Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1917-12-04

" soy SudL We 40 DOt WISH III any :
way to impair or to rearrange the |
Austro-HHngarian empire It is no /
affair of ours what they do with their /,
own life, either industrially or politi- /
cally. We only desire TO see that !
their affairs are left in their own |
hands, in all matters, great or small. |
We 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 I
own lives safe, their own fortunes Sc |
cure against oppression or injustice
and from the dictatiou of foreign !
courts or parties. And our attitude
and purpose with regard to Germany
herself are Of a like kind We in
tend no wrong against the German
empire, no interference with her in
ternal affairs. We should deem eth
er the one or the other absolutely un
iustifable, absolutely contrary to the
principles we have professed to live
by and TO hold most sacred through
out our life as a nation.
German People Deceived.
1.-THE people Of Germany are being
told by the men whom they now per-
NIT to deceive them and to act as
their masters that they are fighting
for the very life and existence Of their
empire, a war Of desperate self-de-
tense against deliberate aggression.
Nothing could be more grossly or
wantOnly false, and we must seek by
the utmost openness and candor as
to our real aims to convince them OF
its falseness. We are, in fact, fight
ing for their emancipation from fear,
along with our own, from the fear
as we'll as from the fact OF unjust
attack by neighbors or rivals or
neighbors or rivals or schemers after
world empire. No one is threatening
| the existence of the independence of
! the peaceful enterprise Of the German
empire.
'The worst that can happen to the
detriment of the German people Is
this: That if they should still, after
( the war is over. continue to be obliged
to live under ambitious and intriguing
masters interested to disturb the
| peace of the world, men or classes OF
men whom the other peoples Of the
world could not trust, it might be i'm
possible to admit them to the part
nership of nations which must hence
forth guarantee the worlds peace.
| That partnership must be q partner
ship of peoples, not a mere partner
ship of governments. 1t might be i'm
possible, also in such untoward cir
cumstances, to admit Germany to the
free economic intercourse which must
4. L. rr44 ~ In ~ h or
partnerships Of a real peace. But
there would be no aggression in that;
and such a 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.
Must Right Wrongs.
1.-THE wrongs, the very deep wrongs,
committed in this war, will have to
be righted. But they cannot and must
not be righted by the commission of
similar wrongs against Germany and
her allies. The world will not per
nit the commission of similar wrongs
as a means Of reparation and settle
ment. No representative OF any self
governed nation will dare disregard
il by attempting any such covenants
of selfishness and comprise as we're
entered into at the congress Of VI
emma. The thought of the plain peo-
; ple here and everywhere throughout
the world, the people who enjoy no
privilege and have very simple and
unsophisticated standards of right and
wrong, is the air all governments
must henceforth breathe If they would
live. German rulers have been able
to upset the peace of the world only
because the German people we're not
suffered under their tutelage to share
the comradeship of the other peoples Of
the world, either In thought or IN pur-
? pose. But the congress that con
: cludes this war will feel the full
strength of the tides that run now II
= the hearts and consciences OF free
Q men everywhere It's conclusion viii
, run with those tides.
"AlI these things have been true
t from the very beginning of this stu
{ pendous war; and cannot hell
S thinking that if they had been made
e nlain at the very outset the synlpath!
g and enthusiasm of the Russian PEG
e nile might have been once for al
4 enlisted on the side of the al
e lies. suspicion and distruct sweep
/. away and real and lasting
n union Of purpose effected. Had the,
: believed these things at the very mo
e ment of their revolution, and had the.
been confirmed in that belief since
the sad reverses which have recent
marked the progress of their affair
! toward an ordered and stable govern
' ment OF free men might have beel
, avoided. The Russian people hav
: been poisoned by the very same false
= hoods that have kept the German PEG
1 ME in the dark and the poison ha
u haen administered by the very sam
hands. The only possible antidote j
y the truth. 1t cannot be uttered to
y Mainly or too often.
n Attitude Not Altered.
= "Fsrom every point OF view, there
y fore. ii has seemed to be my duty t
:. sneak these declarations of purpose
"a To add these specific interpretations t
\ what l took the liberty of saying I
% the senate In January. Our entranc
~ into the war has not altered our att
= .ude towards the settlement that mus
! come when 1t is over. When said !
A January that the nations OF the worl
- we're entitled not only to free path
= ways upon the sea, but also to assure
" and unmolested access 10 those pafI