Part 25 (1/2)

I beg to call your attention to another editorial in the Springfield _Republican_, entitled ”Why Ger of Germany's profield _Republican_ which concludes by saying, ”Even Mr

Wilson is not so siht him to be”

It is the hand of Prussianiso as last June you exposed the hollowness of peace offered under such conditions as are now set forth by the Ger to the Gerain before it is too late and it has little left to offer for the pound of flesh it will demand”

In your speech of Septereed that there can be no peace obtained by any kind of bargain or coovernments of the Central Empires, because we have dealt with theovernle, at Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest They have convinced us that they ithout honour and do not intend justice They observe no covenants, accept no principle but force and their own interest We cannot 'come to terms'

with them They have made it impossible The German people must by this time be fully aware that we cannot accept the word of those who forced this war upon us We do not think the sareeh the German Chancellor It is the Kaiser himself He foresees the end and will not admit it He is still able to dictate conditions, for, in the statement which appeared in the papers yesterday, he said: ”It will only be an honourable peace for which we extend our hand”

The other day you said: ”We cannot accept the word of those who forced this war upon us” If this were true then, how can we accept this offer now? Certainly nothing has happened since that speech that has changed the character of those in authority in Germany Defeat has not chastened Germany in the least The tale of their retreat is still a tale of savagery, for they have devastated the country and carried off the inhabitants; burned churches, looted hoeance that cruelty can suggest

In my opinion, your acceptance of this offer will be disastrous, for the Central Powers have made its acceptance impossible by their faithlessness

TUMULTY

While the President was conferring with Secretaries Lansing, Daniels, Baker, and Colonel House, I addressed the following letter to President Wilson and a practically identic letter to Colonel House:

THE WHITE HOUSE WAshi+NGTON

7 October, 1918

DEAR MR PRESIDENT:

Since I returned, every bit of infor one line and that is, that an agreement in which the Kaiser is to play the srave suspicion and I believe its results will be disastrous In my opinion, it will result in the election of a Republican House and the weakening, if not ihout the world I am not on the inside and so I do not know, but I ae and Clee of this opportunity in declaring that, so far as they are concerned, they are not going to sit down at the Council Table with William the Second, and you may be put in a position before the world, by your acceptance of these conditions, of see to be sympathetic with the Kaiser and his brood

May not Ger the Allies by this offer, just as Talleyrand succeeded, at the Congress of Vienna, in splitting the allies who had been victorious over Napoleon? You cannot blot out the record you have made in your speeches, which in every word and line showed a distrust of this particular autocracy, hich you are now asked to deal Have you considered the possibility that as soon as Ger, as they did, that it was neither palatable to the Allies nor in accordance with that which they had hitherto stood for, pro the Entente at a criticalher of the benefits of theto them, as the representative of defeated France, when he sided with Russia and Prussia as against England and thus reat responsibility that rests upon the President In any otherand ti like this, when you are dealing with a question which goes to the very depths of international action and world progress, you are at the parting of the ways If you wish to erect a great structure of peace, you must be sure and certain that every brick in it, that every ounce of ce, and above all, you er moments to come

Sincerely, TUMULTY

Upon the conclusion of the conference, I had a talk with Colonel House and Secretaries Daniels, Lansing, and Baker, and again urged the necessity of a refusal on the part of the President to accept the Ger informed me that the President had read my letter to the conference and then said: ”We will all be satisfied with the action the President takes in this matter”

While at luncheon that afternoon, the President sent for me to come to the White House I found hi, Colonel House, and Mr Polk The German reply was discussed and I was happy when I found that it was a refusal on the part of the President to accept the Gerist of the President's reply was a demand from him of evidence of a true conversion on the part of Germany, and an inquiry on the part of the President in these words:

”Does the Imperial Chancellor mean that the German Government accepts the Fourteen Points?” ”Do the ree to withdraw all their armies from occupied territories?”, and finally: ”The President wishes to knohether the Chancellor speaks for the old group who have conducted the war, or does he speak for the liberated peoples of Ger upon the receipt of the President's reply to the Germans, Andre Tardieu says:

It is a brief reply which throws the recipients into consternation they cannot conceal No conversation is possible, declares the President, either on peace or on an aruarantees shall have been furnished These are the acceptation pure and simple of the bases of peace laid down on January 8, 1918, and in the President's subsequent addresses; the certainty that the Chancellor does not speak only in the names of the constituted authorities who so far have been responsible for the conduct of the war; the evacuation of all invaded territories The President will trans received full satisfaction on these three points

What ht of those partisans in Aainst the preli with Gerraph from Tardieu's book as to the impressions made in France and Germany by the notes which the President from week to week addressed to the Gerain Tardieu says: