The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-06-16

cannot go further; it dare not go back
1t wishes to close it's bargain before II
is too late and it has little to offer fol-
the pound of flesh it will demand.
1.-The military masters under whom
Germany is bleeding see very clearly
to what point fate has brought them
II they fall back or are forced back
an inch, their power both abroad and
at home will fall to pieces like house
of cards. It is their power at home
they are thinking about now. more
than their power abroad. 1t is that
power which is trembling under their
very feet; and deep fear has entered
their hearts. They have but one
chance to perpetuate their military
power or even their controlling politl-
cal influence. If they can secure
peace now with the immense advan-
tages still in their hands which they
have up to this point apparently gain
ed then they will have justified them
selves before the German people.
/. If they fail, their people
will thrust them aside; government
accountable to the people themselves
will be set UP in Germany as it is in
England, In the United States. in
Fra nee and in all the great countries
g. the modern time except Germany.
If they succeed they are safe and Ger
many and the world are undone; IL
they fail, Germany is saved and the
world will be at peace. If they sue
ceed, America will fall within the
menace. We and all the rest of the
world must remain armed, as they
will remain, and must make ready for
the next step in their aggression; if
they fail. the world may unite for
peace and Germany may be of the un-
ion.
"Do you not now understand the
new intrigue, intrigue for peace; and
why the masters of Germany do not
hesitate to use any agency that prom
ises to effect their purpose, the deceit
of the nations? Their present partic-
ular aim is to deceive all those who
throughout the world, stand for the
rights of peoples and the self-govern-
ment of nations; for they see what
immense strength the forces of JUS
tice and of liberalism are gathering
out of this war. They are employing
liberals in their enterprise. They are
using men, in Germany and without,
as their spokesmen whom they have
despised and oppressed. using
them for their own destruction-So-
cialists, the leaders Of labour, the
thinkers they have hitherto sought to
silence. Let them once succeed and
these men, now their tools, will be
ground to powder beneath the weight
of the great military empire they will
have set up; the revolutionists In Rus
sia will be cut off from all succor or
in western Europe and a
revolution fostered and sup
ported; Germany herself will lose her
oil
will arm for the next, the final strug-
gle.
1.-THE sinister intrigue Is being no
less actively conducted in this country
than in Russia and in every country
in Europe there to which the agents
and dupes of the imperial German
can get access. That gov
ernment has many spokesmen here, in
places high and low. They have learn
ed discretion. They keep within the
law. 1t is opinion they utter now
not sedition. They proclaim the lib
eral purposes of their masters; declare
this is a foreign war which can touch
America with no danger to either her
lands or her institutions; set England
at the centre cf the stage and talk of
her ambition to assert economic do
minion throughout the world; appeal
to our ancient tradition of isolation In
the politics of the nations; and seek to
undermine the government with false
professions Of loyalty to its principles.
"But they will make no headway'
The false bertay themselves always III
every accent 1t is only friends and
partisans Of the German government
whom we have already identified who
utter these thinly disguised disloyal-
ties. The facts are patent to all the
world, and nowhere are they more
plainly seen than in the United States,
where we are accustomed to deal with
facts and not with sophistries ana