The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1917-09-08

purpose; but it is our business to see
to it that the history of the rest of
the world is no longer left to its han
ding.
To deal with such a power by way
of peace upon the plan proposed by
his holiness the pope would, so far as
we can see, involve a recuperation of
its strength and renewal of its pol
icy; would make it necessary to create
permanent hostile combination of
nations against the German people,
who are its instruments, and would re-
suit in abandoning the new born Rus
STA to the intrigue, the manifold sub
tie interference and the certain coun-
ter revolution which would be attempt
ed by all the malign influences to
which the German government has
Of late accustomed the world. Can
peace be based upon restitution of
its power or upon any word of honor
it could pledge in a treaty Of settle
ment and accommodation?
America Desires No ReprisaIs.
Responsible statesmen everywhere
must now see, If they never saw be-
fore, that no peace can rest securely
upon political or economic restrictions
meant to benefit some nations and
cripple or embarrass others, upon vim
dictiVe action of any sort, or any kind
of revenge or deliberate injury. The
American people have suffered intoler-
able wrongs at the hands of the i'm
perial German government, but they
desire no reprisal upon the German
people, who have themselves suffered
all things in this war, which they did
not choose. They believe that peace
should rest upon rights of peoples, not
the rights of governments rights
of peoples great or small, weak or pow
erful-their equal right to freedom and
security and self government and to
a participation upon fair terms in the
economic opportunities of the world
the German people Of course included,
if they will accept equality and not
seek domination.
1.-The test, therefore. of every plan
of peace is this: Is it based upon faith
of all the peoples involved or merely
upon word of an ambitious and in
triguing government, on the one hand,
and Of a group of free peoples on the
other? This is a test which goes to
the root of the matter; and it is the
test which must be applied.
1.-The purposes of the United States
in this war are known to the whole
world-to every people to whom the
truth has been permitted to come.
They do not need to be stated again.
kind. We believe that the intolerable
wrongs done in this war by the furious
and brutal power of the imperial Ger
man government ought to be repaired,
but not at the expense of the sOver-
eighty of any people-rather a vindi-
cation Of the sovereignty both Of
those that are weak and those
that are strong. Punitive dam
ages, the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of empires,
the establishment of selfish and exclu-
sive leagues, we deem inexpedient and
in the end worse than futile, no
proper basis for a peace of any kind,
least of all for an enduring peace. That
must be based upon justice and fair
ness and the common rights of man
kind.
can't accept KalSSTS Woro.
eve cannot take the word of the
present rulers of Germany as a guar
antee of anything that is to endure,
unless explicitly supported by such
conclusive evidence Of the will and
purpose of the German people them
selves as the other peoples of the
world would be justified in accepting.
Without such guarantees, treaties
of settlement, agreements for disarma-
ment, covenants to set up arbitration
in the place of force, territorial adj
justments, re-constitutions of small
nations, if made with the German gov
eminent, no man, no nation could now
depend on.
We must await some new evidence
Of the purposes of the great peoples
Of the Central Powers God grant it
may be given soon and in a way to
restore the confidence of all peoples
everywhere in the faith OF nations and
the possibility of a covenanted peace
ROBERT LANSING,
Secretary of State of the United States
of America