The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1917-12-14

| the German empire; no interference
with her internal affairs. We should
deem either the one or the other alb
| solutely unjustifiable, absolutely con-
trary to the principles we have pro-
fessed to live by and to hold most
sacred throughout our life as ma
! ton.
German People Deceived.
1.-THE people of Germany are being
told by the men whom they now per-
nit to deceive them and to act as their
masters that they are fighting for the
very life and existence of their en-
pire; war of desperate self-defense
against deliberate aggression. Nothing
could be more grossly or wantonly
false, and we must seek by the ut
most openness and candor as to our
real aims to convince them of it's false
ness. We are in fact fighting for their
emancipation from fear, along with
our own from the fear as well as
from the fact of unjust attack by
neighbors or rivals or schemers after
world empire. No one is threaten
ing the existence of or the indepen-
dence or the peaceful enterprise Of
tn German empire.
Not Again to Be Trusted.
1.-THE worst that can happen to the
German people is this, that If they
should still, after the war is over,
continue to be obligated to live under
ambitious and intriguing masters in
terested 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 of nations
which must henceforth guarantee the
worlds peace. That partnership must
be partnership of peoples, not mere
partnership of governments. 1t might
be impossible, also, In such untoward
, circumstances, to admit Germany to
the free economic intercourse which
!, must inevitably spring out of the other
partnerships of a real peace. But
there would be no aggression in that ;
, and such situation, inevitable be-
! cause of distrust, would in the very
, nature of things sooner or later cure
itself, by processes which would as
, suredly set in.
Wrongs Must Be Righted.
D "The wrongs the very deep wrongs
: committed in this war will have to be
righted. That of course. But they
cannot and must not be righted by the
:. commission of similar wrongs agains
o Germany and her allies.
$ "rThe world will not permit the com
|. mission of similar wrongs as a means
). of reparation and settlement. States
l. men must by this time have learne'
l. that the opinion of the world Is every
e where wide awake and fully compre
e. bends the issues involved. No repre-
1t sentative of any self-governed natio
v will dare disregard it by attemptin
If any such covenants of selflshness an
,r compromise as were entered into at tn
lie congress of Vienna. The thought {
ID the plain people here and everywhe1
TO throughout the world, the people VIII
s. enjoy no privilege and have very sin
70 pie and unsophisticated standards {
re right and wrong is the air all govern
st ments must henceforth breathe if the
a would live. 1t is in the full disclo;
N ing light of that thought that all pol
IF cies must be conceived and executed /
,e this midday hour of the worlds life.
in People Have No Say.
German rulers have been able to III
set the peace of the world only becaus
n the German people were not suffere
e, under their tutelage to share the con
d. radeship of the other peoples of tn
Or world either in thought or in purpos
n They were allowed to have no opinio
lie Of their own which might be set up 9
lie a rule of conduct for those who exc
Id cised authority over them. But tt
in congress that concludes this war wi
We feel the full strength of the tides tn;
ne run now in the hearts and conscience
ne of freedom everywhere. Its concl
~ sions will run with these tides.
w "All these things have been trI
Id from the very beginning of this st
lit pendous war; and I cannot help thin
al ing that if they had been made pla
st at the very outset the sympathy al
lis enthusiasm of the Russian peop
ce might have been once for all enlistC
1t on the side of the allies, suspicion al
nd distrust swept away, and a real al
h lasting union of purpose effected, Ill
,st they believed these things at the We
lst moment of their revolution and h;
la they been confirmed in that bell
as, since, the sad reverses which have I
in Gently marked the progress of tht
mt affairs towards an ordered and stab
an government of freemen might ha
been avoided.
"The Russian people have be
to poisoned by the very same falsehoo
to that have kept the German people
ro- the dark, and the poison has been 9
of ministered by the very same hant
fe. The only possible antidote is the tru
We It cannot be uttered too plainly or t
to often.
to Freedom of the Seas.
cir ''From every point Of view, thel
or fore. it has seemed to be my duty
he speak these declarations of purpose,
nd add these specific interpretations
ire what took the liberty Of saying to
=