The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1917-12-07

war Is over, continue to be obligated
to live under ambitious and intriguing
masters interested to disturb the peace
Of the world. men or classes of men
whom the other peoples of the world
could not trust, it might be impossi-
BILE to admit them to the partnership
of nations which must henceforth guar
antee the worlds peace. That parner-
ship must be partnership of peoples,
not a mere partnership of govern
Jnents
II might be impossible also in such
untoward circumstances to admit Ger
many to the free economic intercourse
which must inevitably spring out of
! tn other partnerships of a real peace.
But there would be no aggression in
that; and such a situation, inevitable
! because of distrust, would in the very
nature of things sooner or later cure
itself by processes which would as
suredly set in
The wrong, the very deep wrongs,
| committed in this war, will have to
be righted That. of course But they
can not and must not be righted by
! the commission of similar wrongs
against Germany and her allies.
Selfishness Barred
The world will not permit the COM
mission of similar wrongs as means
! of reparation and settlement. States
men must by this time have learned
that the opinion of the world has ev-
erywhre been wide-awake and fully
comprehends the issues involved. No
! representatives of any self-governed
national will dare disregard it by at
tempting any such covenants of self
ishness and compromise as were en-
tered into at the congress at Vienna.
The thought of the plain people here
and everywhere throughout the world,
the people who enjoy no privilege and
have very simple and unsophisticated
standards of right and wrong, is the
air all governments must henceforth
breathe if they would live. 1t is in
the full disclosing light of that thought
that all policies must be conceived
and executed in this midday hour OF
the worlds life.
German rulers have been able to
upset the peace of the world only be-
cause the German people were not suf-
fered under their tutelage to share the
comradeship of the other peoples or
the world either in thought or in pur-
pose. They were allowed to have no
opinion of their own which might be
set up as a rule Of conduct for those
who exercised authority over them. But
the congress that concludes this war
will feel the full strength of the tides
that run new in the hearts and con-
sciences of freemen everywhere. It's
conclusions will run with those tides
All these things have been true from
the very beginning of this stupendous
war: and | can not help thinking that
if they had been made plain at the
very outset the sympathy and enthu-
siasm of the Russian people might
have been, once for all, enlisted on
side of the allies suspicion and dis
trust swept away, and real ana last
ing union of purpose effected. Had they
believed these things at the very mo-
ment of their revolution and had they
been confirmed in that belief since
the sad reverses which recently nave
marked the progress of their affairs
toward an ordered and stable govern
ment of free men might have Deen
avoided. The Russian people nave
been administered by the very same
hands. The only possible antidote IS
the truth. 1t can not be uttered too
plainly or too often.
Attitude Not Changed
From every point of view, therefore,
Il has seemed to be my duty to speak
| these declarations of purpose, to add
these specific interpretations to what
I took the liberty of saying to the Sen
ate in January. Our entrance into the
/ war has not altered our attitude to-
ward the settlement that must come
when it is over.
| When / said in January that the
/ nations of the world were entitled
| not only to free pathways upon the
! sea. but also to assured and unmolest-
| ed access to those pathways | was not
! then asking and | am not thinking
| now OF the smaller and weaker nations
alone. which need our countenance and
| suDDort. but also of the great and pow
erfrIl nations, and of our present enc
mics as well as our present associates
in the war. | was thinking, and am
| thinking now of Austria herSelE,
among the rest. as we'll as of Serbia
and of Poland. Justice and equality
of rights can be had only at great
price. We are seeking permanent, not
temporary. foundations for the peace
OF the world, and must seek them can
| diCllysHand fearfessly.
AS always the right will prove TO
be expedient.
What shall we do then to push this
great war of freedom and justice to its
righteous conclusion? We must clear
away with a thorough hand all i'm
pediments to success and we must
make every adjustment OF law tnat
will facilitate the full and free use
Of our whole capacity and force as
lighting unit.
Asks War On Austria,
One very embarrassing obstacle that
stands in our way is that we are at
war with Germany but not with her
allies. / therefore very earnestly rec
ommend that the congress immediate
ly declare the United States in state
| OF war with Austria-Hungary. Does
il seem strange to you that this should