Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-06-22
They did not originate or des,r, th,s

They did not originate or desire this
hideous war or wish that We should
be drawn into It; and we are vaguely
conscious that we are fighting their
well as our own. They themselves are in
the grip Of the same sinister power
that has now at last stretched its ugly
talons out n drawn blood from us,
| The whole world is at war. because the
whole world is in the grip of that power
and is trying out the great battle which
shall determine whether it is to be
brought under its mastery or fling itself
free.
War Forced on World,
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, ONE and
| children of like blood and frame as
existed and in whom governments had
their life. They have regarded them
merely as ~serviceable organizations,
which they could by force or intrigue
bend or corrupt to their own purpose.
They have regarded the smaller states.
in particular, and the peoples who
could be overwhelmed by force, as
their natural tools and Instruments of
domination. Their purpose has long
been avowed. The statesmen of other
nations. to whom that purpose was in
credible, paid little attention.; regarded
what German. professors %expounded in
their class rooms and German writer's
set forth to the world as the goal Of
German policy as rather the dream Of
minds detached from practical affairs,
as preposterous private conceptions Of
German destiny, han 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
n 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 their armies and
make interest with her government, de-
veloping plans of sedition and rebel
lion in India and Egypt, setting their
fires in Persia. The demands made by
Austria upon Servia were a mere
single step in a plan which compassed
Europe n Asia, from Berlin to Bag
dad.
They hoped those demands might
not arouse Europe, but they meant to
press them whether they did or not,
for they thought themselves ready for
the final Issue of arms.
Austria Pawn Like Serbia.
Their plan was to throw a broad
belt of German military power and po-
litical control across the very center of
Europe n beyond the Mediterranean
into III heart of Asia; and Austria
Hungary was to be as much their pool
and pawn as Servia or Bulgaria or
Turkey or the ponderous states of the
east. Austria-Hungary indeed, was to
become part Of the central German m
pire. absorbed and dominated by the
same forces and. influences that had
originally cemented the German states
themselves. The dream had it's heart
at Berlin. 1t could have had a heart
nowhere else. 1t rejected the idea of
solidarity of race entirely: The choice
Of peoples played no part in it at all.
1t contemplated binding together racial
and political units which could be kept
together only by force-Czechs, Mag
vars, Croats. Serbs, Rumanians, Turks,
Armenians-the proud states of Bo-
hemia and Hungary, the stout little
commonwealth of the Balkans. the
indomitable Turks, the subtitle peoples
Of the east. These peoples did not wish
to be united. They ardently desired to
direct their own affairs, would be sat-
isfied only by u%ndisputed %independ-
ence. They could be kept quiet only
by the presence or the constant threat
VI diliieu lIeu. 4Hey WOulQ i've under
a common power only by sheer COM
pulsion and await the day of reyclu-
ton. But the German military states
men had reckoned with all that and
were ready to deal with it in their own
way.
Dream Nearly Succeeded.
and they have actually carried the
greater part of hat amazing plan into
execution! Look how things stand,
Austria is at their mercy. 1t has acted.
not upon it's w initiative or upon the
choice of it's w people, but at Ber-
Inns dictation ever since the wal be-
gan. Its people now desire peace, but
cannot have it until leave is granted
from Berlin. The so-called central pow
ers are in Fac but a single power. Ser
bia is at it's mercy should its hands be
put for a moment freed. Bulgaria has
%concented to it's we'll and Rumania is
overrun. The Turkish armies, which
! Germans trained, are serving Germany,
certainly not themselves, and the guns
of German warships lying in the har-
Dor at Constantinople remind Turkish
statesmen every day that they have no
choice but to take their orders from
Berlin. From Hamburg to the Persian
/! gulf the net is spread.
rs 1t not easy to understand the
eagerness for peace that has been man
ifested from Berlin ever since the snare
was set and sprung? Peace, peace peace
has been the talk of h%ersforeign office
for now a year M more; not peace up
on her own initiative, but upon the in
ftiative of the nations over which she
now deems herself to hold the advant-
age. A little Of the talk has been pub
lie. but most of it a been private.
Through all sorts OF channels. It has
come to me. n in all sorts of guises,
but w with the terms disclosed
which the German government would
| be willing to accent. That Raxernmanf