Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-04-10

same standards of conduct and of re-
sponsibility for wrong done shall be OBJ
served among nations and their gov
ernments that are observed am ug the
individual citizens of civilized states.
No Quarrel With People.
We have no quarrel with the German
people. We have no feeling toward
them but one of sympathy and friend
ship. 1t was not upon their impulse
that their government acted in enter
ing this war. 1t was not with their
previous knowledge or approval.
1t was war determined upon as wars
used to be determined on in the old,
unhappy days when peoples were no.
where consulted by their rulers and
wars were provoked and waged in the
interest of dynasties or of little groups
of ambitious men who were accustomed
to use their fellow-men as paWns and
tools.
Self-governed nations do not fill
their neighbor states with spies or set
the course of intrigue to bring about
some critical posture of affairs which
will give them an opportunity to strike
and make conquest. Such designs can
be successfully worked only under
cover and where no one has the right
to ask questions.
Cunningly contrived plans of decep-
ton and aggression, carried, it may be,
from generation to generation, can be
worked out and kept from the light
only within the privacy of courts or
behind the carefully guarded conf
dences of a narrow and privileged
class. They are happily impossible
where public opinion commands and
insists upon full information concern
ing all the nations affairs.
A steadfast concert for peace can
never be maintained except by part
nership Of democratic nations. No au-
| tocratic government could be trusted to
| keep faith within it or observe its COW
enants. 1t must be league of honor,
partnership of opinion. Intrigue would
eat its vitals away; the plottings
Of inner circles who could plan what
they would and render account to no
one would be corruption seated at
its very door.
Only free peoples can hold their
purpose and their honor steady to a
common end and prefer the interests
of mankind to any narrow interest of
their own.
Does not every American feel that
assurance has been added to our
hope for the future peace of the
world by the wonderful and hearten-
ing things that have been happening
within the last few weeks in Russia
Russia was known by those who knew
it best to have been always in fact
democratic at heart, In all the vital
habits Of her thought, in all the init
mate relationships of her people that
spoke their neutral instinct, their ha-
bitual attitude toward life.
The autocracy that crowned the
summit of her political structure, long
as 1t had stood and terrible as was the
reality of its power, was not in fact
Russian in character, or purpose, and
it now has been shaken off and the
great, generous Russian people have
risen in all their naive majesty and
might to the height of he forces that
are fighting for freedom in the world,
for justice, and for peace. Here is a
fit partner for league of honor.
Intrigued Against National Unity.
Of L 4
to convince us that the Prussian au-
tocracy was not and could never be
our friend is that from the very outset
of the present war it has filled our I'M
suspecting communities and even our
Offices of government with spies and
set criminal intrigues everywhere afoot
against our national unity of counsel,
our peace within and without, our in
dustrieS and our commerce.
Indeed, 1t is now evident that it's
spies were here even before the war
began; and it is unhappily not a mat
ter of conjecture, but a fact proved
in our courts Of justice that the in
trigues which have more than once
come periiOusly near to disturbing the
peace and dislocating the Industries of
the country have been carried on at
the instigation, with the support, and
even under the personal direction of
official agents of the imperial govern.
ment accredited to the government of
the United States.
Even in checking these things and
trying to extirpate them we have
sought to put the most generous in.
depreciation possible upon them, be-
cause we know that their source lay
not In any hostile feeling or purpose OF
the German people toward us (whC
were, no doubt, as ignorant of them as
we ourselves were), but only in the
selfish designs of a government that
did what it pleased and told it's PEG
pie nothing.
Would Act at Convenience.
But they have played their part in
serving to convince US at last that the
government entertains no real friend
ship for us and means to act against
our peace and security at its convent
ence. That it means to stir up enc
mics against us at our very doors thS
intercepted note to the German minis
ter at Mexico City is eloquent evi
dence.
We are accepting this challenge OF
hostile purpose because we know tha
in such q government, following sucf
methods, we can never have a friend
and that In the presence of it's organ
ICED power, always lying in wait to ac
complish we know not what purpose
there can be no assured security fo
the democratic governments of tn,
world.
We are now about TO accept gaug
of battle with this natural foe to Lib
erty and shall, if necessary, expend tn
= whole force of the nation to check an
: nullify its pretensions and its power.
We are glad, now that we see tn
facts with no veil or false nretens