Evening journal., 1918-09-28

and happy 10 fight for them as time
and circumstances have revealed them
to me as TO all the world. Our enthus-
iasm for them grows more and more
! irresistible as they stand out in more
and more vivid and unmlstakable out
| line.
THE PEOPLES WAR.
'And the forces that fight for them
draw into closer and closer array, Or
ganize their millions into more and
more unoonquerable might, as they be-
come more and more distinct to the
thought and purpose OF the peoples
| engaged. It Is the popularity OF this
great war that while statesmen have
seemed TO cast about for definitions OF
their purpose and have sometimes
seemed to shift their ground and their
point OF view, the thought OF the mass
OF men, whom statesmen re supposed
to instruct and lead, has grown more
and more unclOuded, more and more
certain Of what 1t is that they are fight
ing Tor.
National purposes have fallen more
and more into the background and the
common purpose OF enlightened man
kind has taken their place. The oOun-
sells OF plain men have become on all
hands more simple and straightfOr
ward and more unified than the coun-
sells or sophisticated men OF affairs
who Will retain the impression that
they are playing a game OF power and
lplaylng for high stakes That Is why
| have said that this is a peoples war,
not a statesmen's. Statesmen must fol-
low the clarified common thought or
be broken.
81 take that to be the significance Of
the fact that assemblies and associations
of many kinds made up Of plain work
aday people have demanded, almost
every time they came together, and are
still demanding, that the leaders Of their
governments declare to them plainly
what 1t is, exactly what it is, that they
were seeking in this war, and what
they think the items Of the final set
! tlement should be- They are not yet
satisfied WITH what they have been told.
They stlll seem to fear that they are
getting what they ask for only in
! statesmen's terms-only in the terms OF
territorial arrangements and divisions
Of power, and not in terms Of broad
visioned justice and mercy and peace
and the satisfaction Of those deep-seat-
ed longings Of oppressed and distract
ed men and women and enslaved peO-
pies that seem to them the only things
worth fighting a war for that engulfs
the world Perhaps statesmen have not
always recognized this changed aspect
OF the whole world OF policy and ac-
ton. Perhaps they have not always
lspoken in direct reply TO the questions
asked because they did not know how
searching those questions We're and
what sort Of answers they demanded
CLEARER AND CLEARER.
"But l. for one, am glad TO attempt
the answer again and again, in the
hope that .may make It clearer and
clearer that my one thought is to sat
isfy those who struggle In the ranks
are are, perhaps above all others, en-
titled to a reply whose meaning no one
can have any excuse for misunderstood
ing. n he understands the language in
which it is spoken or can get some one
TO translate lt correctly into his own
And / believe that the leaders Of the
governments with which we are ass0-
ciated will speak, as they have acco-
sion, as plainly as l have tried to speak
l hope that they will feel free TO say
whether they think that / am in any
degree mistaken in my Interpretation OF
the issues involved or In my purpose
with regard to the means by which
satisfactory settlement Of those issues
may be obtained. Unity Of purpose and
Of counsel are as imperatively neces-
sary In this war as was unity Of COM
mand in the battlefield, and with per-
feet unity Of purpose and counsel will
come assurance OF complete victory.
It can be had in no other way
"'Peaee drivers can be effectively neu-
traliZed and sileneed only by showing
that every victory of the ntions assO-
ciated against Germany brings the ma
tions nearer the sort Of peace which
will bring security and reinsurance TO
all peoples, and make the recurrence
of another such struggle of pitileSs
force and bloodshed forever impossible,
and that nothing else can.
Germany is constantly intimating
the terms she will accept; and always
finds that the world does not want
terms. II wishes the final triumph OF
Justice and fair dealing"