The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-06-14

and pawn as Serbia or Bulgaria or Turkey oil
the ponderous states. Of the East. AUSTRIA
central German empire. absorbed and domi.
mated by the same forces and influences that
had originally cemented the German states
themselves. The dream had its heart at Ber,
lin. IL could have had heart nowhere else
1t rejected the idea Of solidarity race en-.
tirely The choice of peoples played no part
IN II at all. II contemplated binding together
racial and political units which could be kept
together only by force--Czechs, Magyars Gro
| ats. Serbs, Roumanians. Turks, Armenians, -
| the proud states of Bohemia and Hungary, the
stout little commonwealths Of the Balkans.
| the indomitable Turks the subtle peoples of
| the East. These peoples did not wish to be
united They ardently desired to direct their
| own affairs, would be satisfied only by undis-
puted Independence. They could be kept quiet
only by the presence or the constant threat OF
armed men. They would live under common
| power only by sheer compulson and await the
day of revolution. But the German military
statesmen had reckoned with all that and were
ready to deal with it in their own way.
| And they have actually carried the greater
part of that amazing plan into execution.
] Look how things stand. Austria is at their
mercy. 1t has acted, not upon its own initia-
| tive or upon the choice of its own people, but
| at Berlin's dictation ever since the war began.
Its people now desire peace, but cannot have
| 1t until leave is granted from Berlin. The So
| called central powers in fact but single
power. Serbia is at its mercy, should its
hands be but for moment freed. Bulgaria
mas consented 10 itS Will, anu fAouiHduld 10
| oyerrun. The Turkish armies, which Germans
trained, are serving Germany, certainly not
themselves, and the guns of German warships
lying in the harbor at Constantinope remind
Turkish statesmen every day that they have no
choice but to take their orders from Berlin.
From Hamburg TO the Persian gulf the net is
spread.
"Is it not easy to understand the eagerness
for peace that has been manifested from Berlin
ever since the set and sprungY
Peace. peace, peace has been the talk OF her
peace upon her own initiative. but upon the
initiative of the nations over which she now
deems herself to hold the advantage. A little
OF the talk has been made public, but most OF
it has been private. Through all sorts of
channels it has come to me. and in all sorts
of guises, but never with the terms disclosed
which the German government would be will
ing to accept. That government has other
valuable pawns in its hands besides those
have mentioned 1t still holds valuable part
of France, though with slowly relaxing grasp,
and practically the whole of Belgium. It's
armies press close upon Russia and oyerrun
Poland at their will. 1t cannot go further; it
dare not go back. II wishes to close its bar
gain before 1t is too late and ii has little left
to offer for the pound of flesh it win demand.
The military masters under whom Germany
is bleeding see very clearly to what point fate
has brought them. If they fall back or are
forced back an inch. their power both abroad
and at home will fall to pieces like house of
cards. 1t is their power at home they are
thinking about now than their power
abroad 1t Is that power which is trembling
under their very feet; and deep fear has en-
tered their hearts. They have but one chance
to perpetuate their military power even
their controlling political influence II they
can secure peace now with the immense ad-
vantages still in their hands which they have
up to this point apparently gained, they will
have gained by force what they promised to |
gain by il an immense expansion of German
power, immense enlargement of German in |
dustrial and commercial opportunities. Their
prestige will be secure, and with their prestige !
their political power If they fail, their peo- |
pie will thrust them aside government ac- |
eountable TO the people will be set up in Ger |
many. it has been in England, in the I
United States in France, and in all the great |
countries of the modern time except Germany. |
II they succeed they are safe and Germany /
and the world undone; if they fail Ger |
many Is saved and the world will be at peace. |
If they succeed, America will fall within the I
menace. We and all the rest of the world |
must remain armed. they viii remain and
must make ready for the next step in their |
aggression IL they Fail the world may unite /
for peace and Germany may be of the union. I
Do you not understand the in +
trigue the intrigue for peace, and why the /
masters of Germany do not hesitate to any
agency that promises to effect their purpose, /
the deceit of the nations Their present par
tcular aim is to deceive all those who /
throughout the world stand for the rights of /
peoples and the self-government of nations !;
for they see what immense strength the forces |
of Justice and Of liberalism are gathering out
Of this They employing liberals in
their enterprise. They are using men, in Ger
many and without, their spokesmen whom
they have hitherto despised and oppressed. us
ing them for their destruction, Social
ists, the leaders of labor, 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 Russia will be cut off
from all succor cooperation in western
Europe and counter revolution fostered and
supported Germany herself will lose her
chance of freedom; and all Europe will arm
for the next the final struggle
The sinister intrigue is being no less sc-
lively conducted in this country than in Rus
'ia and in every country in Europe to which
he agents and dupes of the imperial German
government can get access. That government
las many spokesmen here, in places high and
ow II is opinion they utter now. not sedi-
ion. They proclaim the liberal purposes of
heir masters declare this a foreign which
an touch America with no danger to either
ands her institutions set England at the ,
enter of the stage and talk of her ambition TO
lssert economic dominion throughout the |
world appeal to our ancient tradition of $50 1
alton in the politics of the nations and seek I
o undermine the government with false pro-
essions Of loyalty to its principles I
But they will make no headway. The false z
'etray themselves always in every accent 1t
$ only friends and partisans of the German G
government whom we have already identified y
gho utter these thinly disguised dsloyalties. ,
The facts are patent TO all the world, and no
United States, where we are accustomed to u
eal with facts and not with sophistries and I,
he great fact that stands out above all the
est is that this is peoples war, for I
reedom and justice and sef-government [
mongst all the nations of the world, war
0 make the world safe for the peoples who live
pom it and have made il their own, the Ger Il
lan people themselves included and that with 7
$ rests the choice to break through all these
ypocrisies and patent cheats and masks of :
rute force and help set the world free, or
lse stand aside and let il be dominated long !,
ge through by sheer weight of arms and the z
rbitrary choices of self-constituted masters. :
y the nation which can maintain the biggest D
rmies andsthe most irresistible armaments,-
power to which the world has afforded no
arallel and in the face of which political II
reedom must wither and perish. +
"For us. there is but one choice. We have .
lade it. Woe be to the or group Of men I
lat seeks to stand in way in this day of :
igh resolution. when every principle hold
earest is 10 be vindieated and made secure for
le salvation of the nations. We ready 10 .
lead at the bar of history. and our flag shall s.
ear a new luster Once more shall make :,
ood with our lives and fortunes the great -
nth to which were born. and glory L
lall shine in the face Of our people" ip
BARRE WOMAN SUES. Il