The Green Forest tribune., 1917-12-14


 the German empire; no interference with her internal affairs. We should deem either the one or the other ab- Soutely unjustifiable, absolutely con trary to the principles we have pro fessed to live by and to hold most sacred throughout our life as na- 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; 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 it's 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 empire. No one is threaten ing the existence of or the indepen- dence or the peaceful enterprise of tn German empire
 Not Again to Be Trusted.
 "Fhe 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, 1t might be impossible to admit them 10 the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the worlds peace. That partnership must be partnership of peoples, not a 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 a real peace. But there would be no aggression in that :; and such a situation. inevitable be-
  nature of things sooner or later cure itself, by processes which would as suredIy set in.
 Wrongs Must Be Riqhted.
 "The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in this war will have to be righted. That of course But tkey cannot and must not be righted by me 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 selfshneSs 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 sim pie and unsophisTicate standards of right and wrong. fs the air all govern ments must henceforth breathe if they would live. It is irf the full disrl0s- ing light of that thought that all poli- cies must be conceived and executed in this midday hour of tie worlds life.
 People Have No Say.
 r-,,I1,.,. bo,-o hncr oh to4t,ra. set the peace of the world only because the German people were not suffered under their tuteIage to share the com radeship of the other peoples of the world either in thought or in purpose. They were allowed to have n0 opinion of their own which might be set up as d rule of conduct fey those who eXer- ciSed authority over them. But the congress that concludes this war will feel the fuIl strength of the tides that run now in the hearts and conseiences 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 I cannot help think ing that if they had been made plain at the very oTtset the sympathy and enthusiasm of the Russian people might have been once for all 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 rpverses 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 fatsehoods that have kept the German people in the dark, and the poison has been ad- ministered by the very same hands The only possible antfdote 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 be my duty to sneak 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