Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1918-04-11
MUST WIN,
DECLARES WILSON
President Says Germany's Acts
In Russia Define Huns
Style of Peace


Germany's challenge of force. and added
that 1t would be met with force which
shall make right the law Of the world
and cast every selfish dominion down in
the dust"
The text Of President Wilson's speech
follows:
Fellow citizens: This is the anniversary
Of our acceptance Of Germany's challenge
to fight for our right to live and be free.
and for the sacred rights of freemen
everywhere The nation is awake There is
no need to call to It We know what the
war must cost, our utmost sacrifice. the
Lives of our fittest men, and, il 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 coun-
try are alive to the necessity of it, and
are ready to lend to the utmost, even
where it involves a sharp slsimpng and
daily sacrifice to lend out of meagre earn
ings. They will look with Reproduction and
contempt upon those who can and will
not, upon those who demand higher rate
Of interest. upon those who think of 1t as
q mere commercial transaction. / have
not come, therefore. to urge the loan
have come only to give you, If can, a
more vivid conception of what it is for.
WE KNOW WHY WE FIGHT.
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 before. 1t Is
easy to see just what this particular
loan means. because the cause we are
fighting for stands more sharply re-
vealed 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 he is asking to
invest in. Men in America may be more
sure than they ever were before that
the cause is their own, and that, If 1t
should be lost, their own great nations
place and mission in the worul would be
lost with it,
I call you to witness, my fellow
country-men, that at no stage of this
terrible business have / judged the
purposes of Germany Unexpectedly. l
should be ashamed in the presence of
affairs so grave. so fraught with the
destinies of mankind throughout all
the world. to speak with turbulence. to
use the weak language Of hatred or
vindictive purpose. We must Judge as
we would be Judged. I 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 I wished them to deal with
me. I have laid bare our own ideals.
our own purposes. without reserve or
doubtful phrase, and have asked them
TO say as plainly what it is that they
seek.
4. U. 8. STATES WILL DEAL FAIRLY.
no aggression. We are ready, whenever
the final reckoning is made. to be just to
the German people. deal fairly with the
German power as with all others. There
can be no difference between people in
the final judgment, IL 1t is indeed to be
righteous Judgment. To propose any
thing but Justice. even handed and dis
passionate 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 accord.
1t has been with this thought that have
sought to learn from those who spoke for
Germany whether it was justice or do
minion and the execution Of their own
will upon the other nations of the world
that the German leaders were seeking
They have answered-answered unmis-
taxable terms They have avowed that
, 1t was not justice. but dominion and the
unhindered executors Of their own will
The avowal has not come from Germanys
statesmen. 1t has come from her military
leaders, who said her real rulers. Her
statesmen have said that they wished
peace, and were ready to discuss its terms
whenever their opponents were willing to
sit down at the conference table with
them. Her chancellor has said-in indef
rkat,, tnHV ind in,
phrases that otter 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-Litovisk her civilian dele
gates spoke in similar terms; profess
sed their desire to conclude a 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. The military masters, the
men who act for Germany and exhibit
her purpose in execution, proclaimed
a very different conclusion. We can
not mistake what they have done-in
Russia, in Finland, in the Ukraine. in
Roumania. The real test of their JUS
tice and fair play has come. From this
we may Judge the rest.
CHEAP TRIUMPH IN RUSSIA
They are Enjoying IN Russia a cheap
triumph in which no brave or gallant
= nation can long take pride. great
people, helpless by their own act. lies
for the time at their mercy. Their fair
professions are forgotten. They no.
where impose their power and exploit
everything for their own use and ag~
grandizement, and the peoples of con-
quered provinces are invited to be free
under their dominion
=, Are we not justified in believing that
they would do the same thing at their
western front If they were not there
face to face with armies whom even
their countless divisions cannot over
come? If. when they have felt their
&: check to be final, they should propose
favorable and equitable terms with re-
gard to Belgium and France and Italy.
could they blame us If we concluded
that they did so only to assure them
. selves of a free hand in Russia and the
East?
GERMANY EMPIRE-MAD.
Their purpose is. undoubtedly. to make
u all the Slavic peoples, all the free and
!! ambitious nations of the Baltic Peninsula
~ all the lands that Turkey has dominated
and misrued. subject to their will and
4 ambition, and build upon that dominion
!, an empire of force upon which they fancy
, that they can then erect and empire OF
s gain and commercial supfcmacy-an en-
B.. pire ar hostile to the Americas as to the
(. Europe which it will overawe--an empire
o which will ultimately master Persia