French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1918-04-11

CHEAP triumph in which no brayes or
gallant nation can long take pride. a
great people, helpless by thsfr eWH
act, lies N9r the time at their1mercy.
Their fair professions are forgotten.
They nowhere set up justice but ev-
erywhere impose their power and ex-
plot everything for their W use and
ACKNOWLEDGMENT; and the peoples Of
conquered provinces are invited to
be free under their dominion;
care we not justified in believing
that they would do the same things
at their western front if they were
not there face to- face with armies
whom even their countless divisions
cannot overcome?
eff they have felt their check to he
final, they should propose favorable
and equitable terms with regard to
Belgium and France, and ItalySou1d
they blame us if we concluded that
they\did so only to assure themselves
of a free hand il Russia and the East?
Their purpose is undoubtedly to
make all Slavic peoples, all the free
and ambitious nations Of the Baltic pc
niasuIa, all the lands that Turkey has
dominated and misruled, subject to
their will and ambition and build upon
that dominion an empire of force@dpon
which they fancy that they can erect
an empire, of gain and commercial Su-
premacy-an empire 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 cur ideals, the ideals Of
justice and humanity and liberty, the
principle of the free self-determina-
ton 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 r to
be made subject to the patronage and
~overlordship of those who have the
power to enforce 1t.
"That program, 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 trod under
feet and be disregarded, 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 in utter ruin and gates Of
mercy once more pitilessly shut upon
"The thing Is preposterous andIim-
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 establishment,
to Judge harshly or unrighteously, I
Judge only what the German arms
have accomplished with Implying
thoroughness throughout every fair re
g4on 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 just
and honest peace at any time that It
Is sincerely Purposed-a peace in
the strong and the weak shall
fare alike. But the answer, when I
proposed such a peace, came from the
German commanders in Russia, and I
can not mistake the meaning of the
answer.
81 accept the challenge. know that
you will accept 1t. An the world shall
know that you accept it. 1t shall ap-
pear in the utter sacrifices and self
Iorgetfulness with which we shall
give all that we love and all that we
have to redeem the world and make it
1T for free men like ourselves to live
In. This now is the meaning Of all
we do. Let everything that we
say, my fellow countrymen, everything
that we henceforth plan and accom-
plish, ring true to this response till
the majesty and might of our concert
ed power shall fill the thought and
defeat~the forceAof those who
bout and misprize what we honor and
hold dear. Germany has once more
said that force, and force alone, shall
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-
the destipies Of mankind.
There is, therefore, but one response
possible from us: force, force to the
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"