Lincoln County times. (Jerome, Idaho) 1911-1919, 1918-04-11

Delleve0 tnat peace should be DaSeu
upon the principles which we had de-
, clared would be our own in the final
settlement. At Brest-Litovsk her civil
ian delegates spoke in similar terms
| professed their desire to conclude II
fair peace and accord to the peoples
with whose fortunes they were dealing
! the right to choose their own allegi-
ances. But action accompanied and
followed the profession. Their mill
tary masters, the men who act for Ger
many and exhibit her purpose in exc
cution, proclaimed n very different con-
clusion. We can not mistake what they
have done-in Russia, in Finland, 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 enjoying in Russia Il
cheap triumph in which no brave or
gallant nation can long take pride. A
great people, helpless by their own act,
lies for the time at their mercy Their
fair professions are forgotten. They
nowhere set up justice, but everywhere
impose their power and exploit every
thing for their own use and aggran-
dizement; and the peoples Of con-
quered provinces are invited to be free
under their dominion.
Purpose of Teutons Plain.
Are 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? If, when they have felt
their check to be final, they should pro-
pose favorable and equitable terms
with regard to Belgium and France and
Italy, could they blame us if we con-
cluded that they did so only 20 assure
themselves of a 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 Turkey
has dominated and misruled, subject
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 CONNER
cial supremacy-an empire hostile to
the Americas as to the Europe which
1t will overawe-an empire which will
ultimately master Persia, India and the
peoples of the far east. In such a pro-
gram our ideals of justice and human
ity 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, wheth-
er 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.
Freedom of World at Stake.
'sThat 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 trodden under
foot and disregarded, and the old, age
long struggle for freedom and right be-
gin again at its beginning.
Everything that America has lived
for and loved and grown great to vim
dicate and bring to glorious realiza-
ton will have fallen in utter ruin and
the gates of mercy once more pftilessly
shut upon mankind
1.-The thing is preposterous and i'm
nd t.
the whole course and action of the Ger
man armies has meant wherever they
have moved? l do not wish, even in
this moment of utter establishment,
to judge harshly or unrighteously.
Judge only what the German arms have
accomplished with IMPLYING thorough
ness throughout every fair region they
have touched.
What, then, are we to do?
No MISLEADING Meaning.
''For myself, l am ready, ready still.
ready even now, to discuss a fair and
Just and honest peace at any time that
1t Is sincerely purposed-a peace in
which the strong and the weak shall
fare alike; but the answer, when 1 pro-
posed such peace, came from the
German commanders In Russia, and /
mistake the meaning of the an
swer.
Il accept the challenger l know
that you accept it. All the world shall
know that you accept it.
1T shall appear in the utter sacri-
ice and self-forgetfulness with which
we shall give all that we love and all
that we have to redeem the world and
make it fit for free men like ourselves
to live in. This now is the meaning
Of all that we do.
Let everything that we say, my fell
low countrymen, everything that we
plan and accomplish, con-
tinue to this response, until the ma
jesty and might of our concerted power
shall fill the thought and utterly defeat
the force Of those who fiout and mis-
prize what we honor and hold dear
Germany has once more said that
force. and force alone. shall decide
justice and peace shall reign
In the affairs of men, whether right as
America conceives it or dominion as
she conceives it shall determine the
lestinies of mankind.
There is. therefore, but one re-
sponse possible from us:
Force, force to the utmost. force |
without stint or limit, the righteous
and triumphant force which shall
make right the law of the world, and