Surely the tide had turned. And surely it had been America's God-given opportunity to play the big part she did play. The German was now on the run. Suspicious whisperings of peace began to be heard in neutral countries. They had a decided German accent. Germany saw defeat staring her in the face and now, having failed to win in the field, she sought to win by a bluff at the peace table.
The mailed fist having failed, Germany now resorted to cunning. The mailed fist was now an open palm that itched to press in brotherhood the hands of the Allies. But it was the same fist that struck down the peace of the world in 1914. It was the same Germany that had ravished and outraged Belgium. It was the same Germany that had tried to murder France. It was the same Germany that had covered America with her net of spies and had sought to bring war to our borders with Mexico and Japan. It was the same Germany that had ruthlessly destroyed the lives of women and children, American citizens, non-combatants, riding the free seas under the protection of the Stars and Stripes. It was the same Germany that had drugged Russia with her corrupting propaganda and had throttled the voice of Russian democracy. This Germany, this unrepentant Germany—this unpunished Germany, launched her drive for peace.
Germany was willing to make any concessions to bring about negotiations that would save her from a defeat in the field. There was one thing, however, that Germany wanted to save from the ruin she had brought down upon herself. That thing was the German army and its strong auxiliary, the German navy. Neither one of them had been destroyed. The army was in general retreat and the navy was locked up in the Baltic, but both of them remained in existence as menaces to the future peace of the world. With these two forces of might, Germany could have given up her booty of war, offered reparation for her transgressions and drawn back behind the Rhine to await the coming of another Der Tag when she could send them once more crashing across friendly borders and cruising the seven seas on missions of piracy.
Germany was in the position of a bully, who without provocation and without warning had struck down from behind a man who had not been prepared to defend himself. The victim's movements had been impeded by a heavy overcoat. He had been utterly and entirely unprepared for the onslaught. The bully had struck him with a club and had robbed him.
The unprepared man had tried to free himself from the overcoat of pacifism that he had worn so long in safety and in kindliness to his fellows. The bully, taking advantage of his handicap, had beaten him brutally. At last the unprepared man had freed himself from the overcoat and then stood ready not only to defend himself, but to administer deserved punishment. Then the bully had said:
"Now, wait just a minute. Let's talk this thing over and see if we can't settle it before I get hurt."
The bully's pockets bulge with the loot he has taken from the man. The victim's face and head are swollen and bloody and yet the bully invites him to sit down to a table to discuss the hold-up, the assault, and the terms of which the loot and the loot only will be returned. The bully takes it for granted that he is to go unpunished and, more important still, is to retain the club that he might decide to use again.
The rule of common sense that deals with individuals should be the same rule that applies to the affairs of nations. No municipal law anywhere in the world gives countenance to a compromise with a criminal. International law could be no less moral than municipal law. Prussian militarism made the world unsafe for Democracy, and for that reason, on April 6th, 1917, the United States entered the war.
We wanted a decent world in which to live. And the existence of the Prussian army and its conscienceless masters was incompatible with the free and peaceful life of the world. We entered the war for an ideal. That ideal was in the balance when Germany made her 1918 drive for peace.
Our army in France knew that if peace came with an unwhipped Prussian army in existence, the world would be just as unsafe for Democracy as it had ever been. Our army in France wanted no compromise that would leave Germany in possession of the instruments that had made possible her crimes against the world. Every man that had shed blood, every man that had paid the final price, every woman that had shed tears, every cherished ideal of our one hundred and forty years of national life, would have been sacrificed in vain, if we had condoned Germany's high crimes against civilisation and had made a compromise with the criminal.