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Show THE iCITIZEN in Washington under his auspices and he probably was appealing in- directly to the employers of the land to make speedy terms with labor. 9 Everybody desires a basic agreement between capital and labor, but the reasonable man knows that however desirous (each side is of doing justice there are difficulties which the kindliest of good will, the most benevolent of motives, cannot' remove immediately. Like all great Social problems the problem of capital and labor must work itself but slowly. Meantime the public has' the right to expect something besides good will as between capitalist and laborer. It has a right to expect hard work and that means an avoidance of strikes'. It has a right to expect that every man will do his duty employer and laborer alike and each man can do his duty only if he displays good will toward the people as a whole, using brain and1 brawn to increase production. YANKEES TO POLICE SILESIA ((VI THEN the treaty is signed the men in khaki VV will never have to go across the ocean again, says the President. Six thousand officers and men are under orders to cross the ocean to police' Silesia while people decide by vote whether they want to be German or Polish. Nor is the task likely to be a sinecure, for the Huns have been up to their old atrocities. They have been murdering the Polish population, perhaps on the theory that they may be able to win the election by this means. In this country, not so iong ago, politicians stuffed ballot boxes to win elections, but it never occurred to them that they could kill the voters and thus be relieved of the immoral obligation to stuff the ballot boxes. Six thousand officers and men of the TJ. S. army are going to Silesia to do police duty while the people vote. After the ballot has been held and after the League of Nations has been established what soldiers, will maintain the decision? If Silesia joins Poland, what soldiers will keep it a part of Poland? Our soldiers are enforcing the treaty on the Rhine. They soon will be in Silesia unless orders are changed. And our soldiers are fighting in Siberia without any warrant at all except militarism the militarism of Woodrow Wilson. It will be difficult to convince the American people that our present meddling in European and Asiatic conflicts will be changed by a covenant which provides that we shall preserve the territory of every member of the league. THE AWFUL DRAMA OF v5 can troops are crossing the ocean each week or month, they inquired nervously. And the general staff replied, A mere handful. In France there was visual evidence that our troops were arriving in notable numbers, but our allies, except those in authority, did hot dream the truth. They saw Americans moving about France, but they had no idea of their numbers. Each spectator saw only a regiment, a brigade or at most a division. He did not know what was going on elsewhere. Like the spectator in the theatre he sometimes suspected that the same men were crossing and recrossing the stage. And all the time that silent drama was spelling the defeat of the Hun. Ten, twenty fifty times the number of trotips were crossing the ocean that the German people suspected. And when at last the cur- tain rose and they knew that 250,000 and 300,000 American soldiers had been arriving in France every month for more than three months they felt as did Macbeth when confronted by Banquos ghost or, more terrible still, when he saw certain doom approaching in the person of Macduff, the one decreed by fate to end his lamentable reign and send his soul to perdition. Out, out, brief candle! Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then it heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. The revelation cracked the soul of Germany. Her cup of sorrow was full. She could quaff no more. Every drop was like a white-hpotion of molten. metal burning the very soul out of her. ot Be those juggling fiends no more believed Thar palter with us in a double sense ; That keep the word of promise to our ears And break it to our hope. From the sunlit heights, whence they could look out upon a conquered world, where men and women and little children weltered in blood' amid the broken cannon wheels and the ruins of homes, the Germans were suddenly hurled into a shuddering abyss. They awoke from their iridescent visions to find themselves in the hell to which they believed they had consigned the world. WILSON AND IRELAND 1918 what a weak foundation of principle and honest purpose the ONLeague of Nations will rest is laid bare by the discussion in PERSHINGS return from France recalls the titanic Irish delegates. The revelaGENERAL was drawing to an end a year ago. History will Paris between President Wilson and the tions of this secret conference emphasize a point we have been trying in it will find and and awe wonder with drama that regard to make the abysmal gap that still remains between Europcanism that we. hardly sense. and Americanism. We looked at the drama, as it were, from a seat behind the cur-taiTime after time I raise a question here, said the President, in whereas the Germans were in the place of an audience gazing at connection with these principles (American principles) and I am met-witthe curtain and wondering what would be disclosed when it the statement that Great Britain or France or some other counshould rise. It will be nothing at all; mere bluff, their military tries, have entered into a solemn treaty obligation. I tell them that leaders told them. it was not in accord with justice or humanity ; and then they tell me divined what had not in 1918, Even the leaders themselves, early that the breaking of treaties is what has brought on the greater.part not could States United the that had was going on. They argued of the wars that have been waged in the world. sub- of sure felt as and in time across they possibly get its troops It is a pathetic confession of disillusionment and failure. It is in at of sure felt Grant Appomatox. General victory as marine victory its implications an admission that he made a mistake in going to Their hearts beat high with hope and they had communicated their He puts the fairest face on an ugly situation when he says : Europe. in wreathed smiles, joy and confidence to the German people, who, I did not succeed in getting all that 1 went after. I should say waited for the bells to ring and the cannons to boom the tidings of that there was a great deal no, I will put it this way there was a Deutschland Uber Alles. lot of things I hoped for but did not get. The first intimation of disaster came when the American navy And by the same token there were such a lot of things we hoped turned the tide against the submarines. Even then the German adAmerican troops for that he did not get that we are afraid to trust ourselves unremiralty and the general staff did not believe that the to his treaty. could be transported across the Atlantic in numbers sufficient to servedly After admitting that Irelands case was the outstanding. case of wrest the palm of victory from Hindeuburg and Ludendorff. How many Amcri- - small nationality he refused to do anything for Ireland at the con- The German people waited and wondered. -- soul-stirrin- gs n, h |
