May 4, 19x61

478

The Nation
.~ . .

It is difficult to avoid
impresslon,
of Pitt,
wcote Lord Rosebery inhisLife
thattherehas.
been throughoutthepast
history of England-and Ireland a malignant
fate waving away everyauspicious chance,
andblighting every opportunity of beneficence as it arises.
Suchmelancholy reflections must have been forced upon many lifelong advocates of Home Rule for Ireland by
the news last week of the Insensate uprising
In Dublin. It IS one of those things which,
like the Phenlx Park assassln?tions of 1682,
almost tempt the truest frlends of Irlsh nationalityto despair. The London press, on
theday
following Mr. Birrells statement,
spoke of general sympathy for the Irish leader, John Redmond. Hemust, indeed, feel,
as Parnell dld when Lord Frederick Cavendlshand Mr. Burke were foullymurdered
in Dublin, that a felon blow had been dealt
bothhimandtheIrish
cause. Is it to be
the old story over again of theefforts of
the freely elected representatives of Ireland
in theBritishParliament,and
of largeminded English statesmen, cast to the earth
by desperate and criminal Irishmen?
Let it freelybe conceded that the existrevolutionence of theseconspiratorsand
a reproach to English
ariesinIrelandis
rule. It is a severeindictment of British
policy in Ireland that ever since Cromwells
day there hayebeen bands of Irishmen ready
to risk all in striking at England. This inveterate and inherited national hatred, this
settledandsullendistrust,this
smouldering desire for wild and blind vengeance, are
the bitter fruit of mistakenstatesmanship,
persisting through the centuries. The manifestations of thisspirithaveusually
been
actslikethose
of madmen;but
its existence, through all the generations, has been
a standing proof of English governmental
folly. England is to-day seeing the truth of
what she was told by Bright and Gladstone,
that her Irish
policy had been a source of
Imperial weakness, raising up enemies at
flank. Thefactthat
even at a world,crisis like this the preachers of sedition and
revolt in Ireland should have persuaded rash
men to rise and seek to stab England in the
back, is proof that the long years of oppressiveEnglishrulehad
generatedevil
passions not easily to be extirpated from Irish
hearts.
That the recent outbreak was so inept as
to be almost idiotic must be evident to the
minds of all but the Irishmen who took part
in it. Theyhavebroughtimmense
disre-

pute upon themselves, and have done it in

a n attemprabsurdly ill-chosen and doomed
t o failure. England never had so many
troops at ready disposal as she has to-day to
put down an Irish rebellion. There must be
a millionmen under arms in Englandand
Ireland. As a military aovement, therefore,
the rising ~n Dublin was without any possible hope. And in so far as it seems to link
theconspiratorswith
German
plots
and
shipments of arms, it brings upon the reckless men who went into I t a double charge of
treason. Them course also repelsthegreat
maJority of thoughtful and influential Irishmen in the United States, as in Canada and
Australia.Thelatter
have been nourishing
themselves on the hope that Home Rule for
Irelandwasatlast
dawning. The bill is
Iaw, ~ t sexecution beingmerely suspended
untilafterthewar.But
willnot this new
outburst of Irish crlme, thlsfresh demonstrationthatthereare
of the violent-minded in Ireland who cannot becontrolled by Irish leaders, tend to make Parliament regret and perhaps recall its grant?

them as amiable and pathetic lunatlcsmostly

~n need of restraint and care.

THE WAR.

