The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-06-15
President Delivers Flag Day
Speech Beneath Wash
ington Monument.
REVUE VS. INCIDENTS
Must Break Iron Bond of
Prussian Militarism to
Free Whole World.
CONTINUED From Page One.)

nation. 1t has no other character than
that which we give it from generation
10 generation. We are about to bid
thousands. hundreds of thousands. il
may be millions of our men, the young.
the strong. the capable men of the ma
ton. to go forti, and die beneath 1t on
fields of blood far away-for what?
These are questions which must be
answered. We are Americans. We in
our turn serve America and can serve
her with no private purpose. We must
use her flag as she has always used it,
We are accountable at the bar of his
tory and must plead in utter frankness
What purpose it is We seek to serve.
War Started by Germany.
'The war was begun by the military
masters of Germany, who proved to be
also the masters of Austria Hungary.
These men have never regarded ma
tons as peoples. men, women and
children of like blood and frame as
themselves for whom governments
existed and in whom governments had
their life. They have regarded them
merely as servlceable organizations
which they could by force or intrigue
bend to keep their own purpose. They
have regarded the SMALLER states, par
ticularly the people who could be over
whelmed by force as their tools and
instruments Of domination.
Regards II as Dream.
Their purpose has long been avowed.
The statesmen Of other nations, to
WHOM that purpose was incredible,
paid little attention, regarded what
classrooms and German writers set
forth to the world as the goal Of Ger
man policy as rather the dream of
minds detached from practical affairs
as preposterous private conceptions of
German destiny than as the actual
plans of responsible rulers. but the
rulers of Germany themselves knew all
the while what concrete plans, what
we'll advanced intrigues lay back of
what the professors and the writer's
were saying and were glad to go for
ward unmolested, filling the thrones Of
Balkan states with German princes,
putting German officers at the service
OF Turkey to drill her armies and make
interest with her government, develop
ing plans OF .sedition and rebellion in
India and Egypt, setting their fires in
Persia.
The UIterior Motive.
Their plan was to throw broad
belt of German military power and
political control across the very center
of Europe and beyond the Mediterra-
mean into the heart of Asia; and Aus
tria- Hungary was to be as much their
tool and pawn as Serbia or Bulgaria,
or Turkey, or the ponderous states of
the east. Austria Hungary, indeed,
was to become part of the central Ger
man empire, absorbed and dominated
by the same forces and influences that
had originally cemented the German
states themselves. The dream had by
the presence of armed men. They
would live under common power
only by sheer compulsion and await
the day of revolution. But the German
military statesmen had reckoned with
all that and were ready to deal with
it in their own way.
Have Accomplished Purpose.
And they have actually carried the
greater part of that amazing plan int,
execution. Look how things stand
Austria is at their mercy. IT has
acted. not upon its own initiative, or
upon the choice of its own people. but
at Berlin's dictatioR ever since the war
began. It's people now desire peace
but cannot have it until it is granted
from Berlin. The so-called central
powers are in fact bat a single power.
rs it not easy to understand the
eagerness for peace that has been
manifested from Berlin ever since the
snare was set and sprung? Peace,
peace. peace, has been the talk OF her
foreign office for near q year or
more; not peace on her own initiative,
but upon the initiative Of the nations
over which she now deems herself to
hold the advantage. A little of the
talk has been published but most of it
has been private. Through all sorts of
channels it has come to me and in all
sorts of guises, but never with the
terms disclosed which the German gov
eminent would be willing to accept.
That government has other valuable
pawns in it's hands besides those have
mentioned. 1t still holds a valuable
part of France, though with slowly
relaxing grasp. and practically the
whole of Belgium. Its armies press
close upon Russia and overrun Poland
l
dare not go back. 1t wishes to close
it's bargain before it is too late and it
has little left to offer for the pound
of flesh it will demand
Must Keep Power at Home.
1.-THE military masters under whom
Germany is bleeding see very clearly
to what point fate has brought them.
If they fall back or are forced back
an, inch their power both abroad and
at home will fall to pieces like a house
of cards. 1t is their power at home
they are thinking about more than
their power abroad. 1t is that power
which is trembling under their very
feet and deep fear has entered their
hearts.
They are using men, in Germany
without their spokesman whom they
have hitherto despised and oppressed,
using them for their own destruction
Socialists, the leaders of labor. the
thinkers. they have hitherto sought to
silence. Let them once succeed and
the men, now their tools. will be