Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-08-22
Answers This Peace Lover
Who Lifts His Voice In
Defense Of PrussianisIn
~oFU.D LET DESPERATE
RUN AlNUCK ON WORLD
Pleading For Peace Paci6st
UphOlds Hands Of the One
Militant Nation

Washington, Aug. 22.-The first for
NAL utterance from any member of the
president s cabinet, or other high Off
cial of the government, since the popes
peace proposal was received, came to-
day in a scathing denunciation of peace
movements launched in this country.
secretary Of Commerce Redfield was
the spokesman. lie declared there are
two great opposing ideals in the world
the. ideals Of autocracy and democ-
racy.
Germany, he styled desperate
among nations and declared it was
against her militant autocracy that Am
erica was fighting.
Gin this fearful combat, autocraey
trembles ON the edge Of disaster,'' the
secretary wrote to a member of pac-
fist organization, fand this is the
time you cunningly life your voice in
its behalf. -
The letter was addressed to ]. E.
VanDyke, East Orange, N. j., who
wrote Secretary Redfield asking sup
port of the LaFollette peace resolution
now in the senate.
No American Spirit
In his reply Redfield declared:
~ have received over your sigma
Fture under dute or the 10tn INST wnAr
you are pleased to call an simportant
request for my Favorable considera-
tion on the LaFollette peace resolu-
ton.
"Your communication is extraordi-
nary by reason of what 1t omits. There
is, for example, no reference to the
rape Of Belgium, nor does it show by
direct word or by internal evidence
that you have read the clear and lucid
statement by the president on the cans-
es of the war.
'fThere is no word in your commu-
nication that speaks an American spir-
it. Iou seem interested to assert evil
intention on the part Of the nations
associated with us in the war, and an
equally earnest wish to slur over the
spirit and act on the part of Germany
which brought this war into being.
''Subtly and by indirection, YOU
take such course as would stab your
country in the back, as would tie the
hands of the president and make inef-
fective for righteousness the sacrifices
of our men and our treasure.
A Chaser Of Shadows
''You deal with superficialities and
neglect the substance. You chase shad-
ows and ignore realities. You seem not
to know that there are two great op-
posing ideals in the world, one of which
must 20 down before the other. These
ideals are autoeracy and democracy.
"Autocracy has put its heel on Bel
gium, ON Serbia and on Montenegro
and on Poland, on Rumania, on fair
part Of Frnaee.
: at is skilled and highly trained
autocracy. 1t knows well how to dis
guise its purposes and how to conduct
through weak and willing hands Sc
cret campaign in many lands, including
our own, hiding itself under the guise
of fairness, pleading in the fair name
Of peace, for the purpose of doing its
foul deeds.
q Against this militant autocracy,
whose lust for power led it to begin
this murderous war by deliberate at
tack on nations who sought only quiet,
against this desperate among the ma
tions stand the democracies of the
world; the free people against the peo-
pies that are bound.
Excuses Only Germany
fTn the fearful combat autoeraey
trembIcs on the edge of disaster and
this is the time you cunningly life your
voice in its behalf
"Your country stands today WITH
the free peoples of the world in order
to make it safe for a free people In
this larger cause are bound up many
lesser. though still greater ones.
uThe American people not only abb
hor autocraey, but that which autoe-