If theBritlshtemperament
were
to Ironic self-inquiry, it might find a gloomy
sort of satisfaction in events on the Tigris,o
F o r nearly a century British policy was devoted t o keeping alive the Slck Man of Eu:
rope. How well the patlent has done d e i
Brltish ministrations, there are Gallipoli and
Kut t o show. The trouble was that the English generals in the East thought the Sick
Man much more enfeebled than he was. The
one outstanding reason for the British failure in Mesopotamia may be described as the
Kipling touch. There was about the expedition too much of the old feeling that a British general with his riding whip was aLways
a match
hosts of the lower breeds. The
mistake was in putting the Turks, in spite
of their unbroken tradition of excelleni fighting, on a level with the mountain tribes on
the Indlan border. About the Kipling state
of mind there is unquestionably something
splendid, and in other days it was effective.
I n justice to Gens. Nixon and Townsbend it
must be recalled how near the British did
get t o Bagdad, and that a different
to the battle of Ctesiphon would have made
theundertaking one of the mostsplendid
feats in military history. TheBritish gambled
Bagdad as the Germans gambled f o r
Paris; whet they lacked was resourcefulness
underfailure.
And for that matter
is yet likely to show that the defeat at the
Marne was a n infinitely greater failure than
the surrender at Kut.

On this point, the Irish Home Rulers will

be inexcusably stupid if they do not take
Into account thepresentactivities
of their
great enemy In the North of Ireland, Sir Edward Carson. He was ready for a civil war
i n 1914 to prevent Home Rule. What is he
doing in 1916? He is doing his best to upset the Coalition Government, and to make
himself a political power. In this he acts on
the pretence of more vigorously prosecuting
the war against Germany, but if he succeeds
a new
in becoming a necessary man
inet, what will he be certain to do when the
war ends? Obviously, to burke Home Rule,
after all; and how greatly would he be aided
This does not mean that the moral effect
in any such endeavor by what he could call of the disaster on the Tigris need be minithe evidence that Irishmen were willlng to mized. Butforthemoral
effect wemust
place England as a bleeding victim under the
to Europe, and not to Asia. There is alheel of Prussian militarism!
together a n exaggerated tendency to emphaI n actual physical effect, it was all along size the^ effect on the peoples of the Orient
lmpossible that the Irish uprising would be of sucha shock to the white mans prestige
of great consequence. It wholly colIapsed in as- is involved in a defeat like Gallipoli or
a week, and does notappeartohave
been Iht. The loss of prestige is there. Engwidespread, being mostly confined to Dublin lands subjects in India may lose something
and the hotheads of the S i m Fein. It can- of their awe fortheirmasters.
China and
not affect the large ongoing of the war. But Egypt and the Mohammedan world may find
morally, of course, and politically, it is an pleasure in Britishhumiliation.But
immeevent of highthoughpainfulsignilkance.
diate practical effects are not to be expected.
The best that the friendsof Ireland can hope A little more watchfulness
be called
is that the revolt will speedily be forgot- in India and Egypt, but that vague and vast
ten. Its moving spirits were young dream- uprising of the Orient which has been spoken
ers and writers who rushed to the sacriflce of for many years is not perceptibly nearer.
with a Sophocles in one hand and a rifle in It was not hastened by Gallipoli, and it is not
t h e other. If the English are wise, they will likelyto be furthered by Kut-el-Amara. It
not execute the capturedrebels,
buttreat
will be recalled how foryears before the

~-

~~

war there was insistence on the Pan-Islamic

peril, and how, after Turkeys entrance
into the war, there were highly colored ex.
pectations of a Holy War that was to be the
end of things in Asia and
The peril
hasremained vague. Britishprestigehas
suffered, to be sure, but British prestige has
suffered before this. Seventy-five years ago
a British army, numbering with its
follow.
ers more than 16,000 men, was annihilated
in Afghanistan. The event was
followed by
no cataclysm in India.

The moral effect on military affairs in EUrope is much more serious. Thedisaster
at Kut-el-Amara
will
reinforce
the
wellestablished impression of Englands lack of
high-class generalship. In view of the blunders at Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia, it is
not necessary to suspect that the
compara.
tive ineffectiveness of the British land forces in the west is the result of a sinister plan,
that Great Britain has deliberatelychosen to
let French and Russians and Germans wear
themselves out in order that the war may
leave herwiththestrongestarmyin
Europe. GreatBritainhas
done her beston
land,butthat
best is notvery good when
it comes to a question of leadership. A n d
thisfactor
is all the more important because it is mainly to the British armies that
the Allies must look for the hopes of a decisive victorythatthey
cherish.Champagne
andVerdunhave
shown what it means to
break through. The attempt will undoubtedly be made by the British army. The long
period of inactivity may be due to the
determination to make that attempt with
unprecedented vigor. It is conceivable that
whattheFrenchwith
a quarter of a million men failed t o do in Champagne, and the
Germans with even greaternumbersfailed
to do around Verdun, Englandmay accomplish by sending in a million men
a million and a half. Shehasthe
men. The
problem is whether she has the leaders.

The Nation
linefromanxietyto
panic. There is
logical relation between Villas raid on Co.
lumbusand our need of an incomparable
Beet; andtheincidents
at Parraldid not
prove that we must have an army of 250,000
men instead of 140,000, yet we knowwhat
the effect has been on thetemper of Con
gress. Dublin andKut,
coming together,
may create a state of mindfor which the
strong men of England have been waiting.

Last week gave theanswertothe

que%
tion who are
be in control of the Republican Convention. Out of the total of 985 dele.
gates, over 700 have
been chosen. They
represent allthelarge
Republican States,
except Pennsylvania; and the delegates yet
to. be named canhardly affect the general
;emper and inclination of the Chicago Conrention. It is already clear that
its great
majority it will be made up of Republicans
who may be variously described as rem.ar, safe,
moderate, and who are
?lainly, as at present advised, against the
wild adventure of nominating Roosevelt.

So far as there hasbeen an organized camJaign toforce

Roosevelt upon the Republican Convention, theuniversaland
jusAfied opinion isthat it passed its dangerpoint intheMassachusettsprimary.This
not simply because the Roosevelt dele:ates were soundly beaten, but that they
were able tomuster so small a total vote.
Ihey did the onlyopenfighting.
They had
plenty of money and made plenty of noise.
Personal appealsbythehundredthousand
were sent out tothe old Roosevelt following. Yet withtheprimary
open to them,
tnd with the chance of showing the country
:hat the Rooseveltobsession still holds Massachusetts in its grip, scarcely more than a
luarter of those who voted for him in 1912
the trouble to stand by him last week.
England the effect of the surrender at
be a wild-fire
Rut on the political situation will
be most [f therewasanywhereto
unhappy. Asquiths position is not so strong novement for Roosevelt, Massachusetts was
it was only a
to-day but that a combination of Ireland-and ;he place to look for it. But
iare
of
dry
leaves.
Mesopotamia may supply the Carson-Northcliffe-Lloyd George ententewiththe
necesO n the result the Colonel himself refuses
sary leverage to overthrow theCoalition Gov- .o comment. That is his way. I n t h e very
telling the pubernment. The swift failure
of the Irish up- xhirlwind of his ,passion
rising might, in quieter times, be urged by ic all about it, he is always able to beget a
the Government as a sign of the loyalty of :emperance when it comes to events that
themass of the Irish population. The
lot look well for him. Butthe impetuous
render at Kut is not
a greatmilitary dis- Frogressives who hang about Oyster Bay are
aster. But,given a time of anxiety, of un- lot so discreetly silent. They have little to
rest and discontent, it does not need a very :ay, it is true, about Massachusetts, but they
large event to force public opinion over the we shaking their heads sagely and remark-

. -.
..

