Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1918-04-11

military masters, the men who act fer
Germany and exhibit her purpose II
execution. proclaimed very different
conclusion. We cannot mistake what
they have done-in Russia, in Fin
land. In the Ukraine. in Rumania.
The real test Of their justice and
fair play has come. From this We
may Judge the rest. They are enjoy
ing in Russia cheap triumph IN
which no brave or gallant nation can
long take pride. A great people, help
less by their own act, lies for tho
time at their mercy. The time for
fair professions is forgotten. They
nowhere set up justice but every
where impose their power, and exploit
everything for their own use and
aggrandizement; 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
at their western front IL they were
not there face to face with armies
whom even their countless divisions
cannot overcome? II, 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
free hand in Russia and the east?
Their purpose undoubtedly is to
make all the Slavic peoples, all the
free and ambitious nations 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 they
can then erect an empire OF gain and
commercial supremacy-an empire
as hostile to the Americas as to the
Europe which it will overawe-an EN-
pire which will ultimately master Per
STA. India and the peoples OF the far
east.
In such q program our ideals, the
ideals Of justice and humanity and
liberty. 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 it is taken welcome it
or not. that the peoples Of the world
are to be made subject to the patron
age and overlordship Of those, who
have the power to enforce it.
That program once carried out,
stand with her must arm and prepare
themselves to contest the mastery OF
the world, mastery in which me
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 that America has lived
for and loved and grown great to
vindicate and bring to glorious re-
alization will have fallen in utter ruin
and the gates of mercy once more
pitilessly shut upon mankind,
The thing is prepostrous and i'm
possible. And yet is that not what the
whole course and action OF the Ger
man armies has meant wherever they
have moved?
do not wish. even in this moment
of utter disillusionment to judge
harshly or unrighteously. l Judge on
Is what the German arms have ac-
complished with Implying thorough
ness throughout every fair region
they have touched.
What, then. are we to do?
For myself. | am ready. ready still,
ready even now, to discuss fair and
just and honest peace at any time
that it is sincerely purposed-a peace
in which the strong and the weak
shall fare alike. but the answer, when
| proposed such a peace, came from
the German commanders in Russia,
and cannot mistake the meaning Of
the answer.
accept the challenge.
know that you accept 1t. 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 1t fit for free men like ourselves
to live in This. now, is the meaning
OF that we do.
Let everything that We say my fel.
low countrymen, everything that we
henceforth plan and accomplish, ring
true to this response, until the males
ty and might of our concerted power
shall NIL the thought and utterly de
feat the force OF those who flout and
misprize what We honor and hold
dear.
Germany has once more said that
force, and force alone, shall decide
whether justice and peace shall reign
In the affairs Of men, whether right
as America conceives It, shall deter
mine the destinies OF mankind.
There Is. therefore. but one re-
sponse possible from us: Force. force
to the utmost. force without stint OF
limit, the righteous and triumphant
force which shall make right the law
~. a III Il u
dominion down in the dust,