Grainger County news. (Rutledge, Tenn.) 1917-current, 1918-04-25

he believed that peace should be based
upon the principles which we had de-
cIared would be our own In the final
settlement.
AT Brest-Lltovsk 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 dealing the
right to choose their own allegiances.
"They are enjoying in Russia
cheap triumph in which no brave or
gallant nation can take pride. A
great people. helpless by their own
act, Hes for the time at their mercy.
"Their fair professions are forgot
ten. They nowhere set up justice but
everywhere impose their power and ex-
plot everything for their own use ana
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 thing at
their western front IL 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 ia
vorable and equitable terms with re-
gard to Belgium and France and Italy,
could they blame us If we concluded
that they did so only to assure them
selves of a free hand in Russia and
the east7
World Dominion Built In East.
Their purpose is undoubtedly to
make all the Slavic peoples, all the
free and ambitious peoples 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-an en-
pire as hostile to the Americas as to
| the Europe which 1t will overawe-an
empire which will ultimately master
| Persia, India, and the peoples Of the
| far East.
"In such 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 1t is taken welcome 1t or not,
that the peoples of the world are to
be made subject to the patronage and
oyer-lordship Of those who have the
power to enforce 1t.
Would Mean World Conflict.
This 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 disregarded, and the old, age
long struggle for freedom and right
begin again at Its beginning.
Everything America has lived for
and grown great to vindicate and
bring to glorious realization will
have fallen in utter ruin and the gates
of mercy once more pitilessly shut up
on 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 have meant wherever they
| have moved? l do not wish, even In
this movement of utter establishment,
to judge harshly or unrighteously.
Judge only by what the German arms
have accomplished with Implying
thoroughness throughout every fair re-
! gion they have touched.
"What, then, are we to do2 For my.
self, | ain ready, ready STILL ready even
now, to discuss fair, just and honest
reace al any time that 1t is sincerely
proposed---a peace in Which the strong
and the weak shall fare alike. But
the answer, when I proposed such a
peace, came from the German comman-
ders in Russia and / cannot mistake
the meaning of the answer.
"Force to Utmost" Only Answer
II accept the challenge.
IT know that you accept it. All the
world shall know that you accept It.
1t shall appear in the utter sacrifice
and self-fOrgetfulness with which we
shall give all that we love and all that
we have to redeem the world and make
il fit for free men like ourselves tC
| live in.
This now is the meaning of all that
we do. Let everything that we say
my fellow countrymen, everything that
we henceforth plan and accomplish
ring true to this response till the males
ty and might of our concerted power
shall fill the thought and utterly defeat
the force Of those who flout and mis-
prize what we honor and hold dear.
Germany has once more said that
force alone, shall decide whether jus
! tee and peace shall reign in the af
| fairs of men, whether right as Amer
lea conceives it or dominion as she
conceives 1t shall determine the des
TIMES of mankind.
There is, therefore, but one re
snonse nossifle from us. Force. force