The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-06-14
"PEACE" TALK
UNMASKED
President Wilson Discloses
Purpose of German
Government
HOLDING BIG GAINS,
HOPES TO END WAR
And Justify Itself Before
German People for the
Great Expenditure


monument grounds to-day that German,
has carried into effect the greater par
OF her immediate plan of conquest an,
now is negotiating new intrigue o
peace" designed to end the war while he
aggressions are secure.
i All the central empires, the presiden
4 declared, have been cemented into on
great autocracy- ridden empire, throwing
a broad belt of German military powe
and political control across the very cen
ter OF Europe and beyond the Mediterra
mean into the heart of Asia" This ac
complished, he said, it is easy to under
stand why Germany is fostering a prop
aganda for an early peace.
Peace, peace, peace, has been the tall
of her foreign Office for now year anC
more" said the president, "A little o.
the talk has been public, but most Of il
has been private. Through all sorts o.
channels it has come to me and in al
sorts of guises. The military masters
under whom Germany is bleeding SEE
very clearly to what point fate has
brought them. If they can secure peace
now with the immense advantages still
in their hands which they have up tc
this point apparently gained, they will
have justified themselves before the Ger.
man people; they Will have gained by
force what they promised to gain by it, y
The president recited again the Ger
man aggressions which drove the United
States to war. He declared the pur-
poses for which American soldiers now
carry the Stars and Stripes to Europe
for the first time in history are not new
to American traditions because realiza-
tion OF Germanyie war aims must event
ually mean the undoing of the whole
world. He spoke in full as follows
My fellow citizens We meet to celebrate
flag day because this flag which we honor and
under which we serve Is the emblem of our
unity, our power, our thought and purpose as
nation Ii has other character than that
which We give it from generation to genera
ton. The choices are ours. 1t floats in ma
jestic silence above the hosts that execute those
choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet,
though silent IT speaks to IA, s,--speaks 70 us Of
me past, Of the men and women who went
before US and of the records they wrote upon
It. We celebrate the day of its birth; and
from its birth until it has witnessed a
great history. has hoated on high the symbol
out by great people. We are about to carry
il into battle, to lift IL where 1t will draw the
fire Of enemies. We arc about to bid
thousands. hundreds of thousands, it may be
millions, of our men, the young, the strong.
the capable men of the nation, to go forth
and die beneath il on fields of blood far away,
for what3 For some unaceustomed thing {?
For something for which Il has never sought
before sent across the seas. Why are they sent
now? For some new purpose. for which this
great flag has never been carried before, or
for some old familiar, heroic purpose for
which II has seen men, its own, die on every
battlefield upon which Americans have borne
arms since the Revolution?
These questions which must be an
swered We are Americans. We in turn
vate purpose. We must use her flag as she
has always used it We are accountable at
the bar of history and must plead in utter
frankness what purpose 1t is seek to serve.
1t is plain enough how we were forced
into the war. The extraordinary insults and
aggressons Of the imperial German govern
ment left no self-respecting choice but 10
take up arms in defense of our rights a
free people and Of our honor as a sovereign
government The military masters of Ger
many denied the right to be neutral. They
filled our unsupecting communities with vi
cious spies and conspirators and sought to cor
rupt the opinion Of our people in their own
behalf. When they found that they could not
do that, their agents diligently spread sedition
amongst US and sought to draw own citi-
zens from their allegiance-snd some Of these
embassy of the German government itself here
in our own capital. They sought by violence
to destroy oul industries and arrest our COM
merce. They tried to ineite Mexico To take
up arms against and TO draw Japan into a
hostile alliance with her.--and that, not by in
direction. but by direct suggestion from the
foreign Office in Berlin They Immediately de- |
MED US the use of the high seas and repeated |
" executed their threat that they would send |
10 their death any of our people who ventured /
10 approach the coasts OF Europe. And many 1
,f our own people were corrupted. Men began |
% look upon their own neighbors with suspi- |
ion and to wonder in their hot resentment /
and surprise whether there any communi- |
" in Which hostile intrigue did not lurk. 4
What great nation in such circumstances would
rot have taken up arms? Much had
iesired peace II was denied us, and not of our |
,wn choice This fag under which serve
would have been dishonored had withheld
,ur hand
But that is only part of the story We
snow now as clearly as we knew before we
we're ourselves engaged that we are not the
.nemies of the German people and that they
ire not our enemies. They did not originate
,r desire this hideous or wish that we
hould be drawn into II and we are vaguely
onseious that we are fighting their cause as
hey will some day see it. well own.
hey are themselves in the grip Of the same
mister power that has now at last stretched
Is ugly talons out and drawn blood from us.
he whole world is at war because the whole
world Is in the grip Of that power and is try
nN out Nnc krtdt bAttie winch snail oeterfnluc
ghether Il Is to be brought under its mastery
r fling itself free.
The war was begun by the military masters
{ Germany, who proved 10 be also the masters
Austria Hungary These men have never
egarded nations as peoples, men, women. and
hildren of like blood and frame as them
elves. for whom governments existed and in
HON governments had their life. They have
sgarded them merely servceabls orgsniza-
ions which they could by force intrigue bend
T corrupt to their own purpose. They have
egzrded the smaller states. In particular. and
Ne peoples who could be overwhelmed BY ,
Drce. their natural tools and instruments ;
I domination. Their purpose has long been
vowed The statesmen of other nations, 70 I
HON that purpose was incredible. paid little
ttention regarded what German professors
in their classrooms and German
-riterS set forth to the world the goal OF [
ernan policy ss rather the dream Of minds |
stached from practical Affairs. preposterous ,
rivate conceptions Of German destiny. than
the actual plans Of responsible rulers but I
,e rulers Of Germany themselves knew all the !
hiie what concrete plans what well-zdvanced
ItriEues lay back Of what the professors and I
e writers were saying. and were glad to 20 v
,rwsrd unmolested fllinE the thrones Of Bal I
IN states with German princes. putting Ger
an officers az the service Of Turkey TO drill
n zrrnies and make interest with her govern
rnt developing plans Of sedition and rebel +,
ln IN India and Egypt setting their fires in I
srsiH- The demands made BY Austria upon n
srbia were a mere single step in q plan
hich comuassed Europe and Asia. from Ber- D
! 70 Bardad- They hoped those demands \
ixht not aruuse Europe. but they meant 70 \
-rss thrrn whether they did or not. for they I,
ourht thenelEs ready FOR the final issue n