Mohave County miner., 1917-12-08

! is won. But it is worth while asking and answering the question:: When shall we consider the war won?
 Prom one point of view it is not necessary to broach this fundamental matter. 1 do not doubt that the Amer ican people know what the war is about and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization of their purpose in it. As a nation we are united in spirit and intention. l pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise.
 q hear the voices of dissent-who does not? I hear the criticism and the clamor of the noisily thoughtless and troublesome.
 q also sed men here and there fling themselves in impotent disloy- alty against the calm, indomitable power of the nation. I hear men de- bate peace who understand neither its nature nor the way in which we may attain it, with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits. But I know that none of these speak for the nation. They do not touch the heart or any thing. They may safely be left to strut their uneasy hour and be for gotten.
 But from another point of view believe it is necessary to say plainly that we here at the seat of action consider the war to be for and what part we mean to play in the settle ment of its searching issues. We are the spokesmen of the American peo- ! pie, and they have a right to know whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the overcoming of evil, by the defeat once for all of the sinis- ter forces that interrupt peace and render it impossible, and they wish to know how closely our thought runs with theirs and what action we pro- pose.
 "They are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort of compro- mistakenly and indignantly impa- tient-but they will be equally impa- tient with us if we do not make it plain to them what our objectives are and what we are planning for in seek ing to make conquest of peace by arms.
 'I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, that this intolerable thing of which the masters of Germany have shown us the ugly face, this menace of com bined intrigue and force which we now see so clearly as the German power, a thing without conscience or honor of capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed, and if it be not utterly brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly intercourse of the nations; and, second, that when this thing and its power are indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discuss peace-wheI the German people have spokesmen whose word we can believe and when those spokesmen are ready in the name of their people to accept the common judgment of the nations as to what shall henceforth be the bases of law and of covenant for the life of the world-we shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace and pay it ungrudgingly.
 We know what the price of peace will be. It will be full, impartial jus tice-justice done at every point and tq every nation-the final settlement must affect, our enemies as well as our friends.
 You catch, with me, the voices of humanity that are in the air. They grow daily more audible, more artic- ulate, more persuasive, and they come from the hearts of men everywhere. They insist that the war shall not end in vindictive action of any kind; that no nation or people shall be robbed or punished because the ir- responsible rulers of a single coun- try have themselves done deep and abominable wrong. It is this thought that has been expressed in the formula, No annexations, no contri- buttons, no punitive indemnities.'
 Just 7 because this crude formula expresses the instinctive judgment as to right of plain men everywhere it has been made diligent use of by the masters of German intrigue to lead the people of Russia astray-and the people of every other country their agents could reach, in order that a premature peace might be brought about before autocracy has been taught it's final and convincing les son and the people of the world put in control of their own 5estinies.
 But the fact that a wrong use has been made of a just idea is no reason why right use should not be made of it. It ought to be brought un- der the patronage of it's real friends. Let 1t be said again that autocracy must first be shown the utter futility of its claims to power or leadership in the modern world.