peoples to national "self-determination." The fuller statements quoted above show the startling extent to which the Russian Bolshevist regime is willing to apply its formula in national and international relations. To stop fighting and take such propositions direct to the enemy arch-Imperialists as a basis for peace is very, very Russian!

At Brest-Litovsk the inexperienced Russian delegation was confronted by well-known diplomats of the old school, Dr. Kühlmann, Germany's Foreign Minister, presiding. Fortunately, however, there can now be no backstairs deal with a Czar; whatever develops in conference is sure to be naively blurted out to the world by the revolutionists.

Count Czernin, Austria's Foreign Minister, declared for the Central Powers their agreement "immediately to conclude a general peace without forcible annexations and indemnities." They thought that "the basic principles of the Russian delegation can be made the basis of such a peace." "For the sake of conquest they will not prolong the war a single day." But-the Russian proposals could only be realized if all the powers "obligate themselves scrupulously to adhere to the terms.” But-also-political independence of nationalities cannot be solved internationally; that and the rights of minorities are constitutional matters of self-determination. But-againto realize the principle of self-determination in German colonial

territories is at present "practically impossible."

Another press report gave Germany's separate peace terms offered to Russia alone. Renewal of beforethe-war treaties and reorganized economic relations were proposed. But German evacuation of occupied territory was hedged about, and in the case of portions of the Baltic provinces it was held that the people had already expressed their will to separate from Russia! Trotzky, the Bolshevist Foreign Minister, promptly denounced "Germany's hypocritical peace proposal" wholly at Russia's expense, and Russian threats to fight again and appeal to the German masses over the heads of the Imperialists were heard.

It is easy to say that the Bolsheviki have led Russia into a German trap and ask whether Russia has not now learned her lesson. Yet, the German Chancellor, von Hertling, bewails the publicity which the Brest-Litovsk negotiations receive, and the German press is compelled to discuss what the trouble is with the desperate German peace drive. For good or ill, too, the Russian peace drive draws out re-statements of war aims by Entente statesmen, disclaiming imperialistic purposes in former secret treaties with the deposed Czar. deposed Czar. At the moment separate peace seems as far away as general peace, through old style diplomacy. But peace negotiations have begun and must continue in the open.

TH

HE question before the world is not merely who is to win the great war, but is our civilization to be utterly destroyed? The Germans are great in their efficiency but this efficiency has gone mad. For thousands of years God's indictment of Cain as a murderer has been remembered and righteous men have execrated that crime. The severest penalties known to law have always been inflicted upon those who deliberthose who deliberately with clear intent have taken human life. Now, in the twentieth century, after two thousand years of slow but sure progress toward the Christian ideal, in a moment, as it were, we have seen this nation, great in its efficiency, for no good reason, set in motion the most gigantic enginery of death the human mind could conceive and go forth to kill, to maim, to outrage, to torture and to rob the citizens of neighboring peace-loving nations. It is as though the demons of Hell, after ages of waiting and restraint, had in countless numbers broken loose from their confines and were bent on turning this fair earth into a slaughter pen sparing only those who are willing to accept the most abject slavery to Satan. Efficiency, yes. Nothing just like it has ever been seen or heard of. The German officers and soldiers object to being called Huns but the

record of their cruelty and vileness in Belgium, in France, in Mesopotamia, in Syria, in prison camps and on the sea makes the Huns seem like respectable adventurers and pioneers.

The tocsin has sounded the world's doom. That the danger is great is seen in the fact that twenty nations have united to overpower and destroy this raging host of destroyers. In spirit and in faith the whole world is enlisted in the contest. That the United States has thrown all her wealth, all her energy and all her manhood into the struggle goes to show what a nation dedicated to peace will do when freedom and justice are at stake. There is no hope for liberty or justice except in victory. That victory may be far off but it will surely come when our National sacrifices are sufficient. So sure are we that the forces of truth and righteousness will win that we properly begin to think of the new day that is coming, of the rescue of civilization and the reconstruction of prostrate peoples.

The World's Court League believes that justice is to have a new meaning after the war and that a court of nations will be the crowning feature of a new international order. All good Americans need to feel this hope and expectation; the young men on the battle front need to feel

it. In urging this view the League holds strategic ground. It proposes nothing impossible or visionary. It follows the greatest precedent of history. At the same time it is ready to indorse any plan that is large enough and comprehensive enough to meet all exigencies.

Militarism in its Germanic form must be destroyed. So says President Wilson and so say many voices from across the sea. An established World Court naturally will include the machinery for arbitration already organized and will provide the most effective means possible for mediating and settling difficulties which cannot properly be taken before the court. We hear very strong demands from those high in authority in this and other countries, that after this crucial struggle the armaments of the world be greatly reduced and in some way be placed under international control so that the world may be policed, disorders prevented and recalcitrant and powerful nations be restrained. Here we see a great possibility and one which is worth our most careful study and consideration. Surely the appropriate fruits of a victorious war would be such a change of mind and heart and will throughout the world as will make future wars unnecessary and impossible. Even Germany, when defeated from without and brought to the lowest depths of domestic sorrow and suffering, will be glad to treat for peace upon that basis and unite with

other nations in preserving civilization from further assaults. No one, who is just and humane, can forget the thousands of helpless people of the warring countries who in their distress are praying for the dawn of peace. No good citizen of the world will wish to see the war prolonged for a moment after the goal is reached, but the end is not yet and the war is more than ever our job. Germany proposes the economic destruction of all countries. Only our wisdom, self-restraint and the best industry of all our people can thwart her purpose. There must be no wavering. In the name of God and humanity civilization must be rescued. The things that are true and just and of good report must be established throughout the world.

The redrawing of boundaries is of far less moment to the world as a whole than the enthronement of justice and the closing forever of the temple of Janus. A League of Nations is sure to come but it will fail unless substantially all the world is included. One alliance pitted against another will mean another war and it will be more terrible and more destructive than this one. There is no hope for the World Court and World Justice until autocracy and militarism are swept away by the ongoing tide of victorious war, and the defeated nations are converted to truth and honor and yield their obnoxious military tradition to the demands of world opinion.