tates, defying the universe, running
amuck. Of course it would be foolhardy to predict this, but the
fear of it keeps coming into my mind. The fear is the more
persistent because, if the worst comes to them, the military caste
and perhaps the dynasty itself will prefer to die in one last
terrific onslaught rather than to make a peace on terms which will
require the practical extinction of their supreme power. This, I
conceive, is the really great danger that yet awaits the world--if
the Allies hold together till defeat and famine drive the Germans
to the utmost desperation.

In the meantime, the Allies still holding together as they are,
there's no peace yet in the British and French minds. They're after
the militarism of Prussia--not territory or other gains; and they
seem likely to get it, as much by the blockade as by victories on
land. Do you remember how in the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck
refused to deal with the French Emperor? He demanded that
representatives of the French people should deal with him. He got
what he asked for and that was the last of the French Emperor.
Neither the French nor the English have forgotten that. You will
recall that the Germans starved Paris into submission. Neither the
French nor the English have forgotten that. These two leaves out of
the Germans' own book of forty-five years ago--these two and no
more--_may_ be forced on the Germans themselves. They are both
quite legitimate, too. You can read a recollection of both these
events between the lines of the interviews that Sir Edward and Mr.
Balfour recently gave to American newspapers.

There is nothing but admiration here for the strategy of the
President's last note to Germany. That was the cleverest play made
by anybody since the war began--clever beyond praise. Now he's "got
'em." But nobody here doubts that they will say, sooner or later,
that the United States, not having forced the breaking of the
British blockade, has not kept its bargain--that's what they'll
say--and it is in order again to run amuck. This is what the
English think--provided the Germans have enough submarines left to
keep up real damage. By that time, too, it will be clear to the
Germans that the President can't bring peace so long as only one
side wishes peace. The Germans seem