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Show That Peace Conference l HPHB motives, no doubt, of the men and women who are moving- toward a plan of peace con- ' ferenco are excellent, but we fear for their suc- cess. They have not in their natures enough that is belligerent, and sagacious to meet the obstacles ' which they will encounter. Tigers cannot be sub dued by feeding them soothing syrup, while yet they are in full fury. To one looking on, it seems as though the de-fi de-fi sign ought to be, without direct approach to the t fighting forces, to prepare a code which all na-- na-- tions would approve of and bo willing to both 1 1 adopt and defend. We do not believe that such a man as David Starr Jordan has the elements in him to enable f him to prepare such a code. It isn't a case of a school master talking to pupils who have been misbehaving; the appeals must reach men who have consecrated their lives to a principle and a cause, who have offered their lives over and over for it, and whatever is offered, to meet their approval ap-proval must hold within it all the requirements of justice, tempered as it may be with mercy. A something to make an appeal to all that is high and true and steadfast, and just in human nature. na-ture. Hence we fear for the outcome of the plan. It seems to us that President Wilson ought to have the elements within himself to make an appeal to the neutral nations to join with ours by sending representatives to our country to frame a code, which the world might accept, which would bring to the president more fame than he has ever yet -won, and in which the very sense and wording of would be an inspiration to the nations appealed to to send their representatives representa-tives to join in the work and which would kindle a sympathetic thrill in the fighting powers themselves. them-selves. No kind and philanthropic ideas are going go-ing to do the work. What is needed now is a broad and comprehensive statesmanship, governed by an inflexible sense of justice, a statesmanship high enough to take in effect the sword from the hand of the fighter, and place in the hand, to write the final decree, a pen entirely great. |