Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 223, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1917 — UNCLE SAM AT PEACE TABLE [ARTICLE]

UNCLE SAM AT PEACE TABLE

This Government Will Be in Position to Dictate Terms When Time for Negotiation Comes. Washington. —President Wilson’sreply to Pope Benedict’s peace proposal has temporarily halted the widespread demand for a definite statement of the, war aims of the United s “The purposes of the United States in this war are known to the whole world —to every people to whom the truth has been permitted to come,” the president said in his reply to the pope. “They do not need to be stated again.” In his Flag day address the president said the reasons for America’s entrance into the war must be apparent to every thinking man. Still, there is confusion in the minds of many Americans. The attempt of the commlttee on public information to clear up this confusion with its pamphlet, "“How -the War‘Came to America,” was only partly successful. “I shall not discuss here how America came, into this war,” Secretary of War Baker told the Fort Myer reserve officers on the day of their graduation. “That issue is settled for the American people. Our task now is to plan for victory." In these words Secretary Baker summed up the attltiide of all Washington officials. There are others, however, who believe the reasons for America’s entrance into the war have a very Important beaming on peace and on the future history of the world. Just as there were underlying causes of the European conflict that never have been mentioned in the official documents, so there were causes for America’s entrance into the war that were slighted in the president’s address. One of these causes Is generally believed to have been that France was “bled white” and that the allies were in danger of defeat. Many Americans find the best justification America’s entering Into" in the statement that “we went in to save France.” This-notion was given a severe Jolt; when Andre Tardieu, the French purchasing commissioner in the United States, made public his letter to Secretary Baker giving statistics on the present military strength of the French republic. With facts and figures supplied by the French war Office, Tardieu disproved the theory that France was “bled white.” One of the highest officials of the United States government said it was not true that the allies were in danger of defeat just before America entered the war. * France and England both could have held out for years and it was very doubtful, he said, that the German war machine could ever have achieved a military decision over the allies. . The United States, the president believed, would be in no posltlon to assert its views at the peace conference if it remained a neutral. It was the avowed intension of leaving matters such as disarmament and an international organization to prevent future wars to a congress that would follow the peace conference. The president believed that guarantees for the future would be the only results that would make the three years of fighting worth while, and that they should be made an integral part of the peace treaties. By the entrance of the United States, President Wilson became the world leader. It was made certain that by the aid rendered the allies the United States would be in a position to dominate the peace conference and to force that convention to accept Its views. Thus it would seem to be established that the real underlying cause for America’s entrance into the war was not to succor an alliance in danger of defeat, but to insure and to dictate if necessary a just and lasting peace. There is reason to believe that the allies will be forced to accept terms of, peace that they never would have considered but for the Influence of the United States. And by the same token there is ground for hoping that through the United States the world will, in fact, be “made safe for democracy."