Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1918-01-25
CONTINUED on Page A.

ton, it cannot contro! the Kaiser;
il cannot decide the choice OF minis
tiers,
The German constitution put the
ultimate, active, effective power to rule
Germany in the hands Of the Kaiser,
and the upper chamber, the Bundles
rath, The upper chamber is not chosen
by the people 1t is chosen by the
governments appointed by ths5e tvcn.
, ~. two men ruling by divine right and
accepting no other title, II Is made
up Of the representatives Of sovcteigns.
They control it, No one can change
4 It's powers but these German SOW
creigns,
The Kaiser alone can block all
change in this Imperial, German gov
eminent" its constitution and the
Bundesrath Peace and war army and
navy, tariff and taxation, railroads and
canals commerce and colonies, in
ternal and external; mails and tele-
graphs, industrial insurance for death,
sickness and accident, treaties and
| foreign affairs-all that so to make
national life, these sovereigns control
through the Bundesrath, which is the
central governing force of the Ger
man Empire, and of this council the
German Kaiser has chief control,
Such a constitution organized to
create autocracy and to make autocracy
perpetual is contrary to the princi-
Piles Of democracy, and it is at war with
the moral law 1t is impious and in
human for exactly the same reason
that slavery was impious and inhu
man. Slavery asserted that certain
human beings were made to serve
Others, The divine rights OF kings as
serts that certain human beings were
made to rule others. In each case there
is a denial Of the fundamental rights
OF humanity, This false principle once
admitted to the body polite then fol-
lows the practices which made slavery
the sum OF all villanies.
What has shocked the world in the
war with the Imperial German govern
ment is the outgrowth of the theory
of the state which asserts the divine
right of one human being to rule the
many This makes the State the sole
arbter Of morals and looks upon its
commands as sanctioning every act
and juStifying every violation OF the
rights of humanity and the laws OF
God. The only adequate remedy for
these things is an agreement between
nations which will insist, as President
Wilson has declared that every nation
shall represent its people and not
privileged class; nations which shall
stand for the rights of men, and not
for the rights of kings, Exactly as
slavery existed from the beginning
and was swept aside by war, so the
assertion Of the divine right of kings
has existed from the beginning and is
to be swept aside in the same fashion
The first moral duty of the war is to
sweep away autocracy. The second
moral duty of the war is the creation
OF league to Enforce Peace which will
secure lasting peace.
II the German government had stay.
ed at home we would have waited pa
tiently until it changed But it did not
stay at home. All German commerce
has had behind it not merely the I'm
perial German government" but
Kaiser and kings, dukes and grand
dukes, shareholders in Krupps great
munition and arms works, in German
steamship lines, in colonial companies,
i'll the great railroads across the Otto
man Empire, extending German power
to the Persian Gulf, and German as
cendancy from the North Sea and the
Baltic to the Black Sea and the Med
iterranean, the Persian Gulf and the
Red Sea.
Never before has there been such
combination between score of rulers,
an imperial government and interna-
tonal trade Banks, factories and
steamship companies, the German
navy and the Imperial German gov
eminent" its diplomacy and its in
fluence all fostered and directed by
the Bundesrath, named by the Kaiser
and twenty-five sovereignsl Add the
Austrian Emperor, and there are in all
twenty three rulers controlling l05,-
100000 people in 1914 to-day, 10000
900, through the war, its alliances and
its occupations.
These men scorn to marry outside of
this ruling caste in all more than
iNS hhlIui GU llSllJ WOllCu ana chill |
dren. Every day you read of this
Prince and that in command of this
army group" and that Their names
are everywhere in the war save in the
lists of the killed. and this group of |
rulers stand responsible before God |
and man for 20,000,000 human lives.
Based on the principle, immoral in
ethics, tyrannical in operation and
perilous to all liberty, that certain men
are born to rule, the Imperial German
government" has for a generation been
the foe of liberty and the enemy of
freedom.
its whole influence has been thrown |
to suppress freedom i'll the four Balkan !
States. 1t has prevented their peace
full development, refused to enforce the
Treaty of Berlin, which would have
brought peace, and is responsible for
four Balkan wars. A score of years
ago it supported the blood Thirsty Sui
tan Of Turkey in Armenian massacres,
and the officers of the Imperial Ger
man government" have aided and
abatted these massacres now be-
cause the ArmenianS worked and plan
ned for liberty when other races in
Turkey were quiescent.
1t is the Imperial German govern
ment" which is responsible for $780,
BOO Armenians starved to death, as
Germans themselves testify.
In 1905 when the revolutionary