The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1917-12-05

herself a real empire of trade and in
fluence, assured by the peace of the
world. We were content to abide the
rivalries of manufacture, science and
that were involved for us
In her and stand or fall as we
had or did not have the brains and
the initiative to surpass her. But at
the moment when she had c%onspicu-
ously won her triumphs of peace she
threw them away to establish in their
stead what the world will no longer
permit to be established-military and
political domination by arms, by
which to Dust where she could not
excel the rivals she most feared and
hated. The peace we make must rem
edy that wrong. It must deliver the
once fair lands and happy peoples of
Belgium and Northern France from
the Prussian conquest and the Prus-
sian menace, but II must also deliver
the peoples OF Austria-Hungary the
peoples OF the Balkans and the peo-
plies of Turkey. alike in Europe and in
Asia. from the impudent and alien
domination of Prussian military and
commercial autocracy.
Not To NEEDLE In Austria.
I'VE owe II, however, to ourselves
to say that we do not wish in any
Austro- Hungarian empire. IL is no ar
fair of ours what they do with their
own life either industrially or polite.
ally. We do not purpose or desire to
dictate to them In any way. We only
desire to see that their affairs are left
great or small. We shall hope to Sc
ure for the peoples of the Balkan
peninsula and for the people of the
Turkish empire the right and oppor-
tunity to make their own lives safe,
their W fortunes secure against op
preston or injustice and from the die
tation OF foreign courts or parties.
And u attitude and purpose with re-
gard 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 n or the other alb
solutely unjustiiable, absolutely con-
trary to the principles we have pro-
fessed to live by and to hold most
sacred throughout our life as a ma.
ton.
Autocrats Misiead Germans.
The people of Germany are being
told by their men whom they now per.
NIT to deceive them and to act as
their masters that they r fighting
for the life and existence of their en-
pire. a war of desperate s~elf-defense
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 fighting for their eman-
cipation 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 threatening the existence or
the independence or the peaceful en-
! terprise of the German empire.
World Partnership After War.
The worst that can happen to the
detrfment OF the German people is this
that IL they should still, after the war,
Is over, continue to be obliged to live
! under ambitious and intriguing mas.
| ters interested to disturb the peace
Of the world, men OF classes OF men
whom the other peoples OF the world
could not trust, II might be impossible
to admit them to the partnership OF
nations which might henceforth guar
antee the worlds peace. That part
nership must be a partnership of peo'
| pies, not a mere partnership of gov.
ernments. II might be impossible, al
so, in such untoward circumstances,
TO admit Germany to the free econom.
lie intercourse which must inevitably
spring put Of the other partnerships
OF a real peace. But there would be
no aggression In that, and such a sit
uation, inevitable because Of distrust,
sooner or later cure itself by process
es which would assuredly set in.
Not to Right Wrong With Wrong.
The wrongs, the very deep wrongs
committed In this wal will have to b.
righted. That OF course. But they can
not and must not be righted by thu
commission of similar wrongs agains
Germany and her allies. The Wort,
will not permit the commission Of sim
liar wrongs as a means of PREPARATION
and settlement. Statesmen must b,
this time have learned that the opin
ion of the world Is everywhere wild,
awake and fully comprehends the is
sues involved. No representative O
any self-governed nation will dare dis
regard it by attempting any such GOV
enants of s~elfishness and ~compromis
as were entered into at the congress
Of Vienna. The thought of the plail
people here and everywhere through
out the world, the people who enjot
no privilege and have very simple an
unsophisticated standards of right an
wrong. is the air of all government
must henceforth breathe II they woul,
live. It Is in the full disclosing ligh