The Monticellonian., 1917-12-14

the German empire; no interference
 with her internal affairs. We should deem either the one or the other ab- selutely uajustifiable. absolutely con trary to the principles we have pro fessed to live by and to hold most sacred throughout our life as q ma ton.
 German People Deceived.
 The people of Germany are being told by the men whom they now per init to deceive them and To act as their masters that they are fighting for the very life and existence of their em- pire; a war of desperate self-defense against deliberate aggression. Nothing could be more grossly or wantonly false. and we must seek by the ut- most 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-ffom the fear as well as from the fact of unjust attack by nPighbors or rivals or schemers after world empire. Nc one is threaten ing the existence of or the indepen- dence or the peaceful enterprise of th German empire.
 Not Again to Be Trusted.
 "The worst that can happen to the German people is this. that if they should still, after the war is over, continue to be obligated to live under ambitious and intriguing masters in tereSted to disturb the peace of the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could not trust, ii might he impossible to admit them 10 the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the worlds peace, That partnership must be partnership of peoples, not mere partnership of governments. It might be impossible. also. in such untoward circumstances, to admit Germany to the free economic intercourse which must inevitably spring out of the other partnerships of real peace. But there would be no aggression in that; and such situation, inevitable be- cause of distrust. would in the very nature of things sooner or later cure itself. by processes which would as suredly set in.
 Wrongs Must Be Rehted.
 "The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in this war will have to be lighted. 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 com mission of similar wrongs as a means of reparation and settlement. States men must by this time have learned that the opinion of the world is every where wide awake and fully compre- hendS the issues involved. No repre- sentative of any self-governed nation will dare disregard it by attempting any such covenants of selfishness and compromise as were entered into at the congress of Vienna. The thought of the plain people here and everywhere the world, the people who enjoy no privilege and have very sim pie and unsophistieated standards of right and wrong is the air all govern ments must henceforth breathe if they would live Ii is Tn the full disel0s- ing light of that thought that all poli cies must he conceived and executed in this midday hour of the worlds life.
 People Have Ho Say.
 German rulers have been able to up set the peace of the world only because ~ SspffpraI under their tutelage to share the com of the other peoples of the world either in thought or iii purpose. They were allowed to have no opinion of their own which might be set up as a rule of conduct fer those who exer- that concludes this war will feel the full strength of the tides that run now in the hearts and consciences of freedom everywhere. It's conclu- Sions will run with these tides.
 "All these things have been true from the very beginning of this stu pendous war; and cannot help think ing that if they had been made plain at the very outset the sympathy and of the Russian people might have been once for ail enlisted on the side of the allies. suspicion and distrust swept away, and real and lasting union of purpose effected. Had they believed these things at the very moment of their revolution and had they been confirmed in that belief since, the sad reverses which have re- gently marked the progress of their affairs towards an ordered and stable government of freemen might have been avoided.
 "The Russian people have been poisoned by the very same falSehoods that have kept the German people in the dark, and the poison has been ad- ministered by the very same hands. The only possible antidote is the truth. It cannot be uttered too plainly or too often.
 Freedom Of the Seas.
 "From every point of view. there fore. it has seemed to he my duty to speak these declarations of purpose. to add these specific interpretations to what took the liberty of saying to the senate in January. Our entrance into the war has not altered our attitude towards the settlement that must come when it is over. When I said in Janu- ary that the nations of the world were entitled not only 10 free pathways up-  Its files at the disposal of the general puh'ic. The direct object in estab fishing the new bureau is to provide