The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1917-06-22


listed and In whom governments hat
their life. They have regarded then
merely as serviceable organizations
which they could by force or intrigue
bend or corrupt to their own purpose
They have regarded the smaller states
in particular, and the peoples wnt
could be overwhelmed by force, a.
their natural tools and instruments o.
domination. Their purpose has Ions
been avowed.
Attitude Toward German People.
| Their plan was to throw broad belt
of German military power and political
control across the very center of Eu-
rope and beyond the Mediterranean in
| to the heart of Asia; and Austria-Hun'
| gary was to be as much their tool and
pawn as Serbia or Bulgaria or Turkey
| or the ponderous states of the East.
The dream had its heart at Berlin. 1t
could have had a heart nowhere else
1t rejected the idea of solidarity of
race entirely. The choice of peoples
played no part in it at all. They ar
IDENTIFY desired to direct their own af-
fairs, would be satisfied only by undis-
puted independence. They could be
kept quiet only by the presence or the
constant threat of armed men. The
German military statesmen had reck-
oned with all that and were ready to
deal with it in their own way.
Policy One of Deceit.
Is it not easy to understand the Gag
erness for peace that has been mani
tested from Berlin ever since the snare
was set and sprung? Peace, peace,
peace has been the talk of her foreign
office for now a year and more; not
peace upon her own initiative, but up
on the initiative of the nations over
which she now deems herself to hold
the advantage. Through all sorts of
channels it has come to me, and in all
sorts of guises, but never with the
terms disclosed which the German gov
eminent would be willing to accept.
That government still holds valuable
part of France, though with slowly re-
taxing grasp, and practically the whole
of Belgium. 1t cannot go further; 1t
dare not go back. 1t wishes to close
it's bargain before it is too late
The military masters under whom
Germany is bleeding see very clearly
to what point Fate has brought them.
If they fall back or are forced back
an inch, their power both abroad and
at home will fall to pieces like
house of cards. If they can Sc
cure peace now with the immense adj
vantages still in their hands which
they have up to this point apparently
gained, they will have justified them
selves before the German people; they
will have gained by force what they
promised to gain by it: an immense
expansion of German power, an i'm
mense enlargement of German indus
trial and commercial opportunities. If |
they fail, their people will thrust them
aside; government accountable to |
the people themselves will be set up |
in Germany as it has been in England,
in the United States, in France, and
in all the great countries of the mod
am time except Germany. If they sue
iced they are safe and Germany and
he world are undone if they fail Ger
many is saved and the world will be at
,eace. If they succeed, we and all
he rest of the world must remain
lrmed, as they will remain, and must
make ready for the next step of ag-
,ression; if they fail, the world may
mite for peace, and Germany may be
# the union.
Have Sought to Deceive World.
The present particular aim of the
masters of Germany is to deceive all
hose who throughout the world stand
or the rights of peoples and the self
government of nations; for they see
vhat immense strength the forces of
ustice and of liberalism are gathering
ut of this war.
The sinister intrigue is being no less
ctiyely conducted in this country than
n Russia and in every country in Eu-
one to which the agents and dupes of
he imperial German government can
ct access.
In War for Freedom and Justice.
The great fact that stands out above
II the rest is that this is Peoples
,ar. war for freedom and justice and
amongst all the ma
ons of the world, war to make the
.orId safe for the peoples who live in
and have made it their own, the
-erman people themselves included
nd that with us rests the choice to
eak through all these hypocrisies and
atent cheats and masks of brute force
nd help set the world free, or else
-and aside and let it be dominated a
ing age through by sheer weight of
rms and the arbitrary choices of self
instituted masters, by the nation
hich can maintain the biggest armies
nd the most irresistible ornaments
mower to which the world has af-
,rded no parallel and in the face of
hich political freedom must wither
nd perish.
For us there is but one choice. We
ave made it. Woe be to the man or
.oup of men that seeks to stand in
IT way in this day of high resolution ,
hen every principle we hold dearest
to be indicated and made secure for
le salvation of the nations. We are {