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THE ATLANTIAN
July, 1917
who can pilot the world out of its troubles provided he
is given proper support by his own people.
Mr. Wilson sees that this war must be fought out
in order that righteous peace may become the prevail
ing note in world policies. Never for a moment does
he forget the ultimate aim. The American people have
not as yet become fully aroused to the necessity for our
participation in this war, and have but the faintest con
ception of Mr. Wilson’s ultimate aim. He sees that the
idea of masterful and military domination would, if put
into practice, wreck our civilization and, therefore, it be
comes imperative that this idea must be contested and
the purpose born of such idea defeated at any cost.
But mere defeat of the exponents of the overlord
idea is not enough, for there must be substituted for that
wicked theory a system so just that the whole world will
rally to its support and make it impossible that such a
cataclysm should again overtake the world.
No living man has more clearly or strongly indicated
the way out than has Mr. Wilson. He not only has the
clear grasp of what must be done, but also sees how it
must be done. To the end that the period of disaster
may be shortened, and the forward movement resumed
on more righteous lines, it is vital that the American peo
ple s.tand behind the President with all their strength of
will, with all their resources of men, money and supplies,
and with the determination to “see it through” at all cost.
For in no other way can we make certain of the full
development of real democracy which all of us know
would mean an infinitely better world.
A Bit of History Revealed
Since both President Wilson and Secretary Lansing
probably passed upon it, the official version of events
leading up to our entrance into the war just given out
by the Committee on Public Information must be taken
as the Administration’s interpretation of its own acts
and motives in the successive steps taken. Most impor
tant is the light thrown upon the President’s famous
“peace without victory” speech of January 22, 1917.
It may be recalled that it was following this speech
that Secretary Lansing issued his statement to the effect
that we were ouselves on the “brink of war,” which so
alarmed the country that a second statement, consider
ably modifying the first, was immediately given out.
We now read that “by the end of 1916 it was plain that
our neutral status had again been made unsafe through
the ever-increasing aggressiveness of the German autoc
racy,” and that “it was in this frame of mind, fearing that
we might be drawn into the war if it did not soon come
to an end, that the President began the preparation of
his note asking the belligerent Powers to define their war
aims.”
Sharing as he did this “frame of mind” on the part
of the President, Secretary Lansing simply stated the
exact situation when he said that we were on the “brink
of war,” in explanation of that note. All that followed
vindicated Mr. Lansing as well as the President. That
he modified his first statement later seems to have been
because of the forlorn hope still entertained by President
,Wilson that peace might be had. The “peace without
victory” speech was, in effect, the President’s last des
perate effort to end the war to keep us out of it. He did
not succeed, but his position at home and abroad has been
made infinitely stronger because of that effort.
More than anything else, this speech paved the way
for our participation in the war by changing the trend
of it. To the Entente nations it made clear the terms
upon which we would join with them. To the Central
Powers it should have made clear for what we would
fight.' If there occurred in that speech phrases that were
unwelcome in Allied countries, and if the pacifists and
pro-Germans still find it serves their purpose to quote
certain passages, the explanation is to be found in the
sequence of events. There is no inconsistence. To ask
for a “peace without victory” between belligerents be
fore we became a belligerent cannot be held to justify
such a policy now. All the reasons supporting that effort
at mediation now demand that there shall be a peace with
victory.
Crops Cannot Wait
It is a wise President who has told Mr. Hoover to
go ahead, Congress or no Congress, and attempt to
formulate a food conservation policy for the Nation.
The President knows, what Congress seems blind to, that
vegetables and fruits grow when they will and ripen
when they must, without waiting for permissive acts of
legislative bodies. Mr. Hoover has begun by renewing
his appeal to the women to save food because “food will
decide the war.” He will, no doubt, renew his appeal to
the farmers and do what he can to organize the middle
men in support of his program of thrift. Thousands will
respond because of their deep understanding of the Na
tion’s need. But there will be other thousands who
through ignorance, lethargy or selfishness will fail to
take either the food crisis or Mr. Hoover seriously so
long as Congress merely debates and withholds from the
President and Mr. Hoover essential administrative power.
Spies in Peace and in War
The nation that wishes to protect its interests must, so far as pos
sible, keep secret the knowledge of its own strength and weakness, and
must endeavor to acquaint itself with the strength and weakness of other
nations. To accomplish these ends, armies of spies are at work through
out the world. Every American should be interested in reading about
t le activities of those spies; for an efficient secret service is a necessary
equipment for preparedness which our country lacks. Germany, whose
system of espionage leads the world, owes no small measure of her suc
cess in the Great War to her spies.
A SPY!
What does the word inspire in you? Do you feel
contempt for the secret calling of the man or do you thrill
to the romance of his life ? Probably your feeling is a
mingling of the two emotions. But if you know some-
the hlstor y of spies and spying, the romantic
thrill is sure to be uppermost.
A papei read by a distinguished New York criminal
awyer before the National Security Congress last winter,
makes the life of the spy seem very full of romance in-
eed. According to the information contained in this pa
per, there have been spies as long as there have been na
tions. Probably your first acquaintance with the profes-