The Sunday Oregonian., October 21, 1917, SECTION THREE, Page 11, Image 51

11
DR. STEPHEN S. WISE, ONCE PACIFIST, NOW IS FIRM FOR WAR
"What We Are Fighting For" Is Title of Stirring Article by Former Portland Rabbi, Who Scores People's Council,
THE SUNDAY" OREGOXIAN, PORTLAND. . OCTOBER 21, 1917,
DR. STEPHEN S. WISE
AVAR,
Dr. Stephen S. Wise, author of
the accompanying- article, "What
We Are Fighting- For," is rabbi
of the Free Synagogue of New
York City. He is well known in
Portland, where he was formerly
rabbi of Temple Beth Israel.
Dr. Wise's antipathy for war Is
well known. Before the present
war began he was a member of
the executive committee of the
American Union Against Mill-"
tarism. He withdrew from that
organization and has been a firm
and enthusiastic supporter of
President Wilson's war pro
gramme. The discourse hero
printed is an eloquent and con
vincing answer to the pacifists
who are now crippling' America
in the country's great struggle
for democracy.
1. And in the 18th year, the 2 and 20th
day of the first month, there was talk In the
house of Nebuchadnezzar, King of the A-
eyrians. that he should, as he uald, avenge
himself on all the earth.
2. So he called unto him all his officers,
and all his nobles, nnd communicated with
tli em his secret counsel, and concluded the
afflicting of the whole earth out of his own
mouth.
3. Then thy decreed, to destroy all flesh,
that did not obey the commandment of his
znouth.
4. And when he had ended his counsel,
Kebuchadnezzar, King of the Assyrians,
called Holofernes. the chief captain of his
aimy. which was next unto him, and said
unto him.
5. Thus salth the great king, the lord of
the whole earth. Behold, thou shalt go
foith from my presence, and take with thee
men that trust in their own strength, of
footmen an hundred and twenty thousand ;
and the number of horses with their riders
twelve thousand.
6. And thou shalt go against all the west
country, because they disobeyed my com
mandment. 7. And thou shalt declare unto them, that
they prepare for me earth and water; for
I will go forth In my wrath against them,
and will cover the whole face of the earth
with the feet of mine army, and I will give
them for a spoil unto them:
8. So that their slain shall fill their tsI
lcys and their brooks, and the river shall
be filled with their dead, till it overflow:
0. And I will lead them captives to the
Utmost parts of all the earth.
10. Thou therefore shalt go forth, and
take beforehand for me all their coasts:
and If they will yield themselves unto thee,
thou shalt reserve them for me till the day
f their punishment.
11. But concerning them that rebel, let
iot thine eye spare them; but put them to
the slaughter, and spoil them wheresoever
thou goest.
12. For as I live, and by the power of
my kingdom whatsoever I have spoken,
that will 1 do by mine hand. Judith 11:1-12.
41. For the earth hast thou not judged
with truth.
4ii. For thou hast afflicted the meek, thou
hast hurt the peaceable, thou hast loved
liars, and destroyed the dwellings of them
that brought forth fruit, and hast cast
down tne walls of such as did thee no harm.
4:t Thi -rer'oi r is thv wrongful dealing ;
come up unto the highest, aud thy pride
vnto the might v.
44. The highest also hath looked upon
the proud times, and Dehold. they are ended,
and his abominations are fulfilled.
4X. And therefore appear no more, thou
eagle, nor thy horrible wings, nor thy
wicked feathers, nor thy malicious heads,
nor thy hurtful claws, nor all thy vain
body.
4. That all the varth may be refreshed,
nnd may return, being delivered from thy
violence, and that she may hope for the
Judgment and mercy ot him that made her,
H Esdras xi:41-4fl.
11. For thy power stnndeth not In multi
tude, nor thy might in strong men: for
thou art a God of he afflicted, an helper
f the oppressed, an upholder of the weak.
t protector of the forlorn, a savior of them
that are without hope.
12. I pray thee, I pray thee. O God of
mv father and lod of the Inheritance of
Israel. Lord of tne heavens and earth, cre
ator of the waters, king of every creature,
hear, thou my prayer:
j:t. And make my speech and deceit to
he their wound and stripe, who have pur
pnstd cruel things against thy convenant.
pnd thv hallowed house, and against the
top of Sioii. and against the house of the
pi ssension of thy children.
14. And make ev- ry nut Ion and tribe to
acknowledge that thou art the God of all
power and might and that there Is none
other that protecteth the people of Israel
but thou. Judith x:ll-14.
BY DR. STEPHEN S.TVISE.
I HAVE the right to speak out. I have
never feared to be in a minority. I
am not fearful today. Show me a
cause, and I will speak out though
alone. I have never held, "My country,
right or wrong." Whenever I believed
my city, state or country to be in the
wrong, I have dared to cry out, and I
have done it asain and again. "What
Is more, I have done it at a cost. My
convictions, like my pulpit, are my
own. I have ever held with another
American of alien birth, whom the
perfidy of Prussia gave to America,
a patriot in peace and a hero in war,
"My country, when right to keep right,
when wrong to set right."
Today, my country is in the right.
