The Elk Mountain pilot., 1917-04-05

alter very CaTeIul LnOukUL ny lue
branch OF the government upon which
the responsibility Of conducting the
war and safeguarding the nation will
most directly fall
Would indicate Principles of Justice.
While we do these things. these
deeply momentous things, let us be
very clear and make very clear to all
the world what our motives and our
objects are. My own thought has
not been driven from its habitual and
normal course by the unhappy events
OF the last two months, and l do not
believe that the thought of the nation
has been altered or.clouded by them.
l have exactly the same things in
mind now that l had in mind when 1
addressed the Senate on the 22nd of
January last; the same that l had in
mind when l addressed the Congress
on the 3rd of February and on the 26th
of February.
Our object, now, as then, is to vim
dicate the principles of peace and
justice in the life of the world as
against selfish and autocratic power
and to set up amongst the really free
and self-governed peoples of the world
such a concert of purpose and of ac-
tion as will henceforth insure the OBJ
servance OF these principles.
Neutrality is no longer feasible or
desirable where the peace OF the
world is involved and the freedom of
its peoples, and the menace to that
peace and freedom lies in the exist
ence of autocratic governments
backed by organized force which is
controlled wholly by their will, not by
the will of their people. We have
seen the last of neutrality in such
circumstances.
Quarrel with Government, Not People.
We are at the beginning of an age
in which it will be insisted that the
same standards of conduct and of re-
sponsibility for wrong done shall be
observed among nations and the gov
ernments that are observed among
the individual citizens of civilized
states.
We have no quarrel with the Ger
man people. We have no feeling
toward them but one of sympathy and
friendship. 1t was not upon their i'm
pulse that their government acted in
entering this war 1t was not with
their previous knowledge or approval.
1t was war, determined upon as
wars used to be determined on in
the old unhappy days when peoples
were nowhere consulted by their
rulers and wars were provoked and
waged in the interest of dynasties
or of little groups of ambitious men
who were accustomed to use their
fellow men as pawns and tools.
Self-governed nations do not fill
their neighbor states with spies or
set the course Of intrigue to bring
about some critical posture of affairs
which will give them an opportunity
to strike and make conquest. Such
designs can be successfully worked
only under cover, and where no one
has the right to ask questions.
Cunningly contrived plans OF decep-
ton or aggression, carried. 1t may
be from generation to generation, can
be worked out and kept from the
light only within the privacy of
courts or behind the carefully guard.
ed condolences of a narrow and pri
illeged class. They are happily I'M
possible where public opinion COM
mAnds and insists upon full infor-
nation concerning all the nations
affairs.
Sees New Hope In Russian Revolt.
A. steadfast concert for peace can
never be maintained except by Il part
nership Of democratic nations. No
autocratic government could be
trusted to keep faith within 1t or OBJ
serve its covenants. It must be.
league of honor. partnership OF
opinion.
Intrigue would eat its vitals away;
the plottings of inner circles who
could plan what they would and rem
der account to no one would be
corruption seated at its very heart
Only free peoples can hold their pur-
pose and their honor steady to
common end and prefer the interests
of mankind to any narrow interest of
their own.
Does not every American feel that
assurance has been added to our hope
for the future peace of the world by
the wonderful and heartening things
that have been happening within the
last few weeks in Russia?
Russia was known by those who
knew it best to have been always in
fact democratic at heart. in all tho
vital habits of her thonght, in all the
intimate relationships of her people
that spoke their natural instinct, their
habitual attitude towards life.
The autocracy that crowned the
summit of her political structure, long
as it had stood and terrible as was
the reality of its power, was not in
fact Russian in origin, character or
purpose; and now it has been shaken
off and the great, generous Russian
people have been added in all their
native majesty and might to the forces
that are fighting for freedom In the
world. for justice and for peace. Here
is fit partner for league of honor.
Plots Aimed at Unity Of America.
One of the things that has served
to convince us that the Prussian au-
tocracy was not and could never be
our friend is that from the very out
set of the present war it has filled
our unsuspectinG communities and