. .-

102,

NO.2653

ing that it
as if there would have to
be third party in the field again this year.
The reason is that the Republicans are
ed totheir idols. Although theRepublican
leaders know that Theodore Roosevelt is the
most popular man in the land, and that they
ought to nominate him, the Progressive General Staff is making up its mind that they
will not. And so the talk comes fromthe
neighborhood of Roosev%lt that he will not
up-withanother
robbery. This is a
rather absurd baked meat left over from-the
funeral of fouryears ago, inasmuchasat
present no one pretends that anybody is taking
Roosevelt any delegates to whom
he has a shadow of a claim. But the
is
raised as a part of the intimidating tactics
which areallthat
the Progressives
have in reserve. As theyseetheirchance
of wheedling,
stampeding,the Republican Convention disappearing, they resort to
threats
and
bullying. If you dont take
Roosevelt, he will run a ticket of his
andsmash you again. Perhapstheymean
this seriously, but we much doubt if the
Coloneldoes.
It is a good enough attempt
at terrorism until after the Convention. but
those who fancy that Mr. Roosevelt has a
hankeringtoleadanotherforlorn
hope to
defeat had better take a closer look at the
man. We, a t least, do not so read his character.
Taking it as settled that the Republican
Convention is to be securely in the hands of
Republican leaders and delegates opposed to
Roosevelt, who are proof againsttheblare
of the Progressive brassbands, political speculation centres-on the question
whom they
aremostlikelytoagree
uponwhen
the
time comes to concentrate. Theearly balloting will apparentlybe indecisive.Severalfavorite sons-Sherman, Cummins, Fairbanks, Burton-will have to have their perfunctory compliments paidthem.Butthe
hour will arrive when
it will be necessary
to come to grapples with the question who
has the best chance of being elected if nominated. To say that this question is already
answered would be foolish; but it would be
equally foolish not t o note the spreading belief that the man will be Hughes. This drift
is eVerywhere observable. Everytestone
can make reveals it. Eventhe
Washingtondispatchesreportthe
deepening conviction of Republicans in Congress
that the nomination will
go to Hughes. As
one
evidence
.of thegeneraltrend,
Col.
George Harvey comes out in the latest issue
of the
Review with the positive prediction that Hughes will be the Re-

Nation

May 4, 19161

-.

publican
candidate.
We are sometimes
afraid of Col. Harvey when he mounts the
. tripodfororacular deliverances, but in this
case he is not far wrong when he sums up
the way in which political opinion is manifesting itself:
the man in the street, on the sldewalk,
in the
on the subway, In the Pullman, on
the jitney, in the vestibule after service, on
the golf links before or after, downtown
or uptown. In
out of clubs n.ot
dominated by masters of finance, in Hartford,
Springfield, or Peacham, in wealth-nalluwing
Plttsburgh, even,
Columbus, or on the
farms a$ Iuwa, in
o r Washington,
and everywhere,
hill
down
dale, in this broad land, ask yourself,
wife,
plethoric uncle,
spinster aunt
and what do you mnd?
Some
distrust the supporters of Root;
who are angry at Roosevelt; net a few,
inclusive of Democrats. who are sick of Wilson; none whose countenance fails to brighten
. at the mention of Hughes.
Likelihoods aresaferto
go upon than
sweeping predictions.Prophecy
in politics
has been rightly called a gratuitous blunder.
It is not a case of asserting to-day what surely will be, but only what probably will be.
Thecertainthing
is that the Republicans
have passed the turning-point, so far as the
Roosevelt attack is concerned. And the signs
pointsignificantly
tothe
conclusion that
they will find their best man t o rally behind
in the person of Charles E. Hughes.

Recent renewal of interest in Blakelock,

culminating on Wednesday of last week in
the honor done him by the National Acad.
emy, raises inquiry about his art. In the d e
velopment of Americanlandscape painting,
it goes, in certain directions, beyond anything produced by any other American. T h i E
is not t o say that it is the greatest Ameri.
can art, that it surpasses the work of such
men as Inness,Wyant,Martin,
Homer,
but that it has occupied a field which has
scarcely been touched by any of these-by
no nativeartist,in
fact, with the possible
exception of Fuller.
Americanpainting, like American litera
tnre, belongs, in general, to cool, middle-of,
the-roadobJectivity. To Inness and his con
temporaries painting was a distinctively rep
resentative
art,
means
a
expressing
moods only in the indirect. the subtle waJ
usually considered legitimate in the plastic
arts. For Inness the Passaic Valley at sun
set was first of all the Passaic Valley, to bc
faithfully reproduced as he and the rest
0the world saw it stretched out at his
feet,
swlmnling in thepulsating haze of a hot