My country is not only in the right but
It is wholly, gloriously, holily in the
right, and I mean to proclaim this
even though I find myself almost for
the first time one of au uncomfortably
large majority.
A word must be spoken in justifica
tion of those of us who have been
peace men, opponents of militarism,
who seem now to belle the professions
of a lifetime. The easiest way to dis
pose of us is to hold that we were fair
weather friends of peace, and that the
moment it became difficult and hurt
ful to remain peace advocates, in that
moment we scuttled like rats. Some of
us think we may claim to have earned
the right to respect for the integrity
of our convictions on the score of un
afraid speech and acts. But, I ask,
what has happened to convert great
numbers of us, lifelong anti-militarists,
into inflexible supporters of the pol
icies of the President, supporters of, to
name a concrete embodiment of those
policies, the reply of President Wilson
to the peace-note of the Pope.
What is it, unless one lightly hold
that we have succumbed to public
clamor and stifled all convictions at its
behest, that has moved us to keep these
convictions in abeyance and to urge,
as I urge today, that we cannot and
will not consider peace at the instance
of Prussia, or of any witting or un
witting agents of Prussia. The only
peace the American people will ever be
prepared to consider is a peace which
must be disastrous to every hope of
Prussia's rulers or a peace made over
their heads and perhaps over their
bodies with the German people, re
turned to reason and humaneness after
the dethronement of the war-mad lords,
who have been suffered to defile and
to damn the whole German people.
What is the secret of the transfor
mation of us who have been life-long
an ti-militarists into unequivocal sup
porters of the Government and its war
policies? And, may 1 not parenthet
ically ask the further question, have
we not the right to cherish a sense of
grievance against a government, which
makes us feel that such is the German
led conspiracy against the peace and
well-being of the world that we must
first save the world as best we can
before we dare hope to free it from the
curse of war? The answer to the
question, what has moved us to waive
or to seem to waive our faith that war
Is never justifiable has been given ade
quately, as far as we are concerned, by
the course of the I 'resident of the
United States since August, 1914. He
willed, as we willed, not to enter the
war; he believed, as we believed, that
the cause of just and durable peace
would best be furthered by keeping
our continent outside of the war zone,
not that we might softly and meanly
save ourselves and our sons, but that
we might greatly and. nobly serve a
war-wearied world.
In all this, the personal reference
must be forgiven, I was not neutral,
not for one moment since the war be
gan. I did not choose to side with the
Allies. Prussia and Prussianism left
me no freedom of choice. Prussia
made a choice unnecessary, even im
possible, since the beginning of the
war to all those whose power to judge
morally was not deadened by a sense of
mistaken loyalties.
Is there any man who imagines that,
because his mother or father was born
within one of the Central European
states, he must be a supporter of the
present German government? I loved
and honored my father, who was a
native, and throughout much of his
life a citizen, of one of the German Em
pires, but I will not dishonor my
father in his grave by believing that
if he were living he would not have
felt as deeply as I feel that no room
must be left in the world for that
species of organized criminality tem
porarily invested with the name and
title of the German government. It
were a poor and woefully mistaken
loyalty on my part to assume that my
father would have condoned and even
commended the Prussian way of 'live
and not let live' which is abhorrent
to the soul of every just being.
The President not merly willed to
keep us out of war but throughout
nearly three years of irritation and in
sult, of contumely and outrage, he
achieved the miracle of keeping us out
of war. Why did the President in the
end lead us into the war? Because he
saw that we were not so much chal
lenged to war as to defend the ele
mentary treasures and sanctities of life
in the only terms Intelligible to that
band of militarists who had brought
hurt to half the world and shame un
utterable to their dumbly trusting anjd
therefore unrevolting peoples. They
who cry out that we at last yielded to
the war-impulse and the war-hysteria
forget or will to ignore the three years
of unexampled patience on the part of
the American people and our leader,
and that we have not so much gone td
war as set out to stay the fury of a
desolating forest fire, its murderous
flames fed of human will and purpose.
If in the process we, starting back
fires, must put our hands to weapons
of force and fury, the fault before God
lies not in ourselves but in those crea
tures of blood and iron whose last war
this was in truth to be. None other
would have been neeessary if their
work of terrorism had been well and
quickly done In accordance with long
time and foul plotting. This is to be
our last war that it may never again
become possible t enew the criminal
aggressions throuj,.. which Germany
planned to make war forever im
possible. We have frankly and fully given the
reasons which have moved not a few
peace advocates like myself to see that
we could not serve Prussia better than
by dealing with this war as if it were
just another in a series of wars for
land plunder, for trade spoliation. In
the light of our candid confession, we
may venture to turn to the People's
Council with its resounding demands
for peace and briefly consider the
character of its leadership. Included
therein let us be just are some men
and women of blameless integrity, who
hold that war is never justifiable, who
therefore are opposed to the war in
which we are engaged and to its vig
orous and triumphant prosecution.
These are the pacifists in whose eyes
England and France were as guilty
yesterday and we today as was and
is Germany of the crime of war. Per
haps even guiltier than Germany, for
if the latter had met with no armed
resistance in Belgium and France on
the West, in Serbia on the south and
Russia on the east, instead of bloody
war we should have had peaceful, even
benignant, penetration of all these
lands by unchallenged and therefore
unoffending Germany!
