FOUR BITES OF A CHERRY
December 7, 1917
In his recent message to Congress President Wilson stated that in order “to push our great war of freedom and justice to its righteous conclusion we must clear away with a thorough hand all impediments to success,” and added, “The very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our way is that we are at war with Germany, but not with her allies.” He recommended that we declare war on Austria, and added, “The same logic would lead also to a declaration of war against Turkey and Bulgaria.” But inferentially and for reasons not apparent he advised against such action.
The President is entirely right in stating that our failure hitherto to declare war on the allies of Germany has been a very embarrassing obstacle to our success, and he is entirely right in advising a declaration of war against Austria. Incidentally I wish to point out that this is precisely what I insistedupon in these columns two months ago, and what I had elsewhere advocated six months ago, and it is worth while remembering that the Administration papers then assailed me for urging the course which, although there has not been the slightest change in the situation, the President now urges.
There was no justification whatever for failure to declare war on Austria when we declared war on Germany, and there is now no justification for failure to declare war on Bulgaria and Turkey when we declare war on Austria. There is no use in making four bites of a cherry. There is no use in going to war a little, but not much. The President has sent a message pledging support to Rumania, but it is worse than an empty form to send such a message unless we forthwith declare war on Bulgaria. The President has appointed a Sunday for the special expression of sympathy with Armenia, but such expression of sympathy is utterly meaningless unless we go to war with Turkey. The Austro-Hungarian and Turkish empires must be broken up if we intend to make the world even moderately safe for democracy. There must be a revived Poland, taking in all the Poles of Austria, Prussia, and Russia; a greater Bohemia, taking in Moravia and the Slovaks; a great Jugo-Slav commonwealth, including Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, while the Rumanians in Hungary should become part of Rumania and the Italians in Austria part of Italy. The Turk must be driven from Europe and Christian and Arab freed. Only in this manner can we do justice to thesubject peoples tyrannized over by the Germans, Magyars, and Turks. Only in this way can we remove the menace of German aggression, which has become a haunting nightmare for all civilizations, especially in the case of small, well-behaved, liberty-loving peoples.
By declaring war on Germany’s allies we do not commit ourselves to asking anything that is not just for our own allies. But by failing to declare war on Germany’s allies we are ourselves guilty of injustice to our own allies.