:urnmer evening. On top of this, of course,

managed to impresshimself,
his
nood and personality, anindistinguishable
ngredientin
a combination of visualizaIon and emotion. This picture is, in a manler. the apogee of American and Anglo-SaxIn landscape, a perfect adaptation of the end
o the means, a monumental acknowledgnent of the limitations of a medium-that
Iaintingcannot,
any more thantheother
orms, shake off its material restrictions and
mergeintoadjacentrealms
of poetry or
nusic.
While Inness thus provea the general rule
or American art, Blakelock wasthe
irming exception. Our creativehistory is
ull of thesesurprising phenomena, these
;ports of evolution, as the biologists would
?all them. Most normal, most commonplace
)f peaples, we have a gift, on occasion, for
itrange, unusual, ana- extreme manlfesta:ions of individualism.Atsuchtimes,
in
.he persons of such men as Poe or Blakeock, American art seems to flare up and
iume the boundary-posts of convention and
lecome a lawunto itself. William Blake,
&-hose weird urgency of spirit seemed tortur
:d within the narrow limits of two arts, andI
?oleridge correspond in Englandto
these
Americans. But Blakelock goes furthest
in his freedom from conscious premeditation1
znd his complete triumph over thelimita
hons of his medium. He almost seems ablc
to make his palette sing; he paints theinvisi
ble in pigments, as Colerldge once, and
succeeded in expressing the inexpressi
ble in words. Boldly he infringes on thc
realmsboth
of music and of poetry. Hit
landscapes are not landscapes of sober fact
These wild sunsets, glimpsed through th6
arched gloom of indistinct forest glades, arc3
never any sunsets seen on sea
land, buit
are the illumination of his own soul.
Blakelock and Poe are, inthis, kindrec
spirlts. The world about them becomes :1
strange and awe-inspiring spectacle. It mat
ters not where they wander, what they de
scrlbe, everything assumes at once the col
oring of their own terriEc moods. Blakelock
perhaps, is the moresuccessful of the two
He is not hampered by any artificialities e
style
subject.He
is absolutely straight
forwardandunmannered.
He plucks you
with a rough directness, right into the heart
of his sombre mystery. He accomplishes thisS
by basing his painted lyric, contradictory aiS
such a statement would appear, after allL
upon
certain foundation of realism, fron1
which he himself, no doubt, received his in,
itialemotionalstimulus.These
forests t
,

473

tutumnal oaks,with thickly massed leaves

cIf russet brown, are not entirely the fan1:asies of his brain, but are, in their elements,
1Familiar to the American eye. By so much
more is their transfiguration into the some1;hing new and strange of Blakelocks inner
1life rendered touching and tragic. It, is here
1;hat hisstrength lies.
move through
1lis pictures as through dreams, surrounded
objects. His pig1by strangeyetfamiliar
1ments have the power to transfigure thecom1monplace setting of his stage. Here lurks his
magic.
This would seem the fairaccount of Blake1locks art for the present generation, which
1mderstandshis
symbols and follows him
1.nto the realms of the impalpable. Unfortu1nately, it is not at all certam that he will be
able toimpress himself and his subjective
1methods equally upon the next generation. It
1 the penalty of breaking the sane rules ima medium that only thegreatest
1posedby
spirits are able t o survive the transgression
An artistlikeIna and remain intelligible.
ness played safe with posterity. But Blakehasstakedhis
whole fortune,as
it
were, upon a single throw.
#

The announcement that

the
American
Museum of Natural History, with funds Provided by Archer Y. Huntington, is to
expeditions Chis year among the pueblos
and other ruins of the Southwest, with plans
that call for a continuation of the work inaugurated just seven years ago, is a reminder of the progress of the greatest work undertaken by Americanethnologists andarchsologists. It is only twenty-five years since
the AmericanBureau
of Ethnology began
converting a realm of fable and theory into
one in which science holds sway. The Bureauhas been assisted by individuals; by
theStates
of the Southwest; by the University ofColorado-with
which the New
York Museum istocorrelatepart
of
work-and by other museums of natural history. Thenetresultis
that theruins of
the huge area bounded by the Golorado and
the RioGrandehave
been well mapped:
that the general unity
of the cliff dwellers,
mesa-dwellers, pueblo-d,wellers, past and
present, and the builders of the prehistoric
irrigationcanals
of the region has been
demonstrated,and
that many ruinshave
been preserved asnational or State =muments that mould otherwise have perished.
The first explorers of the Southwest found