But groups other than the uncom
promising pacifists are to be found In
the leadership of the People's Council
and these, mindful of the seriousness
of my charge, I accuse of readiness to
accept an outcome of the war which
would not bring peace to men, but seal
the dominance of the sword- in the
world. Numerically strongest in the
leadership of the People's Council is a
group of Socialists, not of the parlor
or drawing-room variety, but of the
basement and cellar type, who, like
their German colleagues from the be
ginning of the war, have served the in
terests of Germany rather than that
genius of internationalism which is
supposed to preside over the councils
of the Socialist party. These American
Socialists have not frankly admitted
that they were pro-German, but, if
their lead had been followed, we should
have remained permanently neutral as
between savagely offending Germany
and all her desolated victims. The So
cialist party has, we have come to see.
been politically and morally tainted by
the German captaincy of a nominally
internationalist movement and we are
rejoiced to see some brave spirits step
out of the Socialist ranks and protest,
to use the vocabulary of Socialism,
against a completely bourgeois accept
ance of the Prussian programme by the
rank and tile of American Socialists.
The strict and straight pacifist atti
tude is intelligible, however gravely
erring we deem it. Even the Socialist
position is not Inexplicable, though la
mentable from the view point of those
who had hoped for a helpfully interna
tional mind in Socialist circles. But
there is a third group dominant In the
People's Council, its supermen, to use
what is not unfitting in the circum
stances a bit of German terminology. '
The impromptu peace advocates tell us:
'We have come in the midst of war
to aid in the cause of peace.' Is it un
gracious to ask the question what has
moved these persons for the first time
in their lives to espouse the cause of
peace? They know, but they will not
speak. I know and I will speak for
them. They have come to aid the
cause of peace not for the sake of
America, nor yet chiefly for the sake
of peace, but primarily, if not solely,
for the sake of Pax Germanica, a peace
that shall be made in Germany even as
the war was made by Germany.
These gentlemen, whose peace pas
sion is rather recent and belated, long
viewed with the equanimity of silence,
if not with vocal satisfaction, the war
that is. although the war today is not
one whit more terrible than it was on
the day the Prussian wreckers of the
world s peace battered down the gates
of Belgium and flooded the land with
a sea of terror. The war is more ex
tensive in area, but it is not by one
iota more awful than on the day which
found the German armies, under the
captaincy of the Prussian mind, deso
lating Belgium and France and begin
ning a reign of terror, which will just
ly move the world to give the Huns a
second place by the side of the unpity
ing brutism of the Prussian hosts.
These improvisators in the symphony
of peace were little disturbed by the
fiendishness of the German army, the
dishonor of German statesmanship, the
ruthlessness of every step in the proc
esses of Germany's war upon man
kind. Therefore, we who were and re
anti-militarists and have never been
neutral as between Germany and a
world at bay, we, who in the word of
Professor Vernon Kellogg, are not for
war, but for Hum wm to a just end, we
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turn to these gentlemen of the People's
Council one of whom grievously and it
may yet prove disastrously, misrepre
sents the mind of the American Jew
and we say: You cry for peace and pur
port to be the People's Council. Which
people do you represent? Not the Amer
ican people! Not the British, nor the
French, nor the Belgian, nor the Rus
sian, nor the Serbian, nor the Italian!
The People's Council! You are the be
trayers of the peoples of earth. God
pity the peoples whose cause you feign
to champion. Is It perhaps the Ger
man people? No, not even they, for you
are not their friend as are we who
would, and under God will, liberate
them. If by any moral calamity the
People's Council should gain the ascend
ancy in American life, the German peo
ple would be perhaps forever enslaved
by that Hohe.izollernism whose doom
under the heavens we have willed and
spoken.
No, these gentlemen, the Impromptu
advocates of peace a la Bernstorff, are
not doing the will of Germany. Know
ingly or unknowingly they are doing
the will of Germany's imperial master.
They represent the people of Germany
as little as they represent the people
of the United States. As far as their
participation therein is concerned the
People's Council might be given the
subject of Wllhelmstrasse. If anything
this is a conspiracy against tha people
of Germany to perpetuate their Oond.-
age, to rivet a little tighter the ilohen
zollern chains. After another genera
tion, not Michaelis, not Luxburg, not
Kuhlemann nor a handful of their
American coadjutors one of whom, I
grieve to say, is a Jew, negligible in
himself, but for one reason or another
possessed of powerful friends and sup
porters in Jewish affairs will ever be
cherished as the liberators of Germany
as will be cherished Llebknecht the
German and Woodrow Wilson the
American.
The first. In a sense Inclusive, de
mand of one of the authoritative
spokesmen of the People's Council is
A speedy and universal and demo
cratic peace." But this raises the fun
damental question to which a new em
phasis has been given by the Presi
dent's reply to the Pope a reply that
is not so much, as it has been culled, a
political coup as a spiritual achieve
ment of the highest order. How can
any terms of peace be considered as
long as the present German governiiiont
remains unshaken and peace must be
concluded therewith? There was a time
when it might have been asked who
will guarantee the good faith of the
imperial masters of Germany bound
up with the eternal infamy of the
names Liege and Louvain, the LUita
nia and the Sussex, CRVell and Fryatt?
