The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-06-14

| CONTINUED from Page One.)
Germany denied us the right to be
neutral. They filled our unsuspecting
conspirators and sought to corrupt
the opinion of our people in their own
behalf. When they found that they
could not do that. their agents dill
/ gently spread sedition amongst us and
sought to draw our own citizens from
their allegiance-and some of those
agents were men connected with the
| official embassy Of the German gov
eminent itself here in our own capital.
They sought by violence to destroy our
| industries and. arrest our commerce.
They tried to incite Mexico to take up
arms against us and to draw Japan
| into a hostile alliance with her-and
that, not by indirection, but by direct
suggestion from the foreign office in
Berlin.
Denied Us the Seas.
They impudently denied us the use
of the high seas and repeatedly exc
cuted their threat that they would
send to their death any Of our people
who ventured to approach the coasts
of Europe. And many of our people
were corrupted. Men began to look
upon their own neighbors with sus-
picion and to wonder in their hot re-
sentiment and surprise whether there
was any community in which hostile
intrigue did not Turk. What great ma
ton in such circumstances would not
have taken up arms? Much asswe had
desired peace, it was denied us, and
not of our own choice this flag under
which we serve would have been dis
honored had we withheld our hand.
But that is only part of the story.
We know now as clearly as we knew
1nQ
that we are not the enemies of the
German people and that they are not
our enemies. They did not originate
or desire this hideous war or wish that
we should be drawn into it, and we
are vaguely conscious that we are
fighting their cause, as they will some
day see it, as well as our own. They
are themselves In the grip of the same
sinister power that has now at last
stretched its holy talons out and drawn
blood from us. The whole world is at
war because the whole world is in the
grip Of that power and Is trying out
the great battle which shall determine
whether it is to be brought under its
mastery.
at rejected the idea. of solidarity of
race entirely. The choice of peoples
played no part in it at all. 1t contem-
plated binding together racial and po-
litical units which could be kept to-
B0IHSr only Oy IOrce.
1.-THE war was begun by the military
masters of Germany who proved to be
also the masters of Austria-Hungary.
These men have never regarded nations
Of like blood and frame as themselves.
They have regarded them merely as
serviceable organizations. which they
could by force or intrigue bend or cor
regarded the smaller states in partic-
ular, and the peoples who could be
overwhelmed by force, as their natural
tools and instruments of domination.
Thought 1t just Dream.
Their purpose has long been avow-
ed. The statesmen of other nations, to |
whom that purpose was irs~redible, paid
little attention; regarded what German |
professors expounded in their class |
rooms and German writer's set forth to
the world as the goal Of the German
policy as rather the dream Of minds |
detached from practical affairs But |
the rulers Of Germany themselves knew |
all the while that concrete plans, that |
well advanced intrigues lay back OF |
what the professors and the writer's |
were saying.
And they have actually carried the
greater part of that amazing plan into /
execution. Austria is at their mercy.
II has acted, not upon its own militia
tive or upon the choice of its own peo-I
pie, but at Berlin's dfctation ever since |
the war began. Its people now desire 4
peace, but cannot have ii until leave is /
granted from Berlin. The so-called /
central powers are, in fact, but sim
gle power. Serbia lis at its mercy, /
should it's hands be but for a moment /
freed. Bulgaria has consented to its i
Will, and Rumanta is overrun. The /
Turkish armies, which Germany train
ed, are serving Germany, certainly not /
themselves, and the guns OF German
warships lying in the harbor at Con- i
stantinople remind Turkish statesmen
every day that they have no choice but /
TO take their orders from Berlin From Il
10 the Persian gulf the net is /
spread.
DO you not now understand the new
intrigue, the intrigue for peace, and /
why the masters OF Germany do not i