The Elbert County tribune., 1918-04-12
Challenge Flung to Germans by
President Wilson in Balti-
more Address.
Observation-Disclosures
Cheap Triumph of Teutons in
Russia Shows Aim to Strangle
Weaker Nations.
western Newspaper Union News Service.

Western Newspaper Union News Service.
Baltimore, Md-President Wilson,
in an address here April G, said:
Fellow Citizens-This is the anniver-
sary OF our acceptance of Germany's
challenge to fight for our right to live
of free men everywhere. The nation
Is awake. There is no need to call to
1t. We know what the war must cost
our utmost sacrifice, the lives of our
nttest men, and. If need be, all that
we possess The loan we are met to
discuss Is one of the least parts of
what we are called upon to give and to
do, though in itself imperative The
people of the whole country are alive
to the necessity of it, and are ready
to lend to the utmost. Even where it
involves sharp skimping and daily
sacrifice to lend out of mvager earn
ings.
They will look with reprobation
and contempt upon those who can
and will not, upon those who demand
a higher rate of interest upon those
who think of it as a mere commercial
transaction. l have not come, there
fore, to urge the loan, | have come
only to give you, If l can, a more vivid
conception. Qf what it is for.
The reasons for this great war, the
reason why 1t had to come, the need
to fight 1t through, and the issues
THAT hang upon its outcome, are more
clearly disclosed now than ever be-
tQGe, i Is easy to see just what this
particular loan means because the
cause we are fighting for stands more
sharply revealed than at any previous
crisis of the momentous struggle.
The man who knows least can now see
plainly how the cause of Justice stands
and what the imperishable thing Is he
Is asked to invest in. Men in America
may be more sure than they ever
were before that the cause is their
own, and that, II 1t should be lost,
their own great nations place and
mission in the world would be lost
with ii
l call you to witness, my fellow
countrymen, that at no stage of this
terrible business have l judged the
purposes of Germany intemperately
should be ashamed in the presence
OF affairs SO grave, SO fraught with
the destfnies of mankind throughout
all the world, to speak with trucu-
lence, to use the weak language of ha-
tired or vindictiye purpose. We must
Judge as we would be judged.
/ have sought to learn the objects
Germany has In this war from the
mouths of her own spokesman, and to
deal as frankly with them as l wished
them to deal with me. l have laid
bare our own ideals, our own pur-
poses without reserve or doubtful
phrase, and have asked them to say
as plainly what it is that they seek.
We have ourselves proposed no in
justice, no aggression. We are ready
whenever the final reckoning is
made, to be just to the German peo-
pie, deal fairly with the German pow
er, as with all others. There can be
no difference between peoples in the
final judgment, If it is indeed to be a
righteous judgment. To propose any
thing but justice, even-handed and
dispassionate justice, to Germany, at
any time. whatever the outcome Of
the war, would be to renounce and
dishonor our own cause. For we ask
nothing that we are not willing to ac-
cord.
1t has been with this thought tnaI
l have sought to learn from those who
spoke for Germany whether 1t was
justice or dominion and the execution
of their own will upon the other ma
tons of the world that the German
leaders were seeking. They have
answered, answered in unmistakable
terms. They have avowed that it
was not justice, but dominion and the
unhindered execution of their own
will.
The avowal has not come from Ger
/ mn W of fuya IA
her military leaders, who are her real
rulers. Her statesmen have said that
they wished peace, and were ready to
discuss Its terms whenever their op-
| ponents were willing to sit down at
the conference table with them. Her
present chancellor has said-in indef-
! mite and uncertain terms, indeed, and
In phrases that often seem to deny
their own meaning, but with as much
plainness as he thought prudent
that he believed that peace should be
based upon the principles which we
had declared would be our own in the
| final settlement.
| At Brest-Litovsk her civilian dele
gates spoke in similar terms; pro-
fessed their desire to conclude fair
peace and accord to the peoples with
whose fortunes they were dealing the
right to choose their own allegiances.
But action accompanied and followed
the profession. Their military mas
ters, the men who act for Germany
and exhibit her purpose in execution,
| proclaimed very different conclu-
sion.
We cannot mistake what they have
done-in Russia, in Finland in the