Who can guarantee the good faith of
any covenant made with the professors
of the scrap-of-paper theory of
treaties? That day has gone and gone
forever. The Kaiser's work is become
the villainy of Zlmmermann, the per
fidy of Luxburg, the shame of Bern
storff. The only way to guarantee the good
faith of any treaty made with the Ger
man government is to make no treaty
with it that is not sealed by the Ger
man people after it shall have re
gained freedom. Let some of the lead
ers of the People's Council get into
touch with the governments, If not the
peoples, of the central powers, which
governments ought not be Inaccessible
to them, and let these make cleat that
the world is resolved to make no peace
with the German peoples as long as
Kaiserinm, uncontrolled and irrespon
sible, remains their accredited aront.
They must give guarantees of good
faith to the allied peoples which guar
antees Kaisers must be cert:lled to be
neither free nor able to repudiate.
Speedy, universal and democratic
peace! Let us not be deceived. These
terms are not Interchangeable. Peace
might be effected speedily and univer
sally. If withal the peace be 'not dem
ocratic, it will not be worthy of the
name of peace. That the peoples or
earth desire peace, speedy and univer
sal, is the veriest truism, for such
yearning is born out of the travail and
agony of three years of hell-like nr.
The one guarantee upon which the
bleeding peoples must insist is that the
peace shall bf democratic, for none
other can be Just and lasting. Kaisers
broke peace and made war. The peo
ple must break Kaisers and make
peace.
The first urging of the authorized rep
resentative of the Peace Council was
an Immediate public statement of our
war aims and our peace terms. - The
President has since made such a state
ment a statement Instinct with the
statesmanship which the imperial Ger
man government is unable to envisage,
instinct with the magnanimity which
it had confounded with all-sufrering
cowardice. None the less, in the light
of the President's immortal utterance,
which rather takes the matter alike
out of the hands of the Kaiser and the
People's Council, we may give more
specific answer to some of the ques
tions raised by and on behalf of the
People's Council.
"Will we be ready to end the war
and make peace if this ruthless subma
rine warfare be ended?" The war has
long ceased to be a matter of ending
ruthless submarine warfare. There will
be no peace until the German people,
disobedient to the Hohenzollern vision,
are ready to end their sub-human war
fare, ruthless and truthless, on sea and
on land and in the air. against the
peafie aad security el th world. It
seems needless Iteration to say to the
spokesman of the People's Council,
anent his sneer touching the making of
the world safe for democracy, that
what we the fighting for is nothing
less than that high and majestic end.
"What degree of safety do we require
and what degree of democracy will sat
isfy us?" Such a degree of safety Is
required that a renewal of the German
imperial felony shall be impossible,
such a degree of safety as shall be as
sured to the world by the inability or
the unwillingness of Germany to renew
the crime of 1814, such a degree of de
mocracy as can come only after the
passing of Kaiserlsm, militarism, jun
kerism. What are we fighting for? The an
swer is best given by considering a
further query, far from ingenuous, of
the People's Council, "Is a military de
feat of Germany absolutely essential
before we shall agree to peace so that
Germany and all men may know that
Germany's militarism is not invinci
ble?" Yes, we repeat, Germany and all
men must know and Germany must
prove that she knows that her mili
tarism is not invincible by adopting
such a policy of national renunciation
as shall make clear her understanding,
however sorrowful, that no nation
against which the world must perforce
unite is Invincible. Far from achieving
gains of territory and population and
power through assailing the sons and
daughters of men and violating every
scruple of the moral sense of mankind,
the German people must come to see
that German militarism has brought
down upon her the loathing of the law
ful and honorable peoples of earth and
may yet necessitate a concert of peo
ples in order to prevent the world be
ing made unsafe for democracy and
peace by reason of German autocracy
and German militarism.
Germany must not only be compelled
to realize that her militarism is far
from Invincible, but this must be
brought home In a German', under
standable way. In a word, no gain of
any kind must be suffered to accrue to
Germany in consequence of the war.
Not invincible and most unprofitable
must German militarism be shown to
be to the German people. It Is because
of this that the evacuation of ravaged
lands and the restoration of plundered
goods will not sufTice. If at the end of
the war the central European alliance
be established under Prussian domina
tion, for one thing Prussia will have
won a hundred Belgiums and Alsace
Lorraines, and over and beyond that
the seed will have been planted which
in the next generation will yield a har
vest of bitter and bloody revolt against
Prussian dominance by the alien rather
than allied, peoples of Austro-Hun-gary.
Bulgaria and Turkey. In a word,
Prussia must not be permitted to re
imburse Itself for its failure In the
west by annexing Central Europe. No
gain or profit of any kind for Germany
from this war must be Germany's fate
as it is the decree of free peoples. Ger
many must long remain, as she Is be
come, infinitely poorer by reason of the
forfeiture of the world's respect, which
nothing less than the exorcism of the
devil of militarism shall ever regain
for the purged soul of the Germans.
