The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-05-13
GERMANY RENOUECES'
Too Many Sentences In Peace Treaty
Start Thus, Objects Scheide-
mann-Text of Speech.
(By the Associated Press. }


mann, the German chancellor, in his
speech before the national assembly
here today, said that the occasion was
the turning point in the life of the
German people as the assembly was
to decide the attitude toward what
our adversaries call peace conditions.
THE representatives of the nation
he continued, meet here as the last
band of the faithful assemblies when
the fatherland is in great danger. All
have appeared except the representa-
tives of Alsace-Lorraine, who have
been deprived of the right to be rep
resented here just as you are to be de-
prived of the right to exercise in a
free vote the right of self-determina-
ton. And l see among you the rep
resentatives of all the German races
and lands, the chosen representatives
of all the Rhineland, the Sarre, East
Prussia, West Prussia, PoSen,. Sllesla,
Danzig and Memel. Together with
the deputies of the unmenaced, re-
gions, l see the deputies of the men
| aced provinces who, if the will of our
| enemies becomes law, are to meet for
| the last time as Germans amongst
Germans.
II know 1 am one in heart with you
| in the gravity and 'sanctfty of this
| hour which should be ruled by only
one idea-that we belong to one an
other and must stand by one another
| and that we are one flesh and one
| blood and that whoever tries to sever
1 us is driving a murderouS knife into
the living body of the German people.
4 ITO keep our nation alive-that and
| nothing elSe-is our duty. We are pur-
| suing no nationalistic dreams. No
| questions of prestige and no thirst for
| power have a part in our del1bera-
tions. Bare life is what we must have
| for our land and nation today while
| everyone feels a throttling hand at
| his throat
| Let me speak without tactical con-
| siderations The thing which is at the
| basis of our discussion is this thick
| volume in which 100 sentences begin
| Germany renounces.' This dreadful
| and murderous volume by which con-
| fession our own unworthiness, our
| consent to pitiless disruption, our
agreement to helotry and slavery are
| to be eXtorted-this book must not be-
come the future code of law -
| THE world has once again lost an
| illusion. The nations have in this
period which is so poor in ideals,
again lost a belief. What name on
| thousands of bloody battlefieldS, in
| thousands of trenches, in orphan fam
] lilies, and long the despairing and
| abandoned has been mentioned during
these four years with more devotion
| and belief than the name of Wilson?
|
err, as = the world pictured him, is
'paling.
"All over Berlin we see posters in
| tended to arouse practical love for
our brothers in captivity. They show
sad and hopeless faces behind the
prison bars-that is the right frontis-
piece for the so called peace treaty.
| true portrait of Germanys future.
Sixty millions are behind the barbed
wire and the prison bars-sixty mil
Of 6or Io1N ff1,- h fbn
my makes their own land a prison
camp. Should the peace conditions
be accepted, Germany no longer could
call anything her own which lies out
| side these narrow bounds. Germany
| has ceased to exist abroad but if that
were not sufficient her cables have
| been taken from her and her wireless
stations can send only commercial
| kilograms and then only under con-
| troll of the allies. This would separate
| us from the outer world for what bust
| ness can be done under the control of
competitors need not to be described.
But this is far from enough. The
council therefore determines treaties
| between enemy countries to be null
and void except such treaties whose
| execution is in favor of a government
of the allied powers.
What does President Wilson so
aptly say? That the first principle of
peace itself is equality, equal partici-
patton in common beliefs"
Herr Scheidemann then argued that
this principle had been abrogated in
the peace terms
He continued:
THAT is the Jail picture in its ex-
ternal aspects; without ships because I
| the mercantile fleet passes into en-
| tente hands; without cables: without |
colonies; without foreign settlements; /
without reciprocity and legal protec- |
ton, yes. and even without the right |
to cooperate in fixing the prices for
the goods and articles which we have
| to deliver tribute
Il ask you what honest man will |
say that Germany can accept such |
conditions"