Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1917-06-22

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 issues of arms.
Their plan was to throw broad
belt of German military power and
political control across the very cen
terreanean into the hart of Asia; and
Austria Hungary was to be as much
their tool and pawn as Serbia or Bull
garia or Turkey or the ponderous
States of the East. Austria Hungary,
indeed, was to become part of the
Central German Empire, absorbed
and dominated by the same forces
and influences that had originally &C.
mented the German states them
selves.
"The dream had its heart at Ber-
lin. 1t could have had heart no
here else! 1t rejected the idea of
solidarity of race entirely. The choice
Of peoples played no part in it at all.
1t contemplated binding together
racial and political units which could
Czerchs, Magyars, Croats, Serbs, Rou-
manians, Turks, Armenians, = the
proud states of Bohemia and Hun
gary, the stout little commonwealth
of The Balkans, the indomitable Turks
| the subtitle peoples of the East.
"TEese peoples did not wish to be
united. They ardently desired to di-
rect their own affairs, would be sat
is.ied ONLY by undisputed independ-
ence: They could be kept quiet only
by the presence of the constant arm
ed threat of armed men. They would
live under common power only by
sheer compulsion and await the day
of revolution. But the German mill
tary statesmen had reckoned with all
that and were ready to deal with it
in their own way.
Extent of Kaiser's Reach.
"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 its own people,
but at Berlin's dictation ever since the
war began. It's people now desire
peace, but cannot have il until leave
is granted from Berlin. The socall-
ed Central powers are in fact but a
single power.
Serbia is ut its mercy should its
hands be but for moment freed.
Bulgaria has consented to its will,
and Roumania is overrun. The Turk
ish armies, which Germans trained,
are serving Germany, certainly not
themselves, and the guns of German
warships lying in the harbor at Con-
stantinople remind Turkish states
men every day that they have no
choice but to take their orders from |
Berlin. From Hamburg to the Per-
sian Gulf the net is spread.
SIS it not easy TO understand the |
eagerness for peace that has been
manifested 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 for |
more; not peace upon her own initia- |
tive, but upon the initiative of the |
nations over which she now deems |
herself to hold the advantage. A lit |
tie of the talk has been public, but |
most of it's has been private. Through |
all sorts of channels il has come TO |
me, and in all sorts of guises, but |
never with the terms disclosed which |
the German government would be
willing 10 accept.
"rhat government has other val |
liable pawns in its hands besides those |
have mentioned. 1t still holds a |
valuable part of France, though with |
slowly relaxing grasp, and practical |
ly the whole OF Belgium. It's armies
press close upon Russia and overrun |
Poland at their will. 1t cannot go |
further; it dare not go back. 1t wish
too late and it has little left to offer |
for the pound of flesh it will demand. |
Menace of German Victory.
'The military masters under whom
Germany is bleeding see very plainly |
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. 1t is their power at home |
they are thinking about now more |
than their power abroad. 1t is that |
power which is trembling under their
very feet, and deep fear has entered |
their hearts.
"They have but one chance to per-
petutate their military power or ev-
en- their controlling political influ-
encc. If they can secure peace now
with the immense advantages still in |
their hands, which they have up to
will have justified themselves before |
the German people; they will have
gained by force what they promised
to gain by tan immense expansion
of German power, an immense en-
largement of German industrial and !
commercial opportunities. Their pres
tige will be secure and with their
prestige their political power.
"If they fall their people will thrust
them aside; Government account
able to the people themselves will be
set up in Germany, as it has been in
England, in the United tates, France,
and in all the great countries of the
modern time except Germany. If |
they succeed they are safe and Ger
many and the world are undone; if
they fail Germany is saved, and the
world will be at peace.
IF they succeed, America will fall
within the menace. We and all the
rest of the world must remain arm
cd, as they will remain, and must
make ready for the next step in their
aggression; If they fail, the world
NAV unite fOr nnaca and norr,,n,,