The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-12-04


us. through properly accredited repre-
Isentatives, that they are ready to agree
TO settlement based upon justice and
the reparation of the wrongs their rul.
ers ahve done. They have done a wrong
to Belgium which must be repaired.
Must Turn Loose.
They have established "A power over
other lands and peoples than their
own. over the government and empirc
OF Austria-Hungary, over hitherto Bal.
kan states, over Turkey and within
Asia, which must be relinquished.
"Germany's success by skill. by in.
dustry, by knowledge, by enterprise, we
do not judge or oppose, but admired
rather. She had built up ror herself a
real empire Of trade and influence Sc.
cured by the peace of the world. We
were content to abide the rivalries of
manufacture. science. and commerce
that were involved for us in her sue
cess. and stand or fall as we have or
did not have the brains and the initia-
tive to surpass her. But at the momen;
when she had conspiciously won her
triumphs of peace she threw them away
to establish in their stead what the
world will no longer permit to be es.
tablished, military and political domin-
alton by arms. by which to oust where
she could not excel the rivals she most
feared and hated.
Must Remedy Wrong.
The peace we make must remedy
that wrong. 1t must deliver the once
fair lands and happy peoples of Bel
gium and northern France from the
Prussian conquest and the Prussian
menace, but 1t must also deliver the
peoples of Austria-Hungary, the peo-
Piles of the Balkans and the peoples of
Turkey. alike in Europe and in Asia,
from the impudent and alien domina-
ton of the Prussian military and com
mercial autocracy.
I'VE owe it, however, to ourselves to
say that we do not wish in any way
to impair or to re-arrange the Austria
Hungarian empire. 1t is no affair of
ours what they do with their own life,
industrially or politically. We do not
propose to or desire to dictate to them
in any way. We only desire to see that
their affairs are left In their own hands,
and in all matters. great or small.
I'VE shall hope to secure for the peo-
Piles of the Balkan peninsula and for the
people of the Turkish empire the right
and opportunity TO make their own
lives safe, their own fortunes secure
against oppression or injustice and
from the dictation of foreign courts or
parties.
And our attitude and purpose with
regard to Germany herself are of a
like kind. We intend no wrong against
the German empire, no interference
with her internal affairs. We should
deem either the one or the other alb
solutely unjustifiable, absolutely con-
trary to the principles we have pro-
fessed to live by and to hold most sa.
cred throughout our life as a nation.
German People Deceived.
The German people are being told
by the men whom they now permit to
deceive them and TO act as their mas
ters that they are fighting for the very
life and existence of their empire,
war of desperate self-defense and of
deliberate aggression. Nothing could
be more wantonly false, and we. must
seek by utmost openness and candor as
to cur real aims to convince them of
its falseness. 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 neigh
bors or rivals or schemers after world
empire. No one isl threatening the ex-
istence or the independence or the
peaceful enterprise of the German EN-
pire.
The worst that can happen to the
detriment of the German people in this
that if they should still, after the war
is over. continue to be obliged to live
nder ambitious and intriguing masters
TO disturb the peace of the
world. men or classes of men whom
the other peoples of the world could
not trust, ii might be impossible to ad-
nit them to the partnership of nations
which must henceforth guarantee the
worlds peace. That partnership must
be a partnership of peoples, not a mere
of governments.
1T might be impossible, also. in such
circumstances. TO admit Ger
many to the free economic intercourse
offer but there would be
10 aggression in that; and such a situ-
ition. inevitablebecause 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
lighted. That, of course. but they can
not and must not be righted by the
of similar wrongs against |
Germany and her allies.
The world will not permit the COM |
mission of similar wrongs as a means 4
4 reparation and settlement. States /
men must by this time have learned /
hat the opinion of the world is ev-
rywhere wide awake and fully COM
the issues involved. No rep
esentative of any self-governed nation
will dare disregard IL by attempting
NY such covenants Of selfishness and