THE H.B. TRIBUNE. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 13, 1918. THE PRESIDENT’S SPEECH.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VIII, Issue 52, 13 February 1918, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 13, 1918. THE PRESIDENT’S SPEECH.

Although the major portion of President Wilson’s -speech before Congress, as abstracted for cabling purposes, was published yesterday, we to-dav give the more complete and more' connected synopsis which reached us overnight through a different agency. Even this, of course, does not afford the firm ground tor comment that would be provided by an extended report. Still it no doubt furnishes US' with all salient points touched upon, and gives a fair notion of the note struck. As an assurance that America will play her part in the war until such a peace is achieved as meets with her approval the Presl- - pronouncement seems all that could be asked. There cannot, however,but be some reservations with regard to a full acceptance of the principles and terms definitely enunciated and reasonably to be inferred from Mr Wilson’s pronouncement. In the first place, it is to be noted that he has deemed it necessary to say that “America has entered the war because she was made a partner in the sufferings and indignities inflicted by the military masters of Germany against the peace and security of mankind.” we all know that the American President was slow to anger and, for reasons no doubt appearing to him quite sufficient—prominent among them being probablv the fact that the nation had to be fir-f thoroughly aroused—he submitted to numberless “indignities” before showing practical resentment of them. Possibly it may still be necessary for him, with some section of his people, to justify his intervention by attributng it, as he appears to do, solely to interference with purely American rights. At the same'time’ it cannot but be thought that, being once in the fray, he might have more definitely claimed, if only as a secondary motive, the broad duty imposed upon so great a democracy as the United States to oppose itself to the assertion of the autocratic world ambitions responsible for the war. By strictly narrowing his basis for intervention to the wrongs inflicted on his own people he deprives his country of much of the moral dignity that might otherwise be attached to America’s entry upon the war and the part she has yet to play in it. It may be, however, that when the full report of his speech is made available there will be found contextual matter which will put this feature in a better light. Then, again, there can scarcely fail to be some feeling of disappointment induced by the general tenor of the speech which seems to assume that, for the purpose of peace negotiations, the German nation is to be treated as if it were itself in no way responsible for the war, that it is to escape all penalties for the misdoings of its rulers and, presumably, to be admitted to the companionship of nations as if its citizens had take no part in carrying out the policy of “frightfulness” that has horrified the rest, of the civilized world. The President has always sought to draw a strong line of distruction between the German people and their rulers, and has shown a tender solicitude for the former that those who have suffered at their hands must have some difficulty in appreciating. He seems to forget that the German people at the outset of the war rose joyfully and with acclamation, and scarcely with exception, to enter upon a war of assured conquest, trained as they w’ere through half a century to regard themselves as a nation of super-men incapable of defeat and destined to rule the inferior and effete nations of the earth. He gives apparently no consideration to the reasonable suggestion that such a people can never be acceptable neighbours until the national delusion induced by generations of this self-sufficient regard is thoroughly beaten out of them in the only way that counts for them, and that is by a display of superior force. Germany and the Germans are not going to be regenerated by any mere modification or change in their form of government, although that might be. a distinct aid in carrying out the process. If all we have been hearing of internal conditions in Germany is to be given any weight at all. then we may safely assume that the German Emperor, born bully and braggart and all as he may be, would at this particular juncture scarcely venture on any utterance that would not be acceptable to at least the majority of his people. Yet, apparently almost at the same moment when Presilent Wilson was speaking, he appeals to them on the cround that “German victory must be acknowledged.” that ‘ all must set their thoughts <>n victory, and t lie Orman peace we need for a strong future.” No more vivid contrast could be provided of the conformed oi the reinpci ament and sentiments of the German people by President Wilson, wno can know but little of them, and by their Kaiser, who most assuredly knows how best he can stir them to the fulfilment of his purpose. AXhen, President I\ ilson even tacitly or inferentially places the German nation for consideration on the same moral tooting as those who have for three Ion" years and a half been contending with hv-'<. limbs, and fortunes against their manifest and ingrained aggressive and inhuman spirit, hr- degrades us t<> a level we are not prepared to aeeepi.