM THE CONFER
ENCE. %

German militarism misjudged a great many
things, among them British and American senti-
ment. In the case OF Great Britain the bureaucrats
at Berlin, ignoring the counsel of a German repre-
on the ground, were convinced that. be-
cause of the non-nilitary character of the people,
the fact that "Britain's standing army consisted of
but a mere handful of men, the disturbed state Of
affairs iii Ireland, and a number of other facts,
Great Britain would not attempt to enter the war,
and that her influence would be negligible if she did
enter.
In the case Of the United States the same peo-
pie believed that the policy Of national isolation had
come to be SO much of a fetish with Americans that
there would be no serious consideration in this
country Of participation in a foreign war that hat
red Of Great Britain was SO inseparable a part of
American sentiment that this country would not
consider enlisting in a cause i'll which British SYM
pathies were active; that America was too busy
chasing the dollar to give heed to anything else and
that Germany could rely on the services of the
great multitude of persons of German origin resi-
dent in America to render any attempt to oppose
the i,nperialistic plans of the fatherland futile.
We have seen how utterly false all these esti-
mates were. Junkerism received its enlightenment
too late. III
There is a inilitaristic. element in France. There
is reason to believe that this element received en-
lightenment at the Washington arms conference,
and that the new knowledge gave it a severe shock.
lhere is a strong probability that the mllltaristlc
element in the French government believed that at
the Washington conference mutual rivalries be-
tween the United States and Great Britain would
be made to serve the ends of those who were anbi-
tious for a revival of former ambitious schemes in
France, and that France might be made to play the
part in the worlds history that German imperialism
had hoped to play.
If this sentiment was actually entertained, and
there is considerable warrant for the belief, a whole
some, if distasteful lesson has been given within
the past few weeks. Instead of pulling in opposite
directions, the British and American delegations
were found pulling together, and the only apparent
rivalry was as to which could contribute most to
the cause of world peace ultimately and, in the i'm
mediate present, to the lessening of the armament
burden. The unity of these two great powers on
this policy has been one of the vital facts of the
conference, and it was through that unity that many
apparently impossible things were achieved. What
ever hope may have been entertained by the extrcn1-
lists in France that they would be able to create a
naval and military machine which would rival OF
surpass that which Germany once had, while the
rest of the world laid aside it's weapons and stripped
off its arn1or, was suddenly dissipated, and those
who had attained that ambition found that a move
ment for peace had been started which no nation
was strong enough to withstand, and which no ma.
ton could afford to oppose.