The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-12-07


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 a 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 unjustsiable, absolutely con-
trary to the principles we have pro-
fessed to live by and to hold most
sacred throughout our life as n ma
ton.
Autocrats MisIead Germans.
The people of 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, war of desperate self-defense
against deliberate aggression. Nothing
could be more grossly or wantonly
false and we must seek by the utmost
openness and candor as to our real
aims to convince them of it's falseness
We are in fact fighting for their eman
cipation from fear, along with our own
from the fear as we'll as from the fact
of unjust attack by neighbors or rivals
or schemers after world empire. No
one is threatening the existence or
the independence or the peaceful en-
terprise of the German empire.
World Partnership After War.
The worst that can happen to the
detriment of the German people is this
that if 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, it 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 a mere partnership of gov
ernments. 1t 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 real peace. But there would be
no aggression in that, and such a sit
uation, inevitable because Of distrHst.
would in the very nature of things
sooner or later cure itself by process
es which would assuredly set in.
Not to Right Wrong With wrong.
The wrongs, the very deep wrongs,
committed in this war will have to be
righted. That of course But they can
not and must not be righted by the
commission of similar wrongs against
Germany and her allies. The world
will not permit the commission of SIM
liar wrongs as a means of reparation
and settlement. Statesmen must by
this time have learned that the opin-
ion of the world is everywhere wide
awake and fully comprehends the is
sues involved. No representative of
any self-governed nation will dare dis
regard it by attempting any such COW
enants of selfishness and compromise
as were entered into at the congress
Of Vienna. The thought of the plain
people here and everywhere through
out the world, the people who enjoy
no privilege and have very simple and
unsophisticated standards of right and
wrong, is the air Of all governments
must henceforth breathe if they would
live. 1t is in the full disclosing light
Of that thought that all policies must
oe conceived and executed in this mid
lay hour of the worlds life.
Teuton Opinions Restricted.
German rulers have been able to up
set the peace of the world only be-
cause the German people were not
suffered under their tutelage to share
the comradeship of the other peoples
Of the world either in thought or in
purpose. They were allowed to have
be set up as rule Of conduct for
hose who exercised authority over
hem. But the Congress that con-
cludes this war will feel the full
strength of the tides that run now in
the hearts and consciences of free
men everywhere. Its conclusion will
run with those tides.
Regrets Mistakes In Russia.
All these things have been true from
the very beginning of this stupendous
war, and I cannot help thinking that
If they had been made plain at the
very outset the sympathy and enthu-
siasm of the Russian people might
have been once for all enlisted on the
side of the Allies, suspicion and dis
trust swept away and real and last
ing union of purpose affected. Had
they believed these things at the very
moment of their revolution and had
they been confirmed in that belief
since, the sad reverses which have re-
Gently marked the progress Of their
affairs towards an ordered and stable
government of free men might have
been avoided.
SIav Minds Poisoned.
The Russian people have been pois-
oned by the very same falsehoods that
have kept the German people in the
dark, and the poison has been admin
istered by the very same hands. The
only possible antidote is the truth. 1t
cannot be uttered too plainly or too
often