Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-04-19

he believed that peace should be based
upon the principles which we had de
clared would be our own in the final
settlement.
"At Brest-Litovsk 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 a
cheap triumph in which no brave or
gallant nation can take a pride. A
great people, helpless by their W
act, lies 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 and
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT; 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 if they were not
there face to face with armies whom
ven their countless divisions cannot
overcome.
eff, 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 east?
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 it will overawe-an
empire which will ultimately master
Persia, India, and the peoples of the
far East.
In such a 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
to whom it is taken welcome it Or not
that the peoples of the world are tt
be made subject to the patronage ant
over-lordship Of those who have thu
power to enforce it.
Would Mean World Conflict.
This program once carried out
America and all who care or dare Il
stand with her must arm and prepare
themselves to contest the mastery O.
the world, a mastery in which thu
rights of common men, the rights O
women and Of all who are weak, mus
for the time being be trodden unde
foot, and disregarded, and the old, age
long struggle for freedom and RICH
begin again at its beginning.
Everything America has lived TO
and grown great to vindicate an,
bring to a glorious realization vii
have fallen in utter ruin and the gate
of mercy once more pitilessly shut up
on mankind.
1.-The thing is preposterous and i'm
possible; and yet, is not that what tn
whole course and action of the Gel
man armies have meant wherever the
have moved? I do not wish, even i
this movement of utter disillusionmen'
to Judge harshly or unrighteously.
judge only by what the German arm
have accomplished with unpityin
thoroughness throughout every fair RI
gion they have touched.
"What, then, r we to do? For m.
self, I ain ready, ready still, ready eve
| now, to discuss a fair, just and homes
peace al any time that it is sincerel
proposed-a peace in which the stron
: and the weak shall fare alike. Br
the answer, when I proposed such
peace, came from the German commal
ders in Russia and I cannot mistaE
the meaning of the answer.
:, "Foree to Utmost" Only Answer.
), 81 accept the challenge.
l 81 know that you accept it. All IL
world shall know that you accept
1t shall appear in the utter sacrifi'
: and self-forgetfulness with which v
/ shall give all that we love and all tn;
0 we have to redeem the world and NAL
/ it fit for free men like ourselves
o live in.
e "This now is the meaning of all tn
: we do. Let everything that we sa
my fellow countrymen, everything tn
we henceforth plan and accomplis
ring true to this response till the maize
ty and might of our concerted pow
0 shall fill the thought and utterly defe
the force of those who fiout and mi
u prize what we honor and hold dear.
Germany has once more said tn
s force alone, shall decide whether il
tice and peace shall reign in the {
n fairs of men, whether right as Anne
v lea conceives it or dominion as s
/ conceives it shall determine the dt
u TIMES of mankind.
"There is, therefore, but one ]
sponse possible from US: Force, for
= to the utmost, force without stint
4 limit, the righteous and triumpha
% force which shall make right the Ii
h of the world and cast every self
1T dominion down in the dust"
The New Vocabulary.
at n one should use words he do