LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
" WORTHY OBJECTS " OF WAR.
[TO THE EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTLTOR.")
SIR, —By an odd coincidence the news of Germany's peace move and the New York Evening Post of November 27th reached me simultaneously, the latter with a leading article entitled " The Objects of the War." The article opens with a quotation from "a little speech" made by Abraham Lincoln in Philadelphia, June 16th, 1864. His " object " was, of course, " the saving of the American Union " by the Civil War, then in its fourth year :
" We accepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained. Under God, I hope it never will end until that time."
After enumerating the efforts made by Lincoln to reach his goal. the editor proceeds :—
" The objects of the war in Europe have been more and more clearly defined, with the passage of time, since its beginning. This, too, was a war which the Allies ' accepted.' They did not seek it. The outside world thinks to-day that it n as forced upon them, and we firmly believe that the verdict of history will be that this opinion is correct. And it is not surprising that in the first days of confusion and resentment there should have been uncertainty about the real and ultimate purpose of the nations that resisted the German attack. But their ideas have been clarified as the months of horror and of sacrifice have sped past, until now there is virtual agreement concerning the ends aimed at in the gigantic fighting."
Then quoting, somewhat inaccurately (but substantially), from Mr. Asquith's Guildhall speech, " We shall never sheathe the sword, &c.," the article reproduces the objects for which England is fighting, and continues :-
"Here, surely, are ' worthy' objects of the war. if it is necessary to fight on to secure them, we share the conviction that the Allies are bound to pour out more blood and treasure. In particular do we feel as keenly as we did when Germany was trampling Belgium under foot, that England would be for ever disgraced if she did not fling into the combat all that she has, if to do so is necessary in order to put back the Belgian people into their homes. It is not a question of being pro-Ally or anti-German, but of monstrous crime crying to heaven to be righted. And if the only way to right it is by continuing the bloody struggle, then we should have to speak of the war in the exalted and devout phrases which Lincoln used in his second Inaugural of the
'scourge' mysteriously employed by the Almighty to work out His, ripening purposes for the children of men."
It remains only to add that the New York Evening Post is probably the most influential of the papers supporting President Wilson, that it has always been in favour of " Pacificism," and that its editor, Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard, is a grandson of William Lloyd Garrison, the great Abolitionist, and is reputed to be a personal friend of President Wilson.—I am, Sir, &a., S. R. H.
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