They, who speak with the authority
of the People's Council, not alone urge
that we must accept the peace pro
gramme which more than anything else
has divided, and, for a time in any
event broken. Russia, but that It Is in
cumbent upon us to take over the Rus
sian programme In its entirely because
of its finer ethical quality. These
friends neither of Russia nor of Rus
sian freedom scornfully bid the Ameri
can people remember "that the ideal
istic war aims of the Russians must be
made the war alms of their allies." I
make bold to hold that no aims can be
more idealistic than our own. not even
the Russian war aims, assuming that
these were Russian rather than what
they are. namely, of Prussian origin
and Prussian imposition. The Russians
at best are fighting for their own free
dom primarily and only secondarily for
the freedom of the world. We are war
ring primarily for the freedom of the
world and only secondarily, if at all.
for our own. They are the friends of
Russia who understand that any al
liance with the Kohenzollerns at this
time would prove fatal to Russian free
dom and democracy as has been the
rule of the Romanoffs, with the dif
ference that the Romanoff dynasty
was blundering, ineffective and remov
able, but that It might take genera
tions of bloodshed to dislodge the
super-efficient rule of the ilohen
zollerns. The Prussian alliance with
the Romanoffs long delayed the day of
Russian freedom. Let not Russia again
invite Prussia to become er evil star.
Happily the Russian people do not
require to be warned against the In
sidious counsel of Prussian agents,
whether in Germany or In these United
States, that they must choose between
Prussia on the one hand, and Eng
land. France, Italy and these United
States on the other. If they choose
Prussia, they will go back to autocracy.
If they choose the Allied nations they
will take their place in the march of
triumphant democracy. If the Russians
choose Prussia, they will hare neither
peace nor democracy. If they and we
stand together, Russia's will be de
mocracy and peace will be the portion
of all free peoples. If Russia, I repeat,
should part from her allies, these will
go on. but Russian freedom and de
mocracy will lor time in any event
go out. And Russia will have been be
trayed not for the first time by the
wiles and power of Prussia. The House
of Romanoff appears not to be alone
In its readiness to sacrifice Russian
wellbeing upon the altar of Prussian
purpose.
What is this German-manufactured
peace programme to which when we
are told "Would to heaven that this
were Germany's programme for peace,"
we are tempted to reply, "Why drag in
heaven?" For In truth this is not
Russia's heavenly peace programme
but Germany's hell-born war aim. The
People's Council of Peace and Democ
racy offers its approval of the so-called
peace terms of the Russian Republic.
"No forcible annexations, no punitive
Indemnities, free development of all
nations and peoples and nationalities."
"No forcible annexations;" We under
stand the English of it, but what is the
Prussian of the term, "No forcible an
nexations?" Even if it were true, as It
is false, that the resolutions of the
Reichstag commit Germany, as far as
Germany is commitable. to the accept
ance of "No forcible annexations." such
of the world as is guided by the in
stinct of honor and truthfulness will
rightly demand that Prussia define in
unequivocal and unmistakable terms.
"No forcible annexations." The Ger
man government may conceive that the
permanent occupancy of Belgium, or
the choicest parts thereof, would not
constitute "forcible annexation," but
rather peaceable permeation. Who be
sides the leaders of the People's Coun
cil will presume to guarantee that the
retention of Belgium will not come un
der the category of a much-used term
in Prussia, "the rectification of the
western frontier," that this is the ob
viating of a neighbor Inconveniently
faithful to a plighted covenant? Ger
many wills not to annex. She merely
aims to bless, to be surrounded by
morally rapeable neighbors such as
broken little Luxemburg or Switzer
land, Holland and Sweden.
But the German Chancellor, with
strange disregard of the niceties of
relationship to one's allies and de
fenders in belligerent countries, has
refrained from indorsing the pro
gramme of the People's Council. "No
forcible annexations." His word is
"The fate of Belgium must be left to
the hands of our negotiators"; and our
word to him and through him to the
people to whom he is nominally re
sponsible is, ."As long as you speak of
Belgium in the terms of negotiation, no
American who is not ready to palter
with American honor will mention the
word peace. Preliminary and uncondi
tional must be the evacuation of
Belgium, the restoration of the land
and reparation to its tragically suffer
ing people." As long as Germany and
her rulers speak of Belgium's fate in
the terms of future negotiation, we
cannot meet to consider peace. for
there is no language which we can
speak in common. We are in truth
ready to sacrifice much, to Invest all
we have and all we are, the treasure
of the Nation and 'the priceless life of
its sons. Yea, there is no sacrifice that
we will not offer up ere we shall suffer
Germany to hold a foot . of Belguim
soil, to retain any power tangible or
Intangible over Belgium with the free
dom of which the honor of free peoples
is bound up.
For yet another reason, "No forcible
annexations" does not meet the needs
of the world's situation as we see it.
For "No forcible annexations," even
assuming that It Imply the restoration
of Belgium to itself, has no reference
whatsoever to the question of Alsace
Lorraine. Alsace-Lorraine must be re
stored to France as truly as Belgium
must be restored to itself. The resti
tution of stolen goods is not in courts
of law considered cruelly punitive but
elementarily just. Alsace-Lorraine,
anart from the agony endured by its
people for 40 years, was the price which
Prussia offered the kingdoms and peo
ples of Germany for their acquiescence
in the Imperial hegemony of Prussia,
for their assent to the programme of
blood and iron, that is the looting of
lands and the blood-letting of their
peoples.
