Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1917-12-06
To Give All To Win Wa.

psft Ti yictDFs.
To Give All To Win Wa.
I<a there be no misunderstanding
Our present and immediate task Is TO
win the war and nothing shall turn us
aside from II until 1t Is accomplished.
Every power and resource we possess
whether OF men, OF money or OF mate
rails, Is being devoted and will con-
tinue to be devoted to that purpose
Until II Is achieved. Those who desire
10 bring peace about before that pur-
pose is achieved counsel to carry
their advice elsewhere. We will not
entertain 1t. We shall regard the war
as won only when the German people
say to us. through properly accredited
representatives, that they are ready to
agree to settlement based upon Jus
tfce and the reparation of the wrongs
their rulers have done. They have
done wrong to Belgium which must
be repaired. They have established a
power over other lands and peoples
than their Own-over the great en-
pire OF Australia Hungary, over hitherto
free Balkan states, over Turkey and
within Asia-which must be relin.
pushed.
German Industry Admired.
"Germany's success by skill. by in
dustry, by knowledge, by enterprise
we did not grudge or oppose. but ad.
mired rather. She had built up for
herself real empire of trade and in.
huence. assured by the peace Of the
world. We were content to abide the
rivalries Of manufacture, science and
commerce that were involved for us
In her success and stand or fall as we
had or did not have the brains and
the initiative to surpass her. But at
the moment when she had conspicu-
ously won her triumphs Of peace she
threw them away to establish in their
stead what the world will no longer
permit to be establfshe military and
political domination by arms, by
which to GUST where she could not
excel the rivals she most feared and
hated. The peace we make must rem
edy that wrong. It must deliver the
once fair lands and happy peoples of
Belgium and Northern France from
the Prussian conquest and the Prus-
sian menace, but 1t must also deliver
the peoples Of Austria Hungary, the
peoples of the BALKANS and the peo
pies Of Turkey. alike in Europe and in
Asia. from the impudent and alien
domination of Prussian military and
commercial autocracy.
Not To NEEDLE In, Austria.
I'VE owe 1t, however, to ourselves
to say that we do not wish in any
way to impair or to rearrange the
Austro- Hungari~, empire. It is no af.
fair Of ours what they do with their
own life either industrially or polite
ally We do not purpose or desire to
dictate to them In any way. We only
desire to see that their affairs are left
In their own hands. In all matters.
great or small. We shall hope to Sc
cure for the peoples Of the Balkan
peninsula and for the people of the
Turkish empire the right and oppor-
tunity to make their own lives safe.
their own fortunes secure against op
preston or injustice and from the die
tation of foreign courts or parties
And our attitude and purpose with re.
gard to Germany herself are Of 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 alb.
solutely unjnstifiable. absolutely con-
trary to the principles we have pro.
fessed to live by and to hold most
sacred throughout our life as a ma,
ton.
Autocrats MisIead cermans.
The people IT Germany are being
told by their men whom they now per.
NIT to deceive them and to act as
their masters that they are fighting
for the life and existence Of their EN-.
pire. q war of desperate self-defense
against deliberate aggression. Nothing
could be more gro. .ly or wantonly
false and We must seek by the utmost
openness and candor ~ to our real
aims to convince them Of its falseness.
We are in fact fighting for their eman.
cipation from fear. along with our own
from the fear AZ well as from the fact
of unjust attack by neighbors or rivals
or schemers after world empire. No
one Is threatening the existence OF
the independence or the peaceful en-.
terprise OF the German empire.
World Partnsrship After War.
The worst that can happen to the
detriment Of the German people is this
that IL they should still, after the war,
is over. continue to be Obliged to live
under ambitious and intriguing mas.
tiers interested to disturb the peace
OF the world. men or classes OF men
whom the other peoples of the world
could not trust. II might be impossible
to admit them to the partnership OF
nations which might henceforth guar.
antee the worlds peace. That part.
nership must be a partnership OF peo
pies, not q mere partnership Of gov.
ernments. II might be impossible, al.
so, in such untoward circumstances,
to admit Germany to the free econom.
ic intercourse which must inevitably
spring out of the other partnerships
Of a real peace. But there would be
H. - IA