"The terms of peace will be carried out in every respect which is compatible with our national honor and fidelity and so far as it does not mean the nation's suicide."

Exquisite Teuton witticism! German Honor? German fidelity? To throw this in the faces of people for whom the sweets of victory have long since turned sour, to tell the victors that the ghost of Junkerdom struts abroad with all its ancient insolence,--

After all it was to be expected. None of Germany's war blunders can possibly equal the Allied and Associated blunders of peace. The Nation which wrecked a continent and endangered civilization has been handled gently. As the attention of the Allies, France excepted, turned from clinching victory to solving domestic difficulties the treaty turned from steel to gelatine, yielding at the lightest touch of a Prussian finger. There were some stern remonstrances, some fierce threats. But in the end there has not been much but talk, and precious moments when peace and righteous vengeance might have been insured have been lost.

It is possible that the Allied and Associated powers will not crush Prussian militarism now. Fear of economic instability may permit this far greater evil to fester once more in the heart of Europe. But the day of settlement can only be postponed--eventually the forces of light and darkness must clash in final conflict. Eventually this work must be finished.

Will the war-sick world leave this horrible legacy to the future? Or has German psychology made its last great mistake by underestimating the vitality of the Allied peoples? Have we forgotten Belgium? Is the Lusitania a shadow memory only?

"If ye break faith with those who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields."