13 JULY 1918, Page 2

On Independence Day at Washington President Wilson made one of

the best of his many memorable speeches. The keynote of the speech was contained in the words that in the war " No . half-way decision wo-ald be tolerable. No half-way deeision is . conceivable." We ventured to point out -recently that the school_ of thinkers who propose peace by negotiation have for a long-time been entirely misrepresenting President Wilson when they claim him as their leader. His " idealism " is indeed as remote from -theirs as any set of ideas well could be. Whatever apparatus of international. judgment and control he imagines for the future, he regards the entire defeat of Germany as the necessary preliminary.