Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-09-01
Truth Alone Is Useful.

/ i
! in Germany and of the conditions there
/ try still to be guided by those consider,
atoms. II America wants to pc Iuled
| into sweet but false security by being told
/ that Germany is weak and collapsing
! enemy or iattered by being told that its
people are barbarian savages this IS the
place to stop reading. ! promise you
neither untruth nor calumny apou, our
i foes But please remember that am
| writing of what | saw and felt ana Know;
| out of long months of intimate personal
| experiences; that 1 have stood in the
/ frozen trenches with their soldiers ana
shared their hardships with them at
| home; that I am writing at safe ana
| pleasant distance, not out OF rlch ran
| tasy. but out of experience. REMEMBER
| also that no mere belief in America that
| things are other than they are will change
| the truth or form a safe basis for war
| like operations or an honorable one Tor
| international dealings.
Convinced Government Is Sincere.
The Germany that I left was Ger
1 fighting honorably. sacrificing nobly
for what they believed to be the de-
Tense of an imperiled fatherland II
was a Germany that wanted peace.
convinced that it was fighting for
peace. If its people-the real people
of Germany. not a handful of pan-Ger-
man jingoes-could be convinced that
their government wanted anything
other than an honorable peace. that
government would he in danger. II
only revolution could reform the gov
eminent, that revolution would come.
II another change in the chancellor
ship were necessary to demonstrate the
popular demand for a peace without
conquest, that change would be made.
I am convinced that the people OF
Germany. at home and in the trenches.
want a peace without annexations and
without indemnities, and that they are
overwhelmingly behind their reichstag
in that demand. To this it is important
to add the statement that the reich
stag seems in a mood to compel
obedience to its views.
That is the great outstanding fact OF
the German crisis" which was at its
height when I left Berlin. But I re-
manned long enough to watch at first
hand most of these stirring events, and
strange sensation for an enemy for
eigner"-to sit in the galleries OF the
reichstag and to converse in it's Hobbies
with its members concerning the
progress of the crisis.
Peace Offer by the People.
1t was one of these conversations
with one of the main actors in this
great drama, one of the chief leaders
of the reichstag. that summed up for
me the plans and hopes of the men
on record for a peace without annexa-
tion and without indemnities.
This resolution he said, lis an
offer of peace, not from government to
government, but from the people of
Germany to the people of the world.
1t is from them, through their par
liaments, that we expect an answer.
The whole world stands today before
the terrible question, Will there be an
other war winter What will the an
swer be? Only your country and Japan,
who have tasted only of the golden
deluge of war prosperity and felt none
of it's horrors, may answer in the af
firmative. The people who are really
in the war think otherwise. l do not
believe single European nation wants
another day of war, except in self de-
Tense. II we can make II clear to them
that we will fight forever in our de-
tense, and not one minute for conquest,
1 am convinced that the peoples of our
enemy countries will force their parlia
ments to answer-and the day of deliv
erance will be at hand Who knows?
Your Congress. once foremost in the
ranks of those who sought world peace,
may make the beginning.
'It has not been easy to induce our
reichstag to speak so plainly and by so
complete a majority There have been
world will refuse to listen to US. and
that our enemies will merely see in this
resolution a sign of weakness. They
point to the answer we received last
December when we made our first offer
or peace, and the answer your Presi
dent received when he tried to bring
about the end of the war.
"Armies Victorious Everywhere"