To the representative of the People's
Council, who with an almost Prussian
tense of reality and a wholly Prussian
scorn of the immaterial, asks: "Have
we gone to war to help France get back
her lost provinces, and are we com
mitted to the theory of restoring all
provinces lost in the past 60 years?" I
answer: "No, we did not go to war to
help France get back her lost prov
inces, for France refrained for 40 years
from attempting to right the unspeak
able wrong which the world suffered
Prussia to inflict upon France. While
we have not gone to war to help
France get back her lost provinces, we
are not going to have peace until the
shameful deed of 18T1 be undone, until
the crime which wrested two lands and
two peoples from the France of their
imperishable love and put them under
the heel of that foreign brutality which
culminated in Zabern shall have seen
expiated by the return of inalienable
Alsace-Lorraine from the hands of
Prussia to the arms of France.
To the spokesman of the People's
Council it appears to be highly unde
sirable "to embark upon the compli
cated enterprise of restoring lost prov
inces," and that "all territorial read
justments must be secured through ne
gotiation." We must be permitted to
dissent from the designation, "the com
plicated enterprise of restoring - lost
provinces," and to say that nothing
could be simpler than the enterprise of
restoring stolen not lost provinces,
provinces as wantonly ravaged from
France in 1871 as Belgium was ravaged
in 1914. It is not without significance
that the voice of the People's Council
anticipates the decree of a Prussian
master. "All territorial readjustments
must be secured through negotiation."
Let It be understood alike by the Peo
ple's Council of Prussia and the Mich
aelists and Kuhlemann's of the United
States that evacuation, reparation and
restoration are beyond the reach of
negotiation until that hour, which will
never come, that shall find the Amer
ican people wearied of sacrifice In order
to reaffirm the freedom even of the
least of peoples.
The People's Council, with an indif
ference to the wrongs perpetrated by
Prussia that is born either of cynical
levity or an 'insufficiently disguised
Prussian sympathy, reaffirms the "no
punitive indemnities" of the quasi
Russian peace plan. With appalling
disingenuousnegs this aim Is linked
with the word of the President: "We
desire no conquest and no dominion.
We seek no indemnity for ourselves, no
material compensation." Fpr one thing.
It Is of the very essence of insincerity
to allude to indemnity as if it were of
necessity punitive. Moreover, It Is
known of all men that we shall never
stoop to demand Indemnity nor defile
ourselves by taking over any measure
of Germany's gold. We, however, are
not circumstanced as are Serbia and
Belgium. These are entitled not mere
ly to evacuation and to restoration, but
to that indemnity which the super
refined and Teutoni'cally delicate taste
of the People's Council may look upon
as punitive, which an unvindlctive
world will view as justified by every in
stinct of right feeling alike toward
Germany and the peoples which she has
brought low.
As for the third item of the pro
gramme, "The free development of all
nations and peoples and nationalities."
to offer this In the name of Prussia
is a sorry Jest. The very cornerstone
of the Prussian structure of state ts
Done other than a complete and wanton!
disregard for the freedom of nations
and peoples unless these are physically
strong enough to maintain their own
freedom. A German victory, happily
become unthinkable, would mean the
end of freedom for every nation and
people that was not able to secure it
through the arbitrament of the sword.
Germany is warring upon the world
and the world, including our Nation,
has accepted the gage of battle because
all men, who are not In thrall to Teu
tonism, understand that the triumph
of German arms would end freedom and
self-rule for every lesser people that
did not bow the knee in the temple of
the new Rimmon. For it is incontesta
bly true that the German government
has ceased to revere right as right. It
obeys no law but that of might: it
honors no sanction save that of power;
it reveres no shrine unless it be a for
tress. In maintaining as we do that the
policies of the People's Council, if ac
cepted by Americans, would inflict un
told hurt not only upon Prussia's bleed
inf victims, but upon the moral fabric
which up to this time has withstood
the storm of war. I point out and lit
erally cite utterance after utterance of
an authorized spokesman of the Peo
ple's Council. The People's Council Is
for the most part guilty of a blunder
ing moral judgment which vitiates
every counsel that It may choose to
ofTer the nations. The People's Coun
cil is neutral as between Germany and
Belgium, between Austria and Serbia,
between Turkey and Armenia. The
American people have long since ceased
to be neutral as between Germany and
the nations upon which she is waging
war. The People's Council deals with
this war as If it were "just a war,"
"another war." as If It were another of
history's mighty conflicts in the inter
est of territorial agrandizement or
trade opportunity, as if Germany and
England, Germany and France, being
alike at war these nations were equal
ly guilty of the unspeakable crime of
war.
Is further proof required of the
moral neutrality of the People's Coun
cil, which moral neutrality was inde
fensible even during that time in which
neutrality of action was officially en
joined, than the proposal of the repre
sentative of the People's Council that
there be "an International assumption
of the expense of reconstruction devas
tated areas in Europe, a large propor
tion to be borne by the United States In
return for guarantees of future peace"?
