The New York Times of Tuesday published a leading article
on the war distinguished by both eloquence and passion. It is an appeal to the German people to recognize the truth before it is too late :— "Germany is doomed to sure defeat. Bankrupt in statesman- ship, overmatched in arms, under the moral condemnation of the civilized world, befriended only by Austrians, Turks, backward- looking, dying nations, desperately battling against the hosts of three great Powers, to which help and reinforcement from States now neutral will certainly come should the decision be long deferred, she outpours the blood of her heroic subjects, and wastes her diminishing substance in a hopeless struggle that postpones but cannot alter the fatal decree."
The world, the article continues, cannot allow Germany to
win and to dominate in the interests of a military class. If England, France, and Russia cannot prevail, Italians, Hol- landers, Swiss, Danes, Greeks, and men of the Balkans will come to their assistance. Since more dreadful endings are in
view, why not force a better ending now P We congratulate the New York Times on the noble feeling of its article. We are
reminded of the eulogy which Walt Whitman pronounced on the leading articles of Northern newspapers during the American Civil War. That great tribute to journalism from a man of letters was thoroughly well deserved. The American
Press may in peace time too often show a certain triviality of touch, but the best newspapers can rise greatly to great occasions, and here we have a splendid example of that fact.
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