New Britain herald., 1918-09-28

draw into close
ganize their nd
become more
the thought
peoples engage
cularity of thisV
while statesmen have
about for definitions of
and have sometimes seen
their point of view, the
the mass of men, whon
are supposed to instruct an
grown more and more
more and more certain of u
that they are fighting for. Ri
purposes have fallen more and moro
into the background and the common
purpose of enlightened mankind has
taken their place. The counsels of
plain men have become on all hands
more simple and straightforward and
more unified than the counsels of
sophisticated men of affairs, who still
retain the impression that they are
playing u game of power, and playing
for high stakes. That is why / have
said that this is a peoples war, not
a statesmen's. Statesmen must fol-
low the clarified comm on thought or
be broken.
II will take that to be the shgnifi-
cance of the fact that assemblies and
associations of many kinds made UP of
plain Workday people have demanded,
almost every time they came together,
and are still demanding, that the lead
ers of their governments declare to
them plainly what it is exactly what
it is, that they were seeking in this
war, and what they think the items
of the final settlement should be. They
are not yet satisfied with What they
have been told They still seem to
fear that they are getting what they
ask for only in statesmen's terms
only in the terms of terrific rial arrange
ments and divisions of power, and not
in terms of broad vsioned justice and
mercy and peace and the satisfactioa
of those deep seated longings of ops 1
pressed and distracted men and WON.
en- and enslaved peoples that seem to
them the only things worth lighting
a war for that engulfs the world. Per-
haps statesmen have not always recog-
nized the changed aspect of the whole
world of policy and action. Perhaps
they have not always spoken in direct
reply to the questions asked because
they did not know how searching
those questions were and what sort
of answers they demanded.
'TBut /, for one, am glad to attempt
the answer again and again in the
hope that L may make it clearer and
clearer that my one ;, Thought
is to satisfy those who strug-
gle in the ranks and are, perhaps
above all others, entitled to a reply
whose meaning no one can have any
j. L
understands the language in which it
is spoken or can get some one to trans
late it correctly into his own. And I be-
lieve that the leaders of the govern
ments With which, we are as
speak, as they have occasion, as plain
1y as I ave tried to speak. I hope that
they will feel free to say whether they
think that I am in any degree mis-
taken in my Interpretation of the is
sues involved or in my purpose with
regard to the means by which salts
factory settlement of those issues
may be obtained. Unity of purpose
and of counsel are as imperatively
necessary in this war as was unity of
command in the battlefield; and with
perfect unity of purpose and counsel
will come assurance of complete vic
tory 1t can be had in no other way
Peace drives can be effectively nat
uralized and silenced only by showing
that every victory of the nations as
sociated against Germany brings the
nations nearer the sort of peace which
will bring security and reinsurance to
all peoples and make the recurrence
of another such struggle of pitiless
force and bloodshed forever impossi-
BILE and that nothing else can. Ger
many is constantly intimating the
terms" she will accept, and always
finds that the world does not want
terms. Tt wishes the final triumph
Of Justice and fair dealing."