The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1917-04-12

chesterfield, s. q.
Office ir Peoples Bank Bulldips
which the responsibility of conduct
ing the war and safeguarding the
nations will most directly fall.
while we do these things, these
deeply momentous things, let us be
very clear and make very clear to all
the world what our motives and our
objects are. My own thought has not
been driven from it's habitual and nor
NAL course by the unhappy events
of the last two months, and do not
believe that the thought of the Ma
tion has been altered or clouded bv
them.
II have exactly the same things in
mind now that had in mind when |
addressed the Senate on the 22nd of
January, last; the same that had in
mind when l addressed the Congress
on the 3rd of February and on the
26th of February. Our object now,
as then, is to vindicate the principles
of peace and justice in the life of the
world as against selfish and auto
cratic power and to get up amongst
the really free and self governed peo-
pies of the world such a concert of
purpose and action as will henceforth
ensure the observance of those prin-
ciples.
Neutrality Not Feasible.
Neutrality is no longer feasible or
desirable where the peace of the
world is involved and the freedom of
its peoples and the menace to that
peace and freedom lies in the exist
ence of autocratic Governments back
ed by organized force which is con-
trolled wholly by their will, not by the
Will of their people. We have seen
the last of neutrality in such circum-
stances
I'VE are at the beginning of an age
IN which it will be insisted that the
same standards of conduct and of re-
sponsibility for wrong done shall be
observed among Nations and their
governments that are observed among
the individual citizens of civilized
states
I'VE have no quarrel with the Ger
man people. We have no feeling to-
wards them but one of sympathy and
friendship. 1t was not upon their i'm
pulse that their government acted in
entering this war. 1t was not with
their previous knowledge or approval.
1t was war determined upon as
was used to be determined upon in
the old, unhappy days when people
were nowhere consulted by their rul-
ers and wars were provoked and wag
ed in the interest of dynasties or of
little groups of ambitious men, who
were accustomed to use their fellow
men as pawns and tools.
"Self-governed nations do not fill
their neighbor states with spies or set
the course of intrigue to bring about
some critical posture of affairs which
will give them an opportunity to
strike and make conquest. Such de-
signs can be successfully worked onlv
under cover and where no one has the
right to ask questions
"Cunningly contrived plans of de-
ception or aggression, carried, it NAV
be, from generation to generation
can be worked out and kept from the
light only within the privacy of courts
or behind the carefully guarded conf
dences of narrow and privileged
class. They are happily impossible
where public opinion commands and
insists upon full information concern
ing all the nations affairs.
League OF Democraeies.
"A steadfast concert for peace can
never be maintained except by a part
nership of democratic nations. No
autocratic government could be trust
ed to keep faith within it or observe
It's covenants. 1t must be league of
honor, partnership Of opinion. In
trigue would eat its vitals away; the
plottings of inner circles who could
plan what they would and render ac-
count to no one would be n corruption
seat at its very heart. Only free peo
pies can hold their purpose and their
honor steady to a common end and
prefer the interests of mankind to any
narrow interest of their own.
docs not every American (. u that
assurance has been added to our hope
Tor future peace of TIE world by
the wonderful and hearteniny
things that have been happening
within the last few weeks in Russia :?
Russia was known by those who knew
it best to have been always in fact
democratic at heart, in all the vital
habits of her thought, in all the inti-
mate relationships of her people that
spoke their natural instinct, their hab-
itual attitude towards life.
"The autocracy that crowned the
summit Of her political structure. long
'as II bad stood and terrible a wns