Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-12-05
Must Win the War

tdge even on the part OF the Nictors.
Must Win the War
Let there he no misunderstanding.
our present and Immediate task is to
win the war, and nothing shall turn US
a side from it until il is accomplished
| Every power and resource we pos
sess, whether of men. of money or of
, materials, is being devoted and will
continue to be devoted to that pur-
pose until it is achieved Those who
desire to bring peace about before that
purpose is achieved. | counsel to carry
their advice elsewhere. We will not
entertain it. We shall regard the war
only as won when the German peo-
Piles say to us. through properly ac-
credited representatives,. that they
are ready to AZ rec TO a settlement based
upon justice and the reparation Of the
wrongs their rulers have done. They
have done a wrong to Belgium which
, must be repaired They have estab-
iished power over other lands and
peoples than their oWn-oVer the great
empire of Austria Hungary. over
r: ;.,':o fires Balkan states. over Tur-
key, and within Asia-which must be
relinquished.
Germany's success by skill. by indus
try. by knowledge, by enterprise we
did not begrudse or oppose. but ad-
mired rather. She had built up for
herself real empire OF trade and in
fuence secured by the peace of the
world. We We're content to abide the
rivalries of manufacture. science and
commerce that were involved for us in
her success. and stand or fall as we
had or did have the brains and the in
itlative to surpass her But at the mo-
ment When she had ccnspicuously won
her trlumphs of peace. she threw them
away to establish in their stead what
the world Will no longer permit to be
established, military and political DOM
NATION by arms, by which to Dust
where She could not excel rivals she
most feared and hated. The peace we
make must remedy the wrong. 1t must
deliver the once fair lands and happy
peoples Of Belgium and northern
France from the Prussian conquest
and the Prussian menace. but il ,nust
also deliver the peoples of Austria
Hungary, the peoples Of the Balkans
and the peoples of Turkey. alike in
h|NACPN anu Az ASH, IItll Tue lUlDu-
dent and alien domination of the Prus-
sian military and commercial au-
tocracy. We owe it. however. to our.
selves, to say that we do not wish in
any way TO impair or rearrange the
Austro-H Hungarian empire II is no af-
fair of ours what they do with their
own life. either industrially or politi-
caiiy. We do not purpose or desire to
dictate to them in any way We only
desire to see their affairs are left in
their own hands, in all matters. great
or small, We shah hope TO secure for
the peoples of the Balkan peninsula
and for the people Of the Turkish en-
pre- Tie right and opportunity to make
their own lives safe. their own fortunes
secure against oppression or injustice
ana from the dictation of foreign
courts or parties and our attitude and
purposes with regard to Germany her
self are Of like kind.
We intend no wrong against the
German empire. no interference with
her internal affairs. We should deem
either the one or the other absolutely
unJustifiable. absolutely contrary 70
the principle we have professed to live
by and to hold most sacred through
out our life as a nation.
People of Germany Deceived
The people of Germany are being told
by the men whom them now permit 10
deceive them and to act as their mas
ters that they are fighting for the very
lie and existence Of their empire, n
war Of desperate self-defense against
deliberate aggression. Nothing could be
more grossly or wantonly false, and we
must seek by the utmost openness and
candor as to our real aims to convince
them of its falseness. We are in fact,
fghting for their emancipatio from
fear along with our own, from the fear
as we'll as from the fact of unjust at
tack by neiShbors or rivals or scham-
ers after world empire. No one is
threatening the existence or the indie
pendence or the peaceful enterprise Of
the German empire.
The worst that can happen to the dct-
riment of the German people is this.