The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-04-25

i SDOhc lOI GOTnduJ WnOI4CI II was
justice or dominion and the execution
of their own will upon the other ma
tions Of the world that the German
leaders were seeking. They have an
swered answered in unmistakable
| terms.
| Want Dominion, Not Justice.
'They have avowed that it was not
| justice but dominion and the unhin-
dered execution of their own will The
avowal has not come from Germany's
statesmen. 1t has come from her mill
| tary leaders, who are her real rulers.
! Her statesmen have said that they
wished peace. and were ready to dis
cuss its terms whenever their oppon-
ents were willing to sit down at the
conference table with them. Her
present chancellor has said-indefinite
and uncertain terms, indeed, and in
| phrases that often seem to deny their
own meaning, but with as much plain
ness as he thought prudent he
| believed that peace should be based
upon the principles which we had de-
clared would be our own in the final
settlement.
AZ D10SI-11IONSh n0I Clf1l1du US1S-
gates spoke in similar terms and pro-
fessed their desire to conclude a fair
peace and accord to the people with
whose fortunes they were dealing the
right to choose their own allegianceS.
But action accompanied and followed
tie profession. Their military mas
tiers, the men who act for Germany
and exhibit her purpose in execution,
proclaimed very different conclusion.
I'VE cannot mistake what they have
done-in Russia, in Finland, in the
Ukraine, in Rumania. The real test
Of their justice and fair play has
come. From this we may judge the
rest.
They are enjoying in Russia a
cheap triumph in which no brave or
gallant nation can long take pride. A
great people, helpless by their own
act, lies for the time at their mercy.
Their fair professions are forgotten.
They nowhere set up justice, but
everywhere impose their power and
exploit everything for their own use
and aggrandizement; and the peoples
of conquered provinces are invited to
be free under their dominion.
Are we not justified in believing
that they would do the same things at
their western front if they were not
there face to face with armies who
even their countless divisions cannot
overcome? If, when they have felt
their check to be final they should
propose favorable and equitable terms
with regard to Belgium and France
and Italy, could they blame us if we
concluded that they did so only to
assure themselves of a free hand in
Russia and the east?
Seek Empire of Force.
Their purpose is undoubtedly to
make all the Slavic peoples, all the
free and ambitious nations of the Bal
tic peninsula, all the lands that Tur-
key has dominated and misruled, sub
ject to their will and ambition and
build upon that dominion an empire of
force upon which they fancy that they
can then erect an empire of gain and
commercial supremacy empire as
hostile to the Americas as to the Eu-
rope which it will overawe-an empire
which will ultimately master Persia,
India and the peoples of the Far East.
In such a program our ideals, the
ideals Of justice and humanity and lib
erty, the principle of the free self
determination of nations upon which
all the modern world insists, can play
no part. They are rejected for the
ideals of power; for the principle that
the strong must rule the weak; that
trade must follow the flag, whether
those to whom it is taken welcome it
or not; that the peoples of the world
are to be made subject to the patron
age and overlordship of those who
have the power to enforce it.
THAT program once carried out,
America and all who care or dare to
stand with her must arm and prepare
themselves to contest the mastery of
the world, mastery in which the
rights of common men, the rights OF
women and of all who are weak, must
for the time being be trodden under
foot and disregard, and the old age
long struggle for freedom and right
begin that America has lived for and
loved and grown great to Vindicate
and bring to a glorious realization will
have fallen in utter ruin and the gates
Of mercy once more pitilessly shut
upon mankind.
''The thing is preposterous and i'm
possible; and yet is not that what the
whole course and action of the Ger
man armies has meant wherever they
have moved? l do not wish, even in
this moment of utter disillusionment,
to judge harshly or unrighteous1y. I
Judge only what the German arms
have accomplished with Implying
thoroughness throughout every fair
region they have touched.
What, then, are we to do? For my
self, 1 am ready, ready still, ready
even now, to discuss a fair and just
and honest peace at any time that it
is sincerely purposed-a peace in
which the strong and the weak shall
fare alike. But the answer, when 1
proposed such a peace, came from the
German commanders in Russia, and
cannot mistake the meaning of that
answer"