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Issues and Events
A WEEKLY ‘MAGAZINE
.. .W'."'."""""""."l'F"""T"""'"'l'." - i "W
Vol. V, No. 27. December 30, 1916
Published week] by Vital Issue Co., Inc. 21 Parlekow, New York. N. Y.
Cable nddreu, Ef orl, FRANCIS I. l. DOBL. President and Editor.
Entered as Iecond-clau matter at Post Oice of New York, N. Y.. under
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WILSON’S NOTE AND PEACE.
Y one of those odd coincidences which leave room
for speculation as to how andwhy President Wil-
son has followed close in the wake of Germany's peace
offer by promulgating a note of his own, and this note
has easily been the characteristic clou in world politics
during the week past. It was a diplomatic document
highly remarkable from several aspects.- For one thing,
though it saw the light only several days after the
offer made by the Central Powers, precedence is never-
theless claim'd for it in point of time. We are told
that the man of destiny in the White House had been
brooding over this very enunciation, its form and sub-
stance, prior to that which was sponsored by Beth-
mann Hollweg. It is, in fact, explicitly so stated in the
Presidential note, palpably for obvious reasons. Be
that as it may, Mr. Wilson’s note, drawn and worded
with great care and caution in order to preserve
throughout the character of strict impartiality, claims
ostensibly to ask for but one thing. Namely: for a plain
and distinct statement from all the belligerents as to
their “war aims.”
A simple and modest request, surely, as coming from
the head of a great neutral nation suffering severely
from the war. All the more as the admirably phrased.
note itself adduces strong grounds of justification for
the request. Passing strange, therefore, that Mr. Wil-
son's clear language has ‘been interpreted in a variety
of ways. More, that not only in the lands of the
Allies, notably England, it met with rancorous out-
bursts of disapproval, but also at home, here in this
very country where the pulpits are still ringing with
appeals for peace. A striking case of, shall.we say mis-
apprehension or unconscious cerebration, which? is that
of the New York Times, that fount of unalloyed neu-
trality, which in defining the purport of the Wilson
note according to its lights, says:
The United States may be compelled to go to war
with Germany, the President does not want war with
Germany, therefore he asks her to submit terms of
peace the Allies can accept, including essential and ade-
quate guarantees against future war. With the Allies
we can have no thought of war, they are fighting our
battle. They are fighting for our principles, for human
liberty, for the rights of nations.
This paragraph, forming part of a leading editorial,
refers by inunendo to what is probably hitherto the
most astounding phrase in an expedient read aright or
wrong by every ninety-nine in a hundred as Mr. Wil-
son's first succinct motion towards .pacilication,
towards the re-establishment of normal relations
throughout the world. And this astounding phase is,
of course, nothing else but Mr. Lansing’s own suc-
cessive explanations of the Wilson note to which he
s
ISSUES AND EVENTS
had attached his signature and had cabled it forth into
an unsuspecting world less than twelve -hours before.
Comment on Secretary Lansing’s exquisitely asinine
performance, on his first flatly, contradicting the evident
meaning of his own approved text, and on his “taking
it all back” again in a supra-explanation, seems scarcely
called for. The thing speaks for itself. And the motive,
too, that led to his two readings of the one note, seems
rather transparent. , Evidently Mr. Wilson and his
Man. Friday, receiving the cabled “primeurs” of the re-
ception accorded the note in dear old England, stood
aghast. That had not been their intention. No, no.
They meant to let John Bull and jean Crapaud “down
easy.” Bottleholder, that was the idea. And lo I-now
this deplorable misunderstanding. Hence, then, the
first pleading and enlightening explanation, and next,
,when Lansing’; antidote appeared too drastic, a further
explanation of the explanation. .
Well, well. Even the great administration organ re-
ferred to Secretary L.’s doings as a “bad break.”
However, the tempest in the Allies’ teapot raged on for
a day or two longer. Our neighbors to the North were
perhaps the ‘most truculently indignant. That great
Canuck fighting cock, Premier Borden, shook his gory
locks and breathed defiance. The great Toronto
Thunderer referred even disrespectfully to Dr. Wilson
as having an “itch for writing essays.” It took them
and their fellows, the aboriginal Britons in London,
several days to glean the truth, viz., that the brief
passage in which the President apparently assumed
identity of professed “war aims” on the part of both
sets of belligerents, Allies and Central Powers, was
only thrown as a worthless sop to the latter, a species
of cunningly devised decoy duck to allay suspicion.
F01" 51,11 that it would probably not do to jump to the
conclusion that the President is insincere in making
this initial advance on the rocky road to Peace- In all
likelihood he wishes-and possibly will wish more
ardently from now on-to promote that end. There
are strong reasons for that assumption. Reasons in
part dwelling in the mind of Mr. Wilson, in part visible
and patent to us all. But it must be a peace after the
cart of Mr. Wilson, a peace not too favorable to
Geilmany’ and her colaborers and not too unfavorable
to deal" E‘)g1aTld, "p00r” Belgium and France; even
to the Bear in the North that VValks like a Man, with
whom much new and profitable business may be done
gtexg, :31‘: ‘rpm 21: great descendaibits of the eliete Romans,
, ea man
Democratic ticiiety y’ y preference vote the?
lT1l11erp were other dramatic features about the semi-
aasl 0’ those two sensations-the peace offer and Mr.
1.5011 5 earlier, yet later, note to all the belligerents.
One Ofpthc most striking was the “message” conveyed
mysteriously ‘across the seas by Bertrand Russell, one
of the few British pacifists who, braving all storms and
Submlttmg Falml)’ to all personal sacrifices, remained
trllfli to their exalted creed. In his message to Mr.
Wi son this man of integrity says: “You, sir, can put
an ?“d to the 51-?’-lghtef-" And- then, in words moving
one 5 taolvelsz glvmg 3 rapid survey of the havoc
wrong .t mm‘ “OW 3"‘! I339 8Teater havoc threatening
by continuance of hostilities, vividly forecasts the fate
Pf bleedmg Eyrope unless a halt is bidden. “Fear has
Ii)nvaded men s inmost being. Hatred has
igiafllttllltlle rule of life. H .” ‘Further on he records
d e Wa”mg nations a. te rible longing for peace,"
an expresses the convictio that “the United States
government has the power not only to compel the
aS‘:l‘;l:e:;eg;g;E?::Uti::ltSbto mike Peace, but also to re-
Of th? peace.” Y ma mg itself the guarantor
This much 1S certain: the dawn of better things has
56’! In.‘ The dove of peace is hovering above the awful
turmoil of battle’ Flghtlng may not cease just yet