The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1918-04-11

with 1t.
Il call you to witness. my fellow
countrymen, that at no stage OF this
terrible business have judged the pur-
poses of Germany intemperately.
should be ashamed in the presence OF
affairs so grave, so fraught with des-
TIMES of mankind throughout all the
world, to speak with turbulence, to use
the weak language of hatred or vim
dlctive purpose. We must Judge as
We would be judged.
Sought to Learn objects.
II have sought to learn the objects
Germany has in this war from the
mouths of her own spokesmeu, and to
deal as frankly with them as wished |
them to deal with me. l 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.
I'VE have ourselves proposed no in |
Justice, 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, 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 re-
nounce 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 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. They have avowed that it was
not justice, but dominion, and the un-
hindered execution of their own will.
THE avowal has not come from
Germany's statesmen. 1t has come
from her military leaders who are her
real rulers. Her statesmen have said
ready to discuss it's terms whenever
their opponents were willing to sit
down at the conference table with
them. Her present Chancellor has
said-indefnite and uncertain terms,
indeed, and in phrases that often seem
to deny their own meaning, but with
as much plainness as he thought pru-
dent-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-Litovsk, her civilian dele.
gates spoke in similar terms, profess.
ed their desire to concede fair peace
and accord to the peoples with whose
fortunes they were dealing the right to
choose their own allegiances. But ac-
ton accompanied and followed the pro-
feSSion
; Their military masters, the me1
= who act for Germany and exhibit her
purpose in execution, proclaimed a
very different conclusion. We can not
l mistake what they have done-in Rus
sia, in Finland, in the Ukraine, in Rou
l mania. The real test of their justice
9 and fair play has come. From this
we may judge the rest. .......
"They are enjoying in Russia 6
, cheap triumph in which no brave ol
!, gallant nation can long take pride. A
. great people, helpless by their owr
act, lies for the time at their mercy
y Their fair professions are forgotten
They now here set up justice, but ev
erywhere impose their power and ex
. plot everything for their own use and
!, ACKNOWLEDGMENT; 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 al
- their western front if they were no
, there face to face with armies whom
- even their countless divisions can no
= overcome. II when they have fell
their check to be final, they shoult
propose favorable and equitable term!
with regard to Belgium and France
and Italy, could they blame us If WI
concluded that they did so only to as
sure themselves of free hand in Rus
: sia and the East?
4 Their purpose is undoubtedly tt
make all the Slavic people, all thu
= free and ambitious nations Of the Bal
tic Peninsula, all the lands that TuI
) key has dominated and misruled sub
ject to their will and ambition AM
. build upon that dominion and empir
of force upon which they fancy tina
= they can then erect an empire of gai
, and commercial supremacy-an en-
piEe as hostile to the Americas as t
~ the Europe, which it will overawe-a
- empire which will ultimately maste
- Persia, India and the peoples of tn
Il Far East.
:. "In such a program our ideals, tn
~ ideals of justice and humanity and Ill
Il erty, the principle of the free self-dt
n termination of nations, upon which a
q the modern world insists, can play n
q part. 1t is rejected for the ideals c
power for the principle that the stron
% must rule the weak, that trade mus
q follow the flag, whether those to who1
y it is taken welcome it or not, that tn
peoples of the world are to be mad
subject to the patronage and overlort
ship of those who have the power
10 enforce it.
~ Paints Gloomy Picture.
r. "That program once carried ou
It America and all who care or dare t
r. stand with her must arm and prepar
e themselves to contest the mastery c
q. the world, a mastery in which tn
If rights of common men, the rights c
women and of all who are weak, mus
W for the time being be trodden unde
"a foot and disregarded, and the old, age