The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1917-06-30
Cards On the Table
BY Or. FRANK CRANE
Copyright. 1915. by Frank Crane,


The time has come when the two par
ties, or one of them, in the present world
war should lay the cards face up on the
table.
In other words, each contestant should
declare, in plain terms, exactly what he's
fighting for, and what he intends to do II
he is victorious.
Germany and Company Will not do this.
because it is coalition of autocracies,
the central principle of whose theory Of
government is that superior, official,
hereditary class, and not the whole peo-
pie, is responsible and supreme in direct
ing the affairs of nation.
England, France and Company ought,
however. to do it, because they advertise
themselves as democracies; and In q
democracy the people ought to know
what's going on and what their rulers
aim to do
One of the first phenomena of the Rus
sian revolution was popular movement
to induce the government to state it,
precise peace terms, whether it was go
ing to grab territory, exact indemnities,
and the like. Whether this movement
was ll-advised and automatically man.
aged or not, it was an indication Of the
proper temper of democracy. The peo-
pie are not disposed, when they are u
control, to suffer, become impoverished
and die, all for something they don't UNI
derstand, for issues that in the end sru
to be decided in secret chamber hv
the chess play Of few diplomats
America, thru her president, has stated
clearly enough what she wants. She
wants the freedom Of the seas, she wants
to break Germany's power and win 10 rob
and slay, and she does not want any other
nations land or money. France has done
likewise.
We oppose Germany because she rsp-
resents an intolerable national egotim;
she proposes to do business upon the
theory Of Germany first; and the only
alternative to that is the theory of the
world first, humanity first, with every
small nation guaranteed its existence.
There is deal of talk In America, and
still more in Russia and the neutral
countries of Europe, that British patri-
otism is equally egotistic, and It's purpose
in this war parallel to the German pur-
pose" Great Britain Is declared 10 be
grasping at Mesopotamia and the Ger
man colonies, France at Syria, Italy at
Austrian provinces, and so on. Why not
come out plainly and declare just what
an allied victory will meant
II. G. Wells, in recent letter 30 the
London Chronicle, urges such statements,
not mere discussions and diplomatic I'M
derstandings, but "such full and plain
statements as will be spread thru the
whole world and grasped and assimilated
by ordinary people everywhere-state-
ments by which we as a people win b
prepared to stand or fall. Great Britain
has to table her world policy. It Is .
thing overdue. No doubt we have already
literature Of liberal Imperialism and
considerable accumulation Of declars-
IioiiS ny ILLS oIdICoHidH VI tHdI, Out WHAT
is needed is a formulation much more
representative, official, and permanent
than that-something that can be put
beside President Wilson's clear rendering
Of the American ideal We want all our
peoples to understand that our empire il
not net about the world in which the
progress of mankind is entangled. but .
self-conscious political system, working
side by side with the other democracies
of the earth, preparing the way for, and
preparing to sacrifice and merge itself
in, world confederation of free and
equal peoples"