The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-01

stitution, could possibly submit to out
, side dictation in respect to their own
affairs.
Here is where President wilson's
answer to the pope will provoke the
deepest, the most vital, the absolutely
=, unanimous resistance of the German
people.
The German people will not have
liberty licked into them. They will
not have freedom forced upon them.
When they want more freedom,
when they demand more liberty, they
will get it for themselves. They will
not accept it at the hands of dictation
from abroad.
knowledge that they will not be in
stantly acccpta BILE to American
thought l write them, nevertheless,
because they truthfully mirror. Ger
man opinion. 1t would be a mistake.
it would be a crime, to allow the peo-
pie of the United States to believe
the people OF Germany are ready to
abandon their system of government
unhappy as it may be) in favor of
any system dictated from another
hemisphere. The absolute fact is the1
won't do it. They declare that nc
people are worthy of freedom which
they have to obtain at the mouth of
enemy guns.
AS a gentleman very high in Ger
man politics said to me a few weeks
ago:
We Germans earnestly desire more
political freedom, but we are abso-
lutely resolved to win it for ourselves.
You Americans cannot give it to us.
We should not be worthy of it if we.
accepted it at your hands Do not be
surprised if we subject your proffers
of help, if we decline to receive
Greeks bearing gifts
Retard German Progress.
put down, in pursuance of my
obligations as an American reporter
familiar with German sentiment, to
record for the benefit of citizens of
my own country my convictions re-
specting the sentiment in Germany
that the effect of the presidents reply
to the pope will be to unity. to solidify,
to put beyond question or cavil the
policies of the imperial government.
and to strengthen its arm. Mr.. Will
sons declaration Off my judgment of
the German spirit is correct, and 1
think it isl will render futile such
enterprises as were in Germany under
way to bring about a more demo-
cratic constitution, will place in the
hands of the imperial govern
ment a bludgeon of inestimable
value for it's own purposes; will close
and seal up all channels of public
speech critical of the actual govern
ment; and will unity, solidify and i'm
pregnate the nation with unanimous
resist the world until the armament of
the heavens falls.
Are Americans ignorant of the fact
that the people of Germany believe
themselves surrounded by a league of
enemies bent upon crushing them?
You may discuss until your lungs
are exhausted the academic question
of the origin of the war, but every
man, woman and child in central
Europe believes, as he believes in the
creed which his father taught him of
the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, that
the Teutonic lands are the victims of
a conspiracy which seeks to wipe them
off the map.
Call it wrong, describe it as a delu
sion; ascribe it to the ignorance of
the people, nevertheless the fact re-
mains, the conviction remains and is
the moral motive which animates and
which beyond all doubt will continue
to animate the German people that
they are the victims of a conspiracy
of enemies.
An American can we'll understand
the indignation which animated the
president in his impeachment of Ger
man internal politics. But no Ger
man within the boundaries of the
empire will read Mr.. Wilson's pro
nunciamento in the sense in which it
is understood among US.