474
it covered with the

of towers, big communal houses, and small houses isolated

inclusters;whiletheyfoundalsolarger
houses
which
looked inmanywayslike
on themesatops
of the
theruins,some
extreme south inhabited by t h e Hopis, some
andothers.The
by the Pueblos,the
fiction and pseudo-science whichthe
cliff
and plain dwellings afforded are still remembered. A race called the Cliff Dwellers was
set up and fully described. First they were
descendants of the Aztecs. Thentheywere
a race of dwarfs-the low entrances to their
Plouses giving rise to this hypothesis. Then
a distinctandculturedpeople
theywere
whohad
fled fromhostiletribes,buthad
been exterminated. The visit of the Government ethnologist Mindeleff to the sixty-fiveacreruin in the Glla River Valley, called
Casa Grande,resultedin
a beginning of
carefulstudy.By
1899, whenCongresshad
made an appropriation for the preservation
of the Casa Grande ruins, a half-dozen localities
had
received
dlstinct
attention-the
Tusayanruins,theSaltandGilaRiver
ruins, the VerdeValleyruins,theruins
near Flagstaff, and the Little Colorado ruins.
Theexplanation of the cliff dwellingswas
the Zuiii,
slmple. Much the same people
andu other agricultural Indians of todayhadereckdtherehomes-wherethey
mightprotect
bhemselves andtheir
fields
against the raids,of the Apaches and Tontos.
T h e uncertainties of rainfallwererespon,
sible f o r their frequent migrations and the
eonsequentruins.The.distinct
Cliff Dwellers were complete fiction.

The N a k t i o n

[Vol.

Palace at SantaFB,and every summer holds

a session at some group of ruins in northernNew Mexico. Certain of its discoveries
on t h e B i o Grande, as the cliff city of Paye
and the circular communlty house of Tuyuofor
nyi, are among the stmdard attractions
tourists.Muchstillremainstobe
done.
TheAmericanMuseumhasfoundinits
seven years work several new ruins which
It is nowfullyexamining.
In Ariaonathe
ruins of theFlagstaffregionwerehardly
known until 1910, when they were thought
to justify the creato be important enough
tion of the Navajo National Monument, and
even yet they have not been fully surveyed.
But for the most pant the work to be done
i s t o carryoutindetailethnologicaland
arch;eological studimalready

sia is not a democracy; but the Russlan

ple is a Demos whoseactlvlty
is becoming
more and more spontaneous
Individual
g-oups upward-and
not a n organization
efficiency imposed downward. This means
that all these conferences are not mere
gOVernmental
congresses
o r conventions for
peace o r war, but natlonal minds umting and
meeting the common need together. They are
the
tentative
beginning, under
pressure
Of
Events, of the Parhament of Natlons-a Bederauon of half Humamty.

This work will achieve two main objects:

