The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1917-12-14
sntend No Wrong Against German
Empire.

Empire.
We intend no wrong against the
German Empire, no interference with
her internal affairs. We should deem
either the one or the other absolutely
unjustiiable, absolutely contrary to
the principles we have protested to
live by and to hold most sacred
throughout our life as a nation.
The people of Germany are being
told by the men whom they now per-
NIT to deceive them and to act as their
masters that they are fighting for the
very life and existence of their en-
pire, war OF desperate self-defense
against deliberate aggression. Moth
ing 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 false
ness.
We are, in fact. fighting for their
emancipation from fear, along with
our own, from the fear as well as from
the fact of unjust attack by neighbors
or rivals or schemers after world en-
pire. No one is threatening the exist
ence or the independence of the peace
full enterprise of the, German Empire.
The worst that dan happen to the
detriment of the German people is
this, that if they should still, after the
war is over, continue to be obliged 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 impossible
to admit them to the partnership of
nations, which must henceforth guar
antee the worlds peace.
"Must Be Partnership OF All Peoples"
That partnership must be a partner
ship of peoples, not mere partner
ship of Governments. 1t might be i'm
possible, also, in such untoward cir
cumstances, to admit Germany to the
free economic intercourse, which must
inevitably spring out of the other part
nerships of real peace. But there
would be no aggression in that, and
such situation, inevitable because of
distrust, would in the very nature of
things sooner or later cure itself by
processes which would assuredly
set in.
Wrongs Must Be Righted.
The wrongs, the very deep wrongs,
committed in this war will have to be
righted. That, of course. But they
cannot and must not be righted by the
commission of similar wrongs against
Germany and her allies. The world
will not permit the commission of SINH
lar wrongs as means of reparation
and settlement. Statesmen must by
this time have learned that the opin-
ion of the world is everywhere wide
awake and fully comprehends the is
sues involved. No representative of
any self-governed nation will dare dis
regard it by attempting any such COW
enants of selfishness and compromise
as were entered into at the Congress
of 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 hencefortn
breathe if they would live.
No Opinions OF Their Own.
1t is in the full disclosing light OF
that thought that all policies must be
conceived and executed in this mid
day 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 of
the world, either in thought or pur-
pose.
They were allowed to have no opin-
ion of their own which might be set
up as 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 now in the hearts and con-
SCiCuCcS VI LTC0 HIGH every Wu6IG. us
conclusions will run with those tides.
All these things have been true from
the very beginning of this stupendous
war; and l cannot help thinking that
if they had been made plain at the
very outset the sympathy and en-
thusiasm of the Russian people might
have been once for all enlisted on the
side of the Allies, suspicion and dis
trust swept away and real and last
ing union of purpose effected.
Russian People Poisoned BY Lies.
Had they believed these things from
the very moment of their revolution,
and had they been confirmed in that
belief since, the sad reverses which
have recently marked the progress of
their affairs towards an ordered and
stable government of free men might
have been avoided. The Russian peo-
pie have been poisoned by the very