The Benson signal., 1917-06-23

tions as peoples, men, women, and
children of like blood and frame as
themselves, for whom governments eZ-
listed and in whom governments had
their life. They have regarded them
merely as serviceable organizations
which they could by force or intrigue
bend or corrupt to their own purpose.
They have regarded the smaller states,
in particular, and the peoples who
could be overwhelmed by force, as
their natural tools and instruments of
domination. Their purpose has long
been avowed.
Military Masters Dominate Germany.
Their plan was to throw broad belt
of German military power and political
control across the very center of Eu-
rope and beyond the Mediterranean in
to the heart of Asia and Austria-Hun-
gary was to be as much their tool and
pawn as Serbia or Bulgaria or Turkey
or the pOnderOus states of the East.
The dream had it's heart at Berlin. 1t
could have had a heart nowhere else
1t rejected the idea Of solidarity of
race entirely. The choice Of peoples
played no part in it at all. They ar
IDENTIFY desired to direct their own af-
fairs, would be satisfied only by undis
puted independence. They could be
kept quiet only by the presence or the
constant threat of armed men. The
German military statesmen had reck-
oned with all that and were ready to
deal with it in their own way.
DecetfuI Cry for Peace.
Is it not easy to understand the eag-
erness for peace that has been mani
tested from Berlin ever since the snare
was set and sprung? Peace, peace,
peace has been the talk of her foreign
office for now a year and more; not
peace upon her own initiative, but up
on the initiative of the nations over
which she now deems herself to hold
the advantage. 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 gov
ernment would be willing to accept
part Of France, though with slowly re-
laxing grasp, and practically the whole
of Belgium. 1t cannot go further; it
dare not go back. 1t wishes to close
it's bargain before it is too late
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 a
house Of cards. If they can Sc
cure peace now with the immense ad-
vantages still in their hands which
they have up to this point apparently
gained, they will have justified them
selves before the German people; they
will have gained by force what they
promised to gain by it: an immense
expansion Of German power, an i'm
mense enlargement of German indus
trial and commercial opportunities. If
they fail, their people will thrust them
aside; a government accountable to
the people themselves will be set up
in Germany as it has been in England,
in the United States, in France, and
in all the great countries Of the mod
ern time except Germany. If they sue
ceed they are safe and Germany and
the world are undone; If they fail Ger
many is saved and the world will be at
peace. IF they succeed, we and all
the rest Of the world must remain
armed, as they will remain, and must
make ready for the next step of ag-
gression; if they fail, the world may
unite for peace, and Germany may be
of the union.
Practiced Campaign of Deceit.
The present particular aim Of the
masters of Germany 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 war.
The sinister intrigue is being no less
actively conducted in this cou1try than
in Russia and in every country In Eu-
IOpC W WUlC1l CAlC O6OhCo SAAN NOPNo VI
the imperial German government can
get access.
Is a Peoples War.
The great fact that stands out above
all the rest is that this is Peoples
war, a war for freedom and justice and
self-government amongst all the ma
tions of the world, war to make the
world safe for the peoples who live in
it and have made it their own, the
German people themselves included
and that with us rests the choice to
break through all these hypocrisies and
patent cheats and masks of brute force
and help set the world free, or else
stand aside and let it be dominated a
long age through by sheer weight Of
arms and the arbitrary choices of self
constituted masters, by the nation
which can maintain the biggest armies
and the most irresistible ornaments
q power to which the world has af-
forded no parallel and in the face of
which political freedom must wither
and perish,