it will give us a reconstruction of the richest aboriginal civilization on American
soil,
an8 it willenable us toconnectthisdead
pastwiththepresent-daylife
of theHopi
and Zuiii. andbettertounderstandtheir
problems.
has been possiblealreadyto
of certainarts,
as
tracethedevelopment
pottery-making,
among
the
Southwestern
some ruins a restorationhas
peoples.
been attempted of modes of living of centuries ago, even t o oookingutensils,
fire
screen,
water
gourd,
and
meal box. The
solidarity of the life of the agricultural Indian peoples from prehistoric days has been
demonstrated.
The
effect of this on the
alwhites attMude towards the Indian has
readybeenfelt.There
is
longerthe
old desire to put him in a corrugated iron
house, and make him adopt new ways in
a
But most of the
purely
archsological
is looked upon as the reprework in the Southwest remained to be
done single day. He
Bn the last ten years. In 1906 Congress pass- sentative of an ancient mode of living.
ed an act giving the Government the right
set
aside
antiqulties
f o r preservation.
Foregn Correspondence
This was due mainly to the vandalism that
h a d been practiced upon the
cliff dwellings.
IS
Thebest ruin
theVerderegion,for
ex- INTER-ALLY CONFERDNCES-WHAT
UNITY OF ACTION?
ample, the Moniezuma Castle of thirty rooms
an a cliff reaching 150 feet above the plain,
BY
DEWEY.
dug to pieces and the walls even dynamited
in
the
search
for
pottery.
Some
April 15.
public-spirited Arlzonans first unsuccessfully
At the end of March we had one Conference
attemptedtointeresttheLegislature,and
Allles: itwasamongPrime
Ministers
of
re- and Generalissimos a n d othergreatmen
then raised enough money to restore it,
government and command. I n a month, more
placingthedamagedfoundationandroofs
or less, we aretohaveanInter-Parliamenrunning iron rods through the walls. It t a r ~ a nConference, that the dehberatlve bodies
of the natlons may check off and control their
8s now a nationalmonument.TheArchsoleaderswithontfallingout
of step,partlcuXoglcal Institute of America,
which
had
larly In economlc measures. And before and
2ounded schools a t Athens, Rome, and J e w after, we have meetmgs of the Allies unofliclal trade organlzations,
which
are led by
%lem between 1880 and 1900, did not think
individual initiative and glve the real force of
one in the Southwest till 1907. Its branch their democracy.
*&ere now has a museum
t h e Governors
It may be sald that, ainong the Allies,

at

nisller

a llon

Slowly

2653

that

and

dying

The need is creating

the
organ.
What
shallits action be? At first,very evidently,
an imperfect reaching about-not always efficient, if youapplythe
technical slang
the day to it. It is still for war, because that
IS the immeaate need; but it
also for peace
which must some day follow war.
Theidea has been spread that thisInterAlly actlvitypurposeskeeping
warafter
peace is declared, that is, economic war. Thls
idea spreadsIntochapters
too numerousto
mentlon here. It is enough t o say that, as
the Allies militarymar
is one of defence,
so the economlc war to come needs not to be
oflensive. The
sentimental
consequences of
war, natural and unavoidable and among the
risks which theaggressor chose to run. and
the reparation of damages caused by the aggressor and effectual means t o prevent repebtion of theaggression,have
all to be organized. These conferences amongthe Allies
have not yet considerd what indemnity Gerand her satellites shall pay for devastation done in Belgium and North France
and
Servia. TheFederation which is bemg born
hasworkthat
is at once nearer and more
remote.
First, what is to be theresultinmilitary
action? Without loolrlng forward to
vast
and vague a thing -as en&ng
altogether, France has a right to insist there shall
be unity in action. After Belgium at the beginning, it is France that has been sacrificing
herself in the battle. She has not complained.
and she has given prodigally blood and lives
and the means of life, as if she alone had to
do the fighting. Ithasturned
out,indeed,
thatshehas
done themost of it,andthat,
totheaggressor,herarmiesare,morethan
anyothers,those
which must be destroyed.
The first pact of the Allies recognized the
sacred right of France, that none should make
a peace without her. Now the Allled nahons
acknowledge thatwarshallnot
be waged
apartfromthe
needs and efforts of France.
I do not know
thls determination is due to
the influence of P,rime Minister Briand, ,as is
said, but it is simple Justice to France.
Very often the official censure has left blank
the
newspaper
columns
in
which
Senator
Clemenceau exhales the impatience of a leader
seventyyears
young. who has passed
life
:
In action,but
it has allowed himtoprint,
afterthe conference was over, wordswhich
Americans who love France would long smce
havesigned:
Our sonsare
heroes.
The
universe
admires them: but it 1s not enough to sing them
-we haveto
conquer, wehave t o conquer
in France and conquer in Germany, we have
to drive backthehordes
of murder t o their
lair, that we maydictate t o themlaws of a
peace of men In justiceand
nght.
Is it
enoughfor
this that our soldiersshould
be
heaped UP in sublime holocausts? No.