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Show AT THE CROSSROADS. After three years of the " massacre nations.' as some Cierman statesman has expressed it, there need be no surprise sur-prise that in Great Britain and France a few of the political leaders should become be-come faint-hearted. Although the Marquis Mar-quis of Lansdownc has been in no sense a pacifist, the slaughter and impoverishment impover-ishment of Europe has shaken his -will for war and has influenced him to think that perhaps, after all, it may be nccessarv to compromise with evil. The very fact that he has not been a pacifist paci-fist eives weight to his words. His countrymen recognize him as thorough-!v thorough-!v patriotic and know that it is only in anguish of spirit that he capitulates to the idea of a peace without victory for Great Britain. The tempest of opposition which he has evoked shows that few Englishmen .an share in his opinions. They believe be-lieve that the war must bring to the British empire permanent security or a continuing peril which will ultimately cause its destruction. They realize that never again will the world be so strong to crush the Prussian menace as now. that in the next war the Hun will be more powerful than in this and will try to defeat his enemies in detail. Our interest is the interest of the allies. Their surrender would make us a military nation. Year after year we should increase our armaments by land and sea. trying to keep pace with Germany. Ger-many. The Marquis of Lansdowne has taken issue with President Wilson, who, in the note to the pope, expressed the unanimous sentiment of the allies at That time. The central thought of the (resident's note was that the present 'icrman government, committed to militarism mil-itarism and aggression, could not be trusted to make any peace which would endure and that only a government of rind by the German people could give the necessary assurances. Undoubtedly the president's note has n:ade some changes in Germany. It has given strength to the movement ior' popular covernment. It has forced The emperor to shift flnd squirm and -eek a way to maintain all the pre-rogatives pre-rogatives of an auto-: rat while appearing appear-ing to nrnt valuable i-on cessions to the ppople. But it remains certain that he German government has not .hanged essentially, that the new ministers min-isters favor a military Germany which naU dominate Europe either by annexations an-nexations or political arrangement amounting to annexations. In s;i-h circumstances is tliere any ncer tu restate the war aims of th' ailif-i? J President Wilson 's policy '!n'.iifei to any new conditions which hav arisen? Is Germany more, to be fruited row than a few months ago7 Will any treaty Berlin makes lie a -tiarant-c of anything that ia to en- !ure ? Ts it not tru1, on the contrary, that fhr situation remains practically th arne with the exception that tho pan-Germanists pan-Germanists the faction of conquest nnd 37rTpflion have crown more influential influ-ential as th result of the Italian victory vic-tory and tho collapse of Russia? Tho German pro pin a ro cont ent to tat the kaiser and the war lords rule so lonfj as there is A chance, of attaining those oh-iects oh-iects which the people have been taught to desire. (Hiring a genera ion of the government 's propaganda of war and conquest. Goijnt von flertding and Minister Kuehlmann of foreign aft airs aro pleased to indulge in plausible phrases ft diplomacy, but beneath the velvet giovfl one frr the mailed fist. Minuter Min-uter Kuehlmann says it is absurd to think t hat Germany will put forward iarc claims in concluding nri. Does anyone think that Germany will present liht claims if she can force, ppc,. upon 'he worl'i 7 It n only the chancellor . rid the foreign minister who purr in this plea an t, manner. 'I he S;i ion tir.ftn-'o niini.ler wan's a tinn'ic. in--km n i ' v and th i u: h the V n it 'd SI rtt o-.ght to pay it. Even the Hor:aliys un- not ni rnode-t in their 'Ith.'iii'U ttJ i hey W'-re a few vi I'i'k a go. V ic tor y the j i,;il ; ) - of ma k i og the German ;'.;, re. it) to tlM'tr (i '!'( '1T1 of l':i.ii,'tiori. Only ijej'.-at can i;u.': them. And yet Lord Lansdownc is willing to make pence with a Germany that is undefeated and at a time when the allies are growing stronger with the 1 aid of the United States. It is quite true that Germany will grow relatively i stronger if llussia falls away from the ! allies. Several million men will be added to the German armies and there will never again be shortage of food or perhaps any commodity essential for domestic, industrial or military use. The allies are at the same crossroad whereat they stood a year or two years ago. They must choose between a world permanently armed against a menacing Germany or a world freed from the Prussian peril. In either war or peace armament will weigh down tho nations if Prussia remains undefeated. If Prussia is beaten tho world will be set free from crushing armaments and peace will have been established on a firm basis for many years. The world can tii en proceed to pay off the war mortgage by producing wealth at an unprecedented rate with improved machinery ma-chinery and organization. The allies continue passionately to desire the peace of victory for themselves them-selves and their children and their children's chil-dren's children. That is the only guarantee guar-antee worth while. -Must they then be content with whatever guarantees n conquering Germany will offer them 7 It is for the nations to choose. |