Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-06-26

Serbia were mere single step In
plan which compassed Europe and
Asia, from Berlin to Bagdad. They
hoped those demands might not arouse
Europe, but they meant to press them
whether they did or not, for they
thought themselves ready for the final
issue of arms.
Vast Empix Slammed.
Their plan was 30 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-H 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 Oh
race entirely. The choice OF peoples
played no part In 1t at all. They ar
IDENTIFY desired to direct their own af-
fairs, would be satisfied only by undls-
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.
And they have actually carried the
greater part Of that amazing plan into
execution! Look how things stand.
Austria is at their mercy. 1t has acted,
not upon its own initiative or upon the
choice of It's own people, but at Ber-
Inns dictation ever since the war be-
gan. Its people now desire peace, but
cannot have it until leave is granted
from Berlin. The so-called central
powers are in fact but single power.
Serbia is at its mercy, should its hands
be but for q moment freed. From
Hamburg to the Persian gulf the net
is spread.
Why Berlin Seeks Peace.
Is 1t 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 1t is too late and 1t
has little left to offer for the pound of
flesh it will demand.
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 a
house of cards. If they can Sc
cure peace now with the immense ad-
vantages still In their hands which
they have up to this point apparently
gained, they will have justified themr
selves before the German people; they
will have gained by force what they
promised to gain by 1t: 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; a government accountable to
the people themselves will be set up
in Germany as 1t has been in England,
In the United States, in France, and
in all the great countries of the mod
ern time except Germany. If they sue
coed they are safe and Germany and
the world are undone; If they fail Ger
many is saved and the world will be at
peace. If they succeed, we and all
the rest of the world must remain
armed, as they will remain, and must
make ready for the next step OF ag-
erosion; If they fail, the world may
unite for peace, and Germany may be
Of the union.
Seek to Deceive World.
The present particular aim Of the
masters of Germany is to deceive all
those who throughout the world stand
for the rights of peoples and the self
government of nations; for they see
what immense strength the forces of
justice and Of liberalism are gathering
out of this war.
The sinister intrigue is being no less
actively conducted In this country than
IN Russia and in every country in Eu-
rope to which the agents and dupes of
the imperial German government can
get access.
United States In War for Freedom.
The great fact that stands out above
all the rest is that this is Peoples
war, war for freedom and justice and
Self-government amongst all the ma
tions OF the world, war to make the
world safe for the peoples who live in
1t and have made It their own, the
German people themselves included;
and that with US rests the choice to
break through all these hypocrisies and
patent cheats and masks of brute force
and help set the world free, or else
stand aside and let 1t be dominated a
long age through by sheer weight of
arms and the arbitrary choices of self
constituted masters, by the nation
which can maintain the biggest armies
and the most irresistible ornaments
power to which the world has af-
forded no parallel and in the face OF
which political freedom must wither
and perish.
For us there is but one choice. We
have made it. Woe be to the man or
group of men that seeks to stand In
our way in this day of high resolution
when every principle we hold dearest
is to be indicated and made secure for
the salvation of the nations. We are
ready to plead at the bar of history,
and cur flag shall wear a new luster.
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| fighting in league with Germany have