Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1917-12-12
the German empire; no interference
with her Internal affairs
German People Deceived.


masters that they are fighting for the
very life and existence of their en-
| pire; a war of desperate self-defense
against deliberate aggression. Nothing
could be more grossly or .wantonly
| false, and we must seek by the ut
most openness and candor as to our
/. real aims to convince them of its false
ness. We are in fact fighting for their
emancipation from fear along with
our own-from the fear as well as
from the fact of unjust attack by
neighbors or rivals or schemers after
world empire. No one is threaten
ing the existence of or the indepen-
| dence or the peaceful enterprise of
tn German empire.
Not Again to Be Trusted.
1.-THE worst that can happen to the
| German people is this, that if they
should still, after the war is over,
continue to be obligated to live under
ambitious and intriguing masters in
terested to disturb the peace of the
world, men or classes of men whom the
other peoples of the world could not
trust it might be impossible to admit
them TO the partnership of nations
which must henceforth guarantee the
worlds peace. That partnership must
be partnership of peoples, not mere
partnership of governments. 1t might
be impossible, also, in such untoward
circumstances, to admit Germany to
the free economic intercourse which
must inevitably spring out of the other
partnerships of real peace. But
there would be no aggression in that;
and such a situation, inevitable be-
cause of distrust, would in the very
nature of things sooner or later cure
itself, by processes which would as
suredly set in.
1.-THE wrongs, the very deep wrongs,
committed in this war will have to be
] righted. That of course. But they
cannot and must not be righted by the
commission of similar wrongs against
Germany and her allies.
1.-The world will not permit the COM
| mission of similar wrongs as means
| of reparation and settlement.
People Have No Say.
German rulers have been able to up
set the peace Of the world only because
the German people were not suffered
under their tutelage to share the COM
radeship of the other peoples of the
| world either in thought or in purpose.
| They were allowed to have no opinion
| of their own which might be set up as
a rule of conduct for those who eXer-
| cised authority over them. But the
| congress that concludes this war will
| feel the full strength of the tides that
run now in the hearts and consciences
| of freedom everywhere. It's conclu-
sions will run with these tides.
"Ail these things have been true
from the very beginning of this stu
pendous war; and I cannot help think
ing that if they had been made plain
at the very outset the sympathy and
| enthusiasm of the Russian people
might have been once for all enlisted
on the side of the allies, suspicion and
distrust swept away, and real and
lasting union of purpose effected.
"The Russian people have been
poisoned by the very same falsehoods
that have kept the German people in
the dark, and the poison has been adj
mfnistered by the very same hands.
The only possible antidote is the truth.
It cannot be uttered too plainly or too
often.
From every point of view, there
fore, it has seemed to be my duty to
speak these declarations of purpose, to
add these specific interpretations to
what took the liberty of saying to the
senate in January. Our entrance into
the war has not altered our attitude
towards the settlement that must come
when it is over.
Declare War on Austria.
"What shall we do, then, to push
this great war of freedom and just to
it's righteous conclusion? We must
clear away with a thorough hand all
impediments to success and we must
make every adjustment of law that
will facilitate the full and free use of
our wholeN capacity and force as a
fighting unit.
Zone very embaffassing obstacle
at war with Germany but not with her
allies. l. therefore, very earnestly rec
ommend that the congress Immediately
declare the United States in a state of
war with Austria-Hungary. Does it
seem strange to you that this should
be the conclusion of the argument l
have just addressed to you? 1t is not.
1t is in fact the inevitable logic of
what I have said. Austria-Hungary is
for the time being not her own mis-
tress, but simply the vassal of the
German government. We must face
the facts as they are and act upon
them without sentiment in this stern
business. The government of Austria
Hungary is not acting upon its own
initiative or in response to the wishes
and feelings of its own peoples, but as
the instrument of another nation. We