PROFITEERS AND BITTER ENDERS

...Cteogress was content to leave it all to the President...

...Freedom of the Seas WHILE we wait the makinf...

...It reads as, follows: "II...

...But the Bitter Endera moat ham tin last drop of blood, "ravish Germany cad dtefcrte military peace from the Emperor pal M in Berlin," fevery euggeetUm for a peaes eooferefte* submitted by Germany or Austria was denounced as a "bun trick...

...Verily the "Bitter Enders'' have made a mess of it from present appearances...

...President Wilson thought he was making it all very plain, for his closing paragraph in this address begins with this sentence: "We have spoken now, surely, in terms too concrete to admit of any further doubt or question...

...The German people would have disposed of the Kaiser and Junkerism by a peaceful constitutional reorganization...

...Tot that principle we tare professed to bo willing to saco&a otn laat mam and pierce cur fast dolk» Hcne» ess easy is plain, We oust wait with patience end sympathy nl nope for the Germra peepk to determine for themselves the precise form of democracy under which they desire to live...

...It may sweep over all Europe...

...They were invested with a sort of halo, that made them seem the profound utterances o' new prophet of peace...

...It need v<jt l;c difficult eitn>r f. define or to secure the freedom of *he sers if the governments of the world sincerely desire to come to an agreement c ncerning it.' And Pvesidir.t Wilson cle,'iy defined freedom ct the seas 'n Cause II of his partco proposals of January 8th...

...Clause two is one of the fourteen propositions container...

...But it offers no just reason for outside powers to thrust in by armed intervention under the specious pretext of "putting aa end to bleedsbad and restoring order...

...They must, therefore, reserve to themselves complete freedom on this subject when they enter the peace conference...

...In the clash of contending principles and opinions it is the h<stot> of revolutions that lives will be sacrificed, property destroyed...

...Will they repudiate their war debta and refuse to be assessed with a crushing indemnity which would make them bond slaves for a cea-tury ? President Wilson began his peace drive last January...

...His addresses and messages were not cast in the plain terse form of state papers...

...With what responsible government can a peace b« now concluded ? T. ill the German people like the Russian people declare that the war was nr.t of their making...

...And by every canon of the law, by every principle of honest dealing between men and nations, she is forever estopped from raising any question as to arty and every construction to which ihose proposals are fair-lj open...

...I could get no support for this contention...

...Except for the adroit machinations of the "Bitter End" statesmen and the violent opposition of the press of the profiteers, whose business it was to howl down every approach to peace, until war taxes upon wealth should begin to overbalance wa» profits, he might easily have so won upon the peoples of all the belligerents that be • would months ago have consummated a just and righteous peace, secured by binding* covenants with a responsible government...

...The freedom < * '' e seas is the sina qua non of peace, equality and cooperation...

...We may thinK we know better than the people of Germany what her government should be...

...With the United States financing two-thirds of the daily cock of the war including advances to the Allies and furnishing the best fighters on earth at the rate of three hundred thousand a month, the Bitter Enders and their press in this country and Europe writhed at every suggestion of peace made by President Wilson, and scoffed at every suggestion of a favorable response by Germany or Austria...

...It was the interference with our rights upon the seas which primarily brought us into collision with Germany...

...T'.ese differences may, indeed are, practically certain to further disturb the domestic peace of Germany...

...To that doctrine v* are lotaumry committed...

...Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas outside territorial wat 3, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants...

...It is the way of revolution...

...On the 8th of last January in proposing bis fourteen peace propositions to the German Empire the President said: "Neither do we presume to suggest to her any alterations or modifications of her institutions...

...If the tide of rapidly changing events should set strongly toward industrial democracy for the new Germany, the losing side—the old autocracy may send forth a Macedonian cry for help to "restore order, end anarchy and protect life and property,"—especially property...

...President Wilson's statement on the freedom of the s^.is was not squarely in accord with the views and purposes of Great Britain, then common honesty denrandea from her a prompt declaration of that fact to this government...

...If the Allied Governments "sincerely desire freedom of the seas," or to be more definite if Great Britain sincerely desires freedom of the seas, and regarded President Wilson's statement in Clause II as ambiguous and "open to various interpretations," some of which she "could not accept," she was bound, in good faith to the United States, to make it known at the time...

...Once a raging revolution breaks everywhere in Germany, who is gifted with the prescience to set its boundaries...

...It may convulse the whole world...

...Indeed f for any reason whatever...

...The oppressed of every land may turn and strike...

...of new government in the territory where revolution now holds sway, the Inter-Allied Council at Versailles might set the world at rest on its interpretation of President Wilson's vario's reace proposals...

...l!ut we rhall be damned out of our own mouth, if we interfere with her determination of her "own polity.'' Some of the Allies have never been ovtr partial to the "frireiple of self-determination " or sincerely for "the privilege of men everywhere to choose their own way of life...

...Millions of armed men flushed with victory are encamped upon the Western boundaries of Germany...

...She gave her open consent or silent approval to the Pres-ident's peace proposals, freedom of the seas and all...

...in his address to the Congress of January 8th...

...gain he said: . "And the paths of the se...

...Profiteers And Bitter Enders AT THIS writing the Kaiser hta abdicated, the Crown Prince has renounced all claims to the throne, the Royal family ia scattering in fear, Princ* Henry effecting: his escape under cover of the rod flag...

...I have contended from the beginning of our participation In this war for the right of Congress to deelare the objects and purposes of the war...

...After this proceeding, the American people will await with anxiety the further action of the Inter-Allied' Governments in their conference rt Versailles...

...In other addresses he had, it would appear, made his meaning quite clear, saying: "Thattne seas should be equally free and safe for the use of all peoples, under rules set up by common agreement and consen;, and that, so ftr as practicable, they should be accessible to v al...

...Reposing in the security of a etabie government, undisturbed by civil strife for more than half a century, one may calmly advise a people in the throes of revolution that, "they will find every pathway that is stained with the blood of their own brothers, leads to the wilderness, not to the seat of hope...

...Germany ;ray s< ek to set up a form of democracy so pronounced as to be very displeasing to one or more of the Allies...

...T) e New Germany,—to again quote the President's Tjrrds—must be left "free to determine its own polity, its own way oi' development, unhindered, unthreaten«>l, unafraid...

...Remaining silent upon the subject Congress must be beM as having approved the President's dectaaftkm...

...We may find ourselves appealed to by outside powers, backed by the Interest Press of our own country, to respond to the call, ostensibly "to serve the cause of humanity"—but in fact to establish in Germany the kind of political democracy that shelters private monopoly and makes its law-making body the servile tool ol privilege...

...Such a peace would have saved a million precious lives, a million more from croel mutilation, millions of broken heart* and desolated homes,—soma of them American homes it would bafe saved billion* upon billions of burdensome war debts, and tens of billions of property from destruction and waste...

...But with Tories enlisting the aid of Indians in the pillage and massaera of men, women and children,?—atrocities the horror of which finds no parallel in modern times—our Revolutionary forefathers found the blood stained pathway the only road to peace and democratic independence Through all the years from the fall of the Bastile to the end cf the "reign of terror" France stained with blood her pathway, not to the wilderness, but finally' to the "seat of hope...

...The Socialists are trying to form a governmei t and the Soldiers and Workmen and the radical element are getting control in many of the larger citie Chaos prevails, and no one can forecast the outcome...

...I have reason to believe that the President clearly saw as did Lords Laiidsdown* and, Milner and other British statesmen, that the bitter end profiteers might force a situation where there would