Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1917-04-05

which will give them an opportunity
TO strike and make conquest.
Such designs can be successfully
worked out only under cover and
where no one has the right to ask
questions. Cunningly contrived plans
of deception or aggression. carried, It
may 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 con.
fdences Of a narrow and privileged
class.
They are happily impossible where
public opinion commands and insists
upon full information concerning all
the nations affairs.
Intrigue Eats Vitais Away.
"A steadfast concert for peace can
never be maintained except by part
nership Of democratic nations. No
autocratic government could be trust
ed to keep faith within 1t or observe
Its covenants. 1t must be a league
OF honor. partnership of opinion.
Intrigue would eat its vitals away !:
the plottings of inner circles who
could plan what they would render
account to no one would be a corrup-
ton seated at it's very heart.
only free peoples 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.
Heartened BY Russia.
Does not every American feel that
assurance has been added to our
hopes for the future peace of the
world by the wonderful and hearten.
ing things that have been happening
within the last few weeks In Russia ?
Russia was known by those who knew
1t best to have been always in fact
democratic at heart. In all the vital
habits Of her thought In all the in
innate relationships Of her people
that spoke their natural instincts
their habitual attitude towards life.
THE autocracy that crowned the
summit Of her political structure. long
as II had stood and terrible as was
the reality OF its power. was now In
fact shaken of and the great, gener
Gus Russian people have been added
In all their majesty and might to the
forces that are fighting for freedom
In the world, for justice and for peace
Here is a fit partner for a league OF
honor.
Set lntrigues Afoot.
One Of the things that has served
to convince us that the Prussian au
tocracy was not and could never be
our friend is that from the very out
our unsuspecting communities and
even our Offices Of government with
spies and set criminal intrigues ev
| erywhere afoot against our national
unity Of counsel. our peace within and
| without our industries and our com
merCe.
Spies Here Before War.
Indeed. II is now evident that its
spies were here even before the war
began; and it is unhappily not a mat
| ter Of conjecture, but a fact proved
in our courts Of justice that the in
| trigues which have more than once
come perilously near disturbing the
peace and dislocating the industries
Of the country have been carried or
at the instigation. with the support
and even under the personal direction
Of official agents Of the imperial Ger
man government accredited to the
government of the United States.
| Even In checking these things and
trying to exterpate them We have
sought to put the most generous in
depreciation possible upon them be
cause We knew that their source lay
not in any hostile feeling or purpose
Of the German people toward us twho
Were. no doubt, as ignorant of them as
we ourselves were), but only in the
selfish designs Of a government that
did what it pleased and told its people
nothing.
Played Their Part.
But they have played their part In