The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1917-06-21


the harbor at Constantinople remind
Turkish. statesmen every day that
they have no choice but to take their
orders from Berlin. From Hamburg
to the Persian gulf the net is spread.
rs it not easy to understand the
eagerness for peace that has been
from Berlin ever since the
snares was set and sprung? Peace,
peace, peace has been the talk of her
foreign office for now year and
more; not peace upon her own initia-
tive, but upon the initiative of the ma
tons over which she now deems her
self to hold the advantage. A little
OF the talk has been public. but most
of it has been private. Through all
sorts of channels it has come to me,
and in all sorts of guises, but never |
with the terms disclosed which the |
German government would be will
ing to accept. That government has
other valuable pawns in its hands be-
sides those l have mentioned. 1t will
hold valuable part of France,
though with slowly relaxing grasp,
and practically the whole of Belgium.
Its armies press close upon Russia
and overrun Poland at their will. 1t
cannot go farther; it dare not go
back. 1t wishes to close its bargain
before it is too late and it has little
left to offer for the pound OF flesh
it will demand.
The military masters under whom
Germany is bleeding see very clearly
to what point fate has brought them.
If they fall back or are forced back
an inch their power both abroad and
at home will fall to pieces like a
house of cards. 1t is their power at
home they are thinking about now
more than their power abroad. 1t is
that power which is trembling under
their very feet; and deep fear has en-
tered their hearts. They have but one
chance to perpetuate their military
power or even their controlling polit-
ical influence. If they can secure
peace now with the immense advan-
tages still in their hands which they
have up to this point apparently gam
ed, they will have justified themselves
before the German people: they VIII
have gained by force what they
promised to gain by it; an immense
expansion of German power, an I'M
mense enlargement of German COM
mercial and industrial opportunities.
Their prestige will be secure and with
their prestige their political power.
If they failed their people will thrust
them aside, government accountable
to the people themselves will be set
I'D in Germany as it has been in Eng
land, in the United States, in France
and in all the great countries of the
modern time except Germany. If
they succeed they arc safe and Ger
many and the world are undone; IT
they fail. Germany is saved and the
world will be at peace. If they sue
coed America will fall within the
menace.
I'VE and all the rest OF the world
must remain armed, as they will re-
main, and must make ready for the
next step in their aggression; if they
fail, the world may unite for peace
and Germany may be of the union.
do you not understand the new
intrigue, the intrigue for peace, and
why the masters of Germany do not
hesitate to use any agency that prom
ises to effect their purpose. the deceit
of the nations? Their present partic-
ular aim is to deceive all those who
throughout the world stand for the
rights of peoples and the self govern
ment of nations: for they see what
immense strength the forces of JUS
tice and liberalism are gathering out
of this war. They are employing lib
erals in their enterprise. They are
using men in Germany and without
as their Spokesman whom they have
hitherto despised and oppressed,
using them for their own destruction
Socialists, the leaders of labor, the
thinkers they have hitherto sought
to silence.
| LET them once succeed and the men
now their tools, will be ground to
powder beneath the weight of the
great military empire they will have
set up; the revolutionists of Russia
will be cut off from all succor or CO.
operation in western Europe and a
| counter revolution fostered and sup
ported; Germany herself will lose her
chance of freedom; and all Europe
will arm for the next. the final
struggle.
The sinister intrigue is being no
less actively conducted in this country
than in Russia and in every country in
Europe to which the agents and dupes
of the imperial German government
can get access. That government has
many spokesman here, in places high
| and low. They have learned discre-
ton. They keep within the law. 1t is
opinion they utter now, not sedition.
They proclaim the liberal purposes
a