South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-09-28
Impartial Justice An Nations is Price of Peace-Wl

moniously aside and say things in
the plainest WORDS that can be
found, even when il is only 20 say
over again what has been said be-
fore. quite as plainly IL in less var
nished terms.
AS I have said. neither I nor any
other man in governmental author
ity created or gave form TO the is
sues OF this war 7 have simply
responded TO them with such vision
as I could command. But l have
responded gladly and with a reso-
luton that has grown warmer and
more confident as the issues have
grown clearer and clearer. Ii is
now plain that they are issues
which no man can pervert unless il
be wilfully I am bound 10 fight for
them. and happy 10 fight for them
as time and circumstances have re-
vealed 10 me as TO all the world
Our enthusiasm for them grows
more and more Irresistible as they
stand out in more and more vivid
and unmistakable outline.
The Masses Know.
And the forces that fight for
them draw into closer and closer ar
ray. organize their millions into
more and more unconquerable
might as they become more and
more distinct to the thought and
purpose OF the peoples engaged. 1t
is the popularity of this great war
that while statesmen have seemed
to mast about for definitions OF their
purpose and have some times SEEM
ed to shift their ground and their
point of view. the thought OF the
mass of men, whom statesmen are
supposed TO instruct and lead has
grown more and more unclouded.
more and more certain OF what il
is that they are fighting for. Ma
tional purposes have fallen more
and more into the background and
the common purpose OF enlightened
mankind has taken their place. The
counsels of plain men have become
on all hands more simple and
straightforward and more unified
than the counsels of sophisticated
men of affairs who still retain the
impression that they are playing a
game of power and playing for high
stakes. That is why I have said that
this is a peoples war, not states
mans. A statesman must follow the
clarified common thought or be
broken.
Il take that TO be the significance
Of the fact that assemblies and as
sociations Of many kinds made up
OF plain workaday people have de-
manded. almost every time they
come together, and are still de
manding that the leaders of their
governments declare to them plain
~ what it is, exactly what it is, tina.
they were seeking in this war, and
what they think the items OF the
final settlement should be. They
are not yet satisfied with what they
have been told. They still seem TO
fear that they are getting what they
ask for only in statesmen's terms
only in the terms of territorial ar
rangements and divisions of power,
and not in terms of broad visioned
justice and mercy and peace and
ed longings of oppressed and dis
tracted men and women and en-
shaved peoples that seem TO them
the only things worth fighting a
war for that engulfs the world. Per-
haps statesmen have not always
recognized this changed aspect OF
the whole world Of policy and &C
ton. Perhaps they have not always
spoken in direct reply 10 the ques-
tions asked because they did not
know how searching those ques-
tons were and what sort of answers
they demanded
Open to Criticism.
But I, for one, am glad TO at
tempt the answer again and again,
in the hope that / may make il
clearer and clearer that my one