Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-04-08

iiitiiS NhaliCIS6 W li6AN lOh OuA
right to live and be free, and for
the sacred rights of freemen every
where. 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, 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
meager earnings. 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 mere commercial transition. 1
have not come, therefore, 70 urge the
loan. I have come only to give you,
il / can, a more vivid conception of
what it is for.
Tile reasons for this great war,
the reason why it had to come, the
need to fight it through, and the
issues that hang upon it's outcome,
lIS IuOi6 CiSuIly ulSClOSSd hoN bii1ih
ever before. 1t is easy to see just
what this particular loan means, be-
cause the cause we are fighting for
stands more sharply revealed than
at any previous crisis of the momen-
tous struggle. The man who knows
least can now see plainly how the
cause of Justice stands, and what
the imperiShable thing 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, il il should be lost. their
own great nations place and mis-
sion in the world would be lost
with it.
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 frauSht with
the destinies of mankind throughout
all the world, to speak with trucu-
lence, to use the weak language oil
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 l
wished them to deal me. have
laid bare our own ideals, our own
purposes. without reserve or doubt
full phrase. and have asked them to
say as plainly what it is that they
seek.
We have ourselves proposed no
injustice, 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 peoples
in the final judgment, if it is indeed
| to be a righteous judgment. To
propose anything 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 accord.
Germany's Reply
It has been with this thought that
| I have sought TO learn from those
who spoke for Germany whether it
was Justice or dominion and the eX-
ecution of their own will upon the
other nations of the world that the
German leaders were sAEing. They
have answered answered in un-
mistakable terms. They have avowed
that it was not justice, but domin-
ion and the unhindered execution
of their own will. The avowal has
not come from Germans statesmen.
1t has come from her military lead
ers, who are 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 present Chancellor has said
| in indefinite and uncertains 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 Bre:&-Litovsk her civilian dele
gates spoke in similar terms; pro-
| fessed their desire to conclude a
| fair peace and accord to the peoples
with whose fortunes they were deal
| ing the right to choose their own
allegiance. But action accompanied
and followed the profession. Their
military masters, the men who act
| for Germany and exhibit her pur-
pose in execution, proclaimed very
different conclusion. We can not
mistake what they have done-in
| Russia, in Finland, in the Ukraine,
! in Rumania. The real test of of their
| justice and fair play has come. From
! this we may ldge the rest.
| They are enjoying in Russia a
! cheap triumph in which no brave
or gallant NJ ton can long take
pride. A great people helpless by
their own act, lies for the time at
! their mercy. Their fair profess
sions are forgotten. They nowhere
set up justice, but everywhere inn
pose their power and exploit every
thing for their own use and aggran-
dizement, and the peoples of con-
quered provinces are invited to be
free under their dominion.
The West Front
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
whom even their countless divisions
cannot overcome? If when they
have felt their check to be final, they
should propose favorable and equit-
able 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 ?
Their purpose is, undoubtedly, to
make all the Slavic people, all the
free and ambitious nations of the