The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1918-04-04
PEACE

ne IniLCd STATES nlA not enter m
70 t6is war uua8v,3.y, hastily. NE
der stress of heat or passion. We took
the step calmly sabcriy, reluctantly.
with full sense IF he awful respon.
sibilities Involved, the sacrifices de-.
mandcd, the magnitude of the task.
President Wilson Old aot a4ylsc in
his war message, nor d.d Congress act
in declaring state If war between
the United States and Germany with.
out giving the most solemn considera-
ton Of what the action meant. They
knew il mearth the death Of thousands
Of brave America they knew il
meant suffering and wounded and the
disabling for life Of hundreds Of thou
sands Of our young men. They count
ed TO the full the human cost and the
matcrisl cost
Every development since has justi-
fed and proved the wisdom and the
imperative necessity Of Americas par
ticipation Every German success and
every German failure have shown how
necessary TO our own welfare and
peace, how necessary to the safety and
peace Of the world the defeat Of Ger
many is. Every foot Of ground Ger
many has been forced TO give up,
every foot Of land she has seized have
demonstrated the imperative necessity
of defeating that sinister, intolerable
thing called Germanism.
) Germanism is 1900 miles away. 1t
must never come any nearer Let this
war result in anything but the defeat
of Germany, let her emerge with her
power unbroken and her kultur still
dominant, and it is but a question Of
time until We alone win be fighting
Germany instead Of warning against
her with our Allies on our side.
Lincoln said that this country could
not exist half slave and half free.
All Americans now recognize that
truth. The events of the last few
years have shown equally clearly that
this world can not exist half free and
half autocratic--half free people low
ing liberty and justice and peace and
half an autocracy seeking to dominate
the world, caring nothing for liberty
or justice and nothing for humanity
and civilization where they interfere
with its ambition.
There is no peace for America ex-
cept a just peace, peace that means
a world fit for free people to live in.
German ideals, German purposes, and
German practices are the antitheses |
of American. The beliefs we love and |
honor and uphold are contemplate to
them; the objects for which they will
to death millions of their own men and
millions of their enemy are abhorrent
to our ideas of right and justice; their
methods and practices in warfare are
an abomination and horror to US.
The American who now advocates or
wishes for peace, except a just peace,
is either woefully misguided or a
traitor to Americas future and Amer
ca's past, to all things American
the things which have made our coun-
Try great and free, which hundreds of
thousands of Americans have died to
maintain, and for which Americans
now are dying in France.
There can be no peace with honor
)r safety to ourselves or to posterity,
except just peace, and there can and
will be no other peace. Work for
peace accomplishes nothing but the
Of our effort, the delay of
he real peace, and greater toll of
ieath of Americas fighting men. Our
iuty is to war for just and righteous
,eace; to work or speak for any other
,eace is treason.