The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1918-10-02
NO COMPROMISE
WITH GERMANY
Continued from First page

WITH GERMANY
Continued from First page
| eNerywhere-who are lending their In
valuable aid and guidancee.
! mo man or woman who has really
taken In what this war means can hes.
itate to give to the very limit of what
they have.
| And II Is my mission here to try to
make clear once more what the wal
really means. You will need no other
| stimulation.
| individual statesmen may have
| started the conflict, but neither they
nor their opponents can stop it as they
| please. IL has become peoples war
and peoples of all sorts and races, of
every degree of power and variety of
fortune. are involved in its sweeping
processes of change and settlement.
1--WE came into it when its character
had become fully defined and it was
| plain that no nation could stand apart
or be Indifferent to its outcome. Its
challenge drove to the heart of every
thing we cared for or lived for. The
| voice of the war had become clear and
| gripped our hearts.
Our brothers from many lands, ne
well rs our own murdered dead under
the sea, were calling to us, and we re-
spOnded, fiercely and of course.
I'VE accepted the issues of the war
rs facts, not as any group of men
either here or elsewhere had defined
them, and we can accept no outcome
which does not squarely meet and set
tie them.
The Wars Issues.
Those issues are these.
"Shall the military power of any ma.
ton or group of nations be suffered to
determine the fortunes of peoples over
whom they have no right to rule ex-
cept the right of force?
"Shall strong nations be free to
wrong weak nations and make them
subject to their purpose and interest
"Shall people be ruled and domnat.
ed, even in their own internal affairs,
by arbitrary and irresponsible force, or
by their own will and choice?
| "Shall there be a common standard
of right and privilege for all peoples
and nations or shall the strong do ms
they will and the weak suffer without
redress?
"Shall the assertion of right be hap
hazard and by casual alliance or shall
there be common concert to oblige
the observance of common rights?
mo man, no group OF men, chose
these to be the issues of the struggle.
They are the issues of it, and they
must be settled by no arrangement or
compromise or adjustment of interests,
but definitely and once for all and with
a full and unequivocal acceptance of
the principle that the interest of the
weakest is as sacred as the interest of
the strongest
This is what we mean when we
speak of permanent peace, if we
speak sincerely, intelligently, and
with real knowledge and compre-
hension of the matter we deal with.
I'VE are all agreed that there
can he no peace obtained by any
the governments of the central EN-
p;res. because we have dealt with
them already and have seen them
deal with other governments that were
party to this struggle, at Brest-Litovsk
and Bucharest.
/ "They have convinced us that
they are without honor and do not
intend justice. They observe no
covenants. accept no principle but
force and their own interests.
"We cannot come to terms with
them. They have made 1t impossible.
THE German people must by this
time be fully aware that we cannot
accept the word Of those who forced
this war upon us. We do not think
the same thoughts or speak the same
language Of agreement.
1T Is Of capital Importance that we
should be explicitly agreed that no
peece shall be obtained by any kind
OF compromise or abatement of the
principles we have avowed as the prin-
ciples for which we are fighting
There should exist no doubt about
that. i am, therefore, going to take
the liberty of speaking with the ut
most frankness about the practical Inn
piications that are involved in 1t.
Foe Must Pay Price.
IF II be in deed and In truth the
common object of the governments
associated against Germany and OF
the nations whom they govern, as
believe II to be. to achieve by the COM
Ing settlements secure and lasting
peace, II will be necessary that all
who sit down at the peace table shall
come ready and willing to pay the
price. the only price. that will pro-
cure 1t; and ready and willing also to