The Pulaskian., 1917-12-07

| desire to see that their affairs are left in their own hands, in all matters, great or small. We shall hope to secure for l the peoples of the Balkan peninsula and for the people of the Turkish empire | the right and opportunity to make theiI own lives safe, their own fortunes se- cure against oppression or injustice and from the dictation of foreign courts or | Darties And our attitude and purpose with regard to Germany herself are Of a like kind. We intend no wrong against the German empire, no interference with her internal affairs. We should deem either the one or the other absolutely unjustifiabs, absolutely contrary to the principles we have professed to live by and to hold most sacred throughout our life as a nation.
 Fight to Free Germans.
 ''The people of Germany are being told bv the men whom they now permit to deceive them and to act as their masters that they are lighting for the very life and existence of their empire, ( war of desperate self-defense agalnst dehoerate aggression. Nothing could be more gross lY or Wantonly false, and We must seek by the utmost openness and candor as to our real aims to convince them of it's falseneSs. We are, in fact, fighting for their emancl- patton from fear along with our own, from the fear as well as from the fact or unjust attack by neighbofs or rivals or schemers after world empire. No one Is threatening the existence or the Inde- pendence or the peaceful enterprise of the German empire.
 "phe worst that can happen to the detriment of the German people IS thls, that if they should still, after the war Is over. continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and intriguing masters Inter ested 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 0f nations which must hence forh guarantee the worlds peace. That partnership must be partnership Of peoples. no a mere partisanship ot gov ernments. 1t might be impossible also, IL such untoWard circumstances, to admit Germany to the free economic intercourse whiek must inevitably spring out of the other partnerships of real peace. but there would be no aggl ession In that and such situation, inevitable because oI distrust, would Il the very nature of things sooner or later cure itself, by processes which would assurediy set Tn.
 'The wrongs. the very deep wrongs, committed i'll this war will have to pc rirhfaa. That of course. But they cau- not and must not be righted by the com mission of similar wrongs agalnst Ger many and her allies. The world will nos
  as a means of reparation and settlement. Statesmen must by this time have learned that the opinion of the world IS every where wide awake and fully comprehends the issues involved. No representative of any self-goyerned nation will dare dis regard it by attempting any such cove nants of seIfishness and compromise as were entered into at the congress of Ni- enna The thought of the plain people here and everywhere throughout the world, the people who enjoy no priyi- lege and have very simple and unso- phistieated standards of right and wrong, is the air all governments must hence forth breathe if they would live. It is in the full disclosing light of that thought that all policies must be conceived and executed in this midday hour of the worlds lifa.
 Isolation Of Germans.
 "Ge1man 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 other people of the world, either in thought or i'll purpose. They were allowed to have no opinion of their own which might be set up as a rule of conduct for those who exercised author ity 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 free men everywhere. Its conclusions will run those tides.
 'All these things have been true from the very beginning of this stupendous war and 1 cannot help thinking 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 suspision and distrust swept away and real and lasting union of purpose eff fected. Had they believed these things at the very moment of their revolution and had they been confirmed in that be- lief since, the sad reverses which have recently marked the progress of their af- fairs towards an ordered and stable gov ernment of free men might have been avoided. The Russian people have been poisoned by the very same falsehoodx that have kept the German people in the dark and the poison has been administer. ed by the very same hands, The only possible antidote is the truth. It cannot oe uttered too plainly or too often.
 From every point of view, therefore. 1t has seemed to be my duty to speak these declarations of purpose, to add these specific interpretations to which | l took liberty of saying to the Senate
 
 has not altered our attitude towards the settlement that must come when 1t is over. When l said in January that the nations of the world were entitled not only to free pathways upon the seas but also to assured and unmolested access to those pathways, 1 was thinking of and 1 am thinking now, not of the small Ter or weaker nations alone, which need our countenanee and support, but also of the great and powerful nations. ana of our present enemies as well as our present associates in the war. 1 was thinking, and am thinking now, of Aus ! tria herself, among the rest, as well as of Serbia and of Poland. Justice and equal ] lty of rights can be had only at a great price. We are seeking permanent, not temporary foundations for the peace of the world and must seek them candldIy and fearlessly.
 'Austria-Hungary is for time being not her own mistress but simply the vas l sal of the German government. Ne mus face the facts as they are and act upc, them without sentiment in thls stern l business. The government of Austlfl-