Such "international assumption" would
be thinkable in a world which had sur
rendered to Prussian arms or been sub
dued to Prussian alms. But nothing
less than Prussian triumph could ever
necessitate so basely craven a solution
of a war problem. That many, if not
all, of the leaders of the People's Coun
cil view the Teutonic and the allied
nations as equally responsible for the
world disaster is witnessed by the use
of the phrase "the imperialistic ambi
tions of the belligerents." "be they
called autocracies or democracies," as
if this war were the result of clashing
"imperialist ambitions" a phrase
which in truth points not to moral neu
trality, but to the condonation of all
that Prussia has done and the con
demnation of the allied powers, irre
spective of guilt or innocence.
Nothing interprets the mind of the
People's Council better than a word of
its accredited champion, seemingly in
nocuous but in truth charged with the
poison of ill-will and bitterness toward
those European nations, that thwarted
the lawless and dastardly conspiracy of
the imperial German government. ?'We
know how futile all wars are.- this one
among them." Futile, forsooth! The
war of 1871 was not f utile. It was an
Immeasurable triumph for the new
Germany created by the mind of Bis
marck and fortified by arms under the
leadership of Von Moltke. .The war
of 1914 would not have been futile if
England unconquerable and France
all-glorious had not stepped into the
breach and by the side of little Bel
glum with bared and bleeding body
have withstood the most foul and
fiendish assault upon the peace of the
world that has ever been made. This
war. viewing the ambition of imperial
Germany, will be futile because our
allies and we have willed that futile
it shall be. It will not be futile If the
American people commit the inexpiable
moral blunder of bargaining and traf
ficking with Germany touching the fate
of any of the lands German-invaded.
The American people will give scant
hearing to any unpaid servant of
Kaiserlsm possessed of such im
perturable moral serenity as to look
upon this world-war and to speak of it
as nothing more than futile. In truth,
if futile It happily prove, it will be be
cause of the righteous and holy wrath,
not shared by the. People's Council,
which the godlessness and inhumanity
of Germany's deeds have aroused among
such Americans as are not serenely in
different to the supreme moral factors
of the international strife. They can
do little for peace and democracy who
speak and act with regard for the war
as if two bands of ruffians were cause
lessly scrimmaging in the streets, as if
nothing more were at stake than the
outcome of a futile struggle between
two equally guilty war groups. They
can little serve either peace or democ
racy who are Indifferent to the origins
of a war. which is nothing less than a
mightily and all but Irresistibly organ
ized assault upon the right of the
lesser peoples to choose their own way
of life Instead of having it made In
Germany for them.
I charge the People's Council with
inability or unwillingness to under
stand the majestic purposes of the
President in moving to make the world
safe for democracy as revealed by its
word. "The Peace Conference will be
convened as soon as the German people
move on from the measure of democ
racy they now have to the measure of
democracy which the President thinks
they ought to have." The question is
not one of the measure of democracy
which the German people have, for
they have none, even though they have
been deluded anew by their Imperial
masters into prating of the democracy
by them enjoyed. Nor Is the issue
bound up with "the measure of democ
racy which the President thinks they
ought to have," a fling at the august
aims of the President of which no man
concerned with the attainment of dem
ocratic ideals by any people could be
guilty. It is not that the President
thinks the German people ought to
have a larger measure of democracy.
The German people might be free to
go on under the autocratic conditions
which are their own, were it not for
the circumstance to be commended to
the People's Council that it is because
of the absence of democratic control In
Germany that the world is In arms to
day. If Germany could be Isolated
from the' rest of the world. It might
remain undisturbed in its autocracy
forever. A Germany that would dwell
by the side of free peoples must free
itself to the point of denying to any
man or group of men the right and the
power to stage such a dire tragedy as
has befallen the sons of men by reason
of the unchecked power of a group of
imperial dynasts.
The People's Council affirms that the
"basis of peace as outlined by the
President are substantially agreed to
by all the belligerents." That may be
the Prussian, but is not the English of
It- This statement is one which proves,
alas, that the debasement or German
izatlon of the minds of men is a phe
nomenon not limited to German-speaking
lands. "Substantially agreed to,"
granting of course that the restoration
and enfranchisement of Belgium Are
not of the substance of the issue at
stake.
Knowing as we do that the voic, of
a great organ of German opinion,
"Neither Hindenburg nor the Emperor
Is minded to deprive himself of the
fruits of victory by adhering to the
surface-meaning of the resolution
adopted In the Reichstag." has not
ceased to embody the mind of Germany,
to hold that the bases of peace as out
lined by the President are substan
tially agreed to by all the belligerents
Is of a piece with that solicitude for
the well-being of the Kaiser which
moves the People's Council nervously
and fearfully to insist, "the President s
message does not call for the dethrone
ment of the Kaiser despite newspaper
headings, nor of any of the present
rulers of Germany." le of a piece with
that insincerity that deprecates "the
suppressing of Stpckholms and such
other International meetings of non
governmental representatives as the
peoples themselves may arrange," when
it is known of all men that Stockholm
was but one skirmish in the Prussian
peace-drive which would have men
aced anew rather than have safeguard
ed the freedom and Integrity of peo
ples; is of a piece with that un-American,
if not anti-American, attitude
which suffers the People's Council to
proclaim. "certainly these political
changes in Germany, in America, in
every land of the world are essential."
as if the German autocracy and the
American republic were In the same
need of democratization. Any man who
directly, or by indirection, alludes to
political changes in Germany and
America looking toward democratiza
tion as if these were equally needed
in both lands has morally forfeited the
priceless dignity of American citizen
ship. What are we fighting for? I have
sought to give answer. I have not
spoken without regard to such mothers
and fathers as have heard me nor been
unmindful .of the heartbreak which the
war will soon come to mean to men
and women scattered throughout the
land, the light of whose eyes will have
failed and the joys of whose hearts
will have faded forever if the war go
forward to its awful consummation of
loss and sacrifice. What are we fight
ing for? My answer to mothers and
fathers is, enviable, even glorious. Is
your lot if you give your sons or bless
their self-dedication to the highest and
holiest of causes in which a people was
ever engaged.
Remember that you, American men
and wgmen, give your sons to no ord
inary war. though outwardly it be war
and nothing more. Remember that
America is not in the war for the sake
of war. Grimly mocking paradox
though it be, we have taken up the
burden of war not for war's sake but
for the sake of peace, which we would
fain have bless victor and vanquished
alike. We have taken up arms, which
we shall not ground until the world be
made safe in the only way in which
the life of nations dwelling together
can be made safe by democracy with
peace and healing on its wings.
Remember, mothers and fathers, this
is not a war. It is the war. It is the
contest of the ages, which we and our
allies together can make the last holo
caust of we be mighty in war and even
mightier in the generosities and mag
nanimities of peace. Your sons have
taken up arms not to slay but to bring
the hope of unbroken life to countless
generations unborn. As your sons tap
forth, be strong, mothers and - fathers.
In the knowledge that the sacrificial
task upon which they are bent is noth
ing less than to make the world free.
If suffering and agony be your lot, call
to mind the little children of Armenia,
the wronged - women of Belgium, the
enslaved men of Servia. and know that
these things can never again come to
pass if your sons, our younger broth
ers, be equal to the challenge which a
free world dare not refuse to meet.
And when you join in the act of sac
rifice, let your spirit be willing and
even joyous as befits the task that
summons. Forget not that the sacrifice
is to be for that which is more precious
than life, even as holy as love, the
liberty of men, the security of peace,
the faith of nations. Your readiness to
sacrifice may make sacrifice unasked
hereafter and your children's children,
yea all the children of men, shall dwell
amid peace and security if the noble
ness of the fathers be equal to the
heroism of the sons.
It Is not too late to save the world,
to make and keep the world free, to
rebuild an order of life that shall be
Just and righteous altogether. That
shall come to pass if you claim - for
your sons something better than life,
remembering:
Twer man', perdition to be safe
When for the truth he ought to die.
Lincoln loved not war, nor more than
we, who loved humanity as few men
on earth have loved humankind, nor
more than Woodrow Wilson, who en
dured all for peace until he must needs
dare war therefor. And Lincoln on the
4th day of March, 1865, as the shadows
were beginning to darken around him
after four long, terrible, bloody years
of war, said, and we the heirs of his
spirit and of his hope proclaim anew:
"With malice toward none, with charity
for all, with firmness in the right as
God gives us to see the right, let us
strive on to finish the work we are In,
to do all which may achieve and
cherish a Just and lasting peace."
MARION GRANGE ELECTS
Subordinate Brandies Report at
Turner Meeting.
TURNER. Or.. Oct. 20. Marion
County Pomona Grange met here on
Wednesday with a large representation
present from the subordinate Granges.
The reports from the subordinate
Granges were very encouraging, show
ing the interest . which they manifest
in all live topics of the day.
The address by Mr. Eddy on "Voca
tional Education" was followed by an
address by County Agent Brown. A
class of 12 was initiated in the fifth
degree. Thelma Delzell sang a patri
otic selection.
The officers elected are: Matfter, W.
H. Stevens; overseer, J. E. Whitehead;
lecturer, Mrs. Rebecca Smith; steward,
A. P. Kirsch; assistant steward, W. A.
Jones; chaplain, Mrs. Mary Howd; sec
retary, Mrs. Eva Jones.
HOOD RIVER WOMEN BUSY
Jlore Than $300 0 Raised by Xewly
Organized Chapter.
HOOD RIVER, Or., Oct 20. (Spe
cial.) The ways and means committee
of the Hood River Chapter of the Red
Cross, organized on May 17, by various
sources adopted for raising revenue for
the chapter in a period of five months
has accumulated a net sum in excess
of $3000. Walter Kimball, a rancher
of the Summit district, appointed chair
man of the ways and means commit
tee, has devoted practically his entire
time to the work of the Red Cross.
The sum of $700 has to date been
realized by the ways and means com
mittee's rummage sales. The largest
item of the total sum raised, however,
will come from donations of fruit and
vegetables made by Valley ranchers
and orchardlsta.