The Ozark spectator., 1917-06-23

lOnS as peoEieS, men, women, ana ,hildren of like blood and frame as 1 themselves, for whom governments ex- Stcd and in whom governments had | their life. They have regarded them merely as serviceable organizations which they could by force or intrigue bend or corrupt to their own purpose. 1 They have regarded the smaller states, in particular. and the peoples wno could be overwhelmed by force, as their natural tools and instruments of domination. Their purpose has long been avowed.
 Attitude Toward German People. Their plan was to throw broad belt of German military power and political control across the very center of Flu rope and beyond the Mediterranean in to the heart of Asia and Austria-Hun- gary was to be as much their tool and pawn as Serbia or Bulgaria or Turkey or the ponderous states of the East. The dream had its heart at Berlin. It could have had n heart nowhere else :. It rejected the idea of solidarity Of race entirely. The choice of peoples played no part in it at all. They ar dcntly desired to direct their own af fairs, would be satisfied only by undis puted independence. They could be kept quiet only by the presence or the constant threat of armed men. The German military statesmen had reck' oned with all that and were ready to deal with it in their own way.
 Policy One of Deceit.
 Is it not easy to understand the eag erness for peace that has been mani Tested from Berlin ever since the snare was set and sprung? Peace, peace. peace has been the talk of her foreign office for now n year and more; no peace upon her own initiative, but up- on the initiative of the nations over which she now deems herself to hold the advantage. Through all sorts of channels it has come to me, and in all sorts of guises, but never with the terms disclosed which the German gov ernment would be willing to accept. That government still holds valuable part of France, though with slowly re laxng grasp, and practically the whole of Belgium. It cannot go further; it dare not go back. It wishes to close it's bargain before it is too late
 The military masters under whom Germany is bleeding see very clearly 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 a house of cards. If they can se- cure peace now with the immense nd- vantages still in their hands which they have up to this point apparently gained. they will have justified them selves before the German people; they will have gained by force what they promised to gain by it: an immense expansion of German power, an i'm mense enlargement of German indus trial and commercial opportunities. If they fail, their people will thrust them aside; government accountable to the people themselves will be set up in Germany as it has been in England in the United States. in France, and in all the great countries of the mod crn time except Germany. If they sue ceed they are safe and Germany and the world are undonc: if they fail Ger many is saved and the world will be at peace. If they succeed we and all the rest of the world must remain armed, as they will remain, and must make ready for the next step of ag- gression; if they fail the world may unite for peace. and Germany may be of the union.
 Have Sought to Deceive World.
 The present particular aim of the masters of Germany is to deceive all those who throughout the world stand for the rights of peoplls and the self government of nations: for they see what immense strength the forces of justice and of liberalism are gathering out of this war
 The sinister intrigue is being no less actively conducted in this country than in Russia and in every country in Flu rope to which the agents and dupes of the imperial German government can get access.
 In War for Freedom and Justice.
 The great fact that stands out above all the rest is that this Is a Peoples war, war for freedom and justice and >clf-government amongst all the na- tions of the world, war to make the world safe for the peoples who live in 1t and have made it their own, the German people themselves included i: and that with Us rests the choice to h. eak through all these hypocrisies and patent cheats and masks of brute force and help set the world free, or else stand aside and let 1t be dominated n long age through by sheer weight of arms and the arbitrary choices of self constituted masters, by the nation which can maintain the biggest armies and the most irresistible armaments- II power to which the world has af- for,ied no parallel and in the face of which political freedom must wither and perish.
 For us there Is but one choice. We