The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1917-04-06

will henceforth insure the observance of those prin
ciples.
Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable
where the peace of the world is involved and the
freedom of its peoples and the menace to that
peace and freedom lies in the existence Of autocratc
Governments, backed by organized force which is
controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of
their people. We have seen the last of neutrality
in such circumstances. We are at the beginning of
an age in which it will be insisted that the
standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong
done shall be observed among nations and their
Governments that observed among the individual
citizens of civilized States
We have no quarrel with the German people. \
We have feeling toward them but of sympa-
thy and friendship. 1t not upon their impulse
that their Government acted in entering this war.
1t was not with their previous knowledge ap-
proval 1t was a war determined upon used
to be determined upon in the DID, unhappy days,
when peoples were nowhere consulted by their rulers
and wars were provoked and waged in the interest
of dynasties of little groups of ambitious men
who were accustomed to use their fellow
pawns and tools.
Sef-governed nations do not fill their neigh
Dor States with spies or set the Of intrigue to
bring about some critical posture of affairs which
will give them opportunity to strike and make
conquest. Such designs be successfully work
ed out only under cover and where 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 behind the carefully guarded condolences of
narrow and privileged class. They are happily
impossible where public opinion commands and in
sists upon full information concerning all the ma
tons affairs.
A ctoo hp
maintained except by partnership of democratic
nations No autocratc Government could be trust
ed to keep faith within it or observe its covenants
1t must be league of honor, partnership Of opn-
ion Intrigue would eat its vtals away; the plot
tngs of inner circles who could plan what they
would and render account to one would be cor
rupton seated at its 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
Does not every American feel that assurance
has been added to hope for the future peace of the
world by the wonderful and beartening things that
have been happening within the last few weeks IN
Russia? Russia was known by those who knew it
best to have been always in fact democratic at
heart in all the vital habits of her thought, in all
the intimate relationships of her people that spoke
their natural instinct, their habitual attitude to-
ward life. The autocracy that crowned the sum
nit of her political structure long as it had stood
and terrible as was the reality of its power was not
in fact Russian in origin, character, or purposes and
now il has been shaken off and the great, generous
Russian people have been added, in all their native
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 League of Honor.
One of the things that has served to con-
vince us that the Prussian autocracy was not and
II Al.
set of the present war it has filed unsuspecting
communities, and even our offices of governments,
with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere
afoot against our national unity of counsel, our
peace within and without, industries and our
commerce Indeed it is now evident that its spies
were here even before the war began; and it is un-
happv not matter of conjecture, but fact proved
in our courts of Justice, that the ntrigues, which
have more than once come perilously near to dls-
turbing the peace and dislocatng the industries OF
the country have been carried on at the instigation
with the support and even under the personal
direction of official agents Of the Imperial Govern
ment, accredited to the Government OF the United
States
Even in checking these things and trying to ex-
trpate them we have sought to put the most gener-
Gus Interpretation possible upon them because we
knew that their source lay not in any hostile feel
ing or purpose of the German people toward us
(who were, no doubt ignorant Of them as we
ourselves were) but only in the selfish designs OF
a Government that did what it pleased and told its
peoples nothing. But they have played their part
in serving to convince at last that that Govern
ment entertans no real friendship for US, and means
to act against peace and security at It's con-
venience That it means to stir up enemies against
our peace and security at its convenience. That il
means to stir up enemies against us at our very
doors-the intercepted note to the German Minister al
Mexico City is eloquent evidence.
We are accepting this challenge of hostile pur
pose because we know that in such Government
following such methods, we can never have friend