Cleveland County herald., 1918-04-11

l lAdL they QlQ SO Ouly lO assure JUGIu- selves of free hand in Russia and the east?
 There purpose is undoubtedly to make all the Slavic people, all the free and ambitious nation of the Baltic pc ninsula, all the lands that Turkey has dominated and misruled and build upon that dominion an empire of force, upon which they fancy that they can then exert an empire of gain and commercial supremacy-an empire as hostile to the Americas as to the Eu- rope which 1t will overawe-an ern- pire which will ultimately master Per sia, India, and the people of the far east In such programme our ideals the ideals of justice and humanity and liberty, the principles 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 l the strong must rule the weak that trade may follow the flag whether to those to whom ii is taken welcome il or not: that the people of the world are to be made subject to the patronage and overlordship of those who have the power to enforce it.
 That programme 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, a 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 it's beginning Every thing that America has lived for and | loved and grown great to vindicate and bring to a glorious realization will have fallen into utter ruin and the gates of mercy once more pttilessly shut upon mankind!
 Judge Germans By Their Acts.
 '"The thing is preposterous and irn- possible; and yet is not that what the whole course and action of the Ger man armies has meant wherever they have moved? I do not wish, even in this moment of utter disillusionment, to judge harshly or unrighteously I judge only what the German arms has accomplished with unpitying thorough ness throughout every fair region they have touched.
 What, then, are we to do? For my self I am ready, ready still, ready even now, to discuss a fair and inst and honest peace at any time that it is sincerely proposed-a peace in which the strong and the weak shall fare alike. But the answer, when I propos cd such peace, came from the Ger man commanders in Russia and can not mistake the meaning of the all l swer.
 q accept the challenge 1 know that you accept it. All the world shall know that you accept it. It shall appear in l the utter sacrifice and self-forgetful ness with which we shall give all that we love and all that we have tSs fe deem the world and make it fit for free men like ourselves to live in. 1 HIS HOW IS IHS Utedllllf3 Ol all llldl We do. Let everything that we say, my 1 fellow everything that we l henceforth plan and accomplish, ring l true to this response till the majesty and might of our concerted power shall fill the thought and utterly de- feat the force of those who iiout and mispriZe what we honor and hold dear Germany has once more said l that force, and force alone, shall de- cile whether justice and peace shall reign in the affairs of men, whether right as America conceives it or do- minion as she conceives it shall de- termine the destinies of mankind. There is, therefore, but one response possible from us; force, force to the utmost, force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant force, which shall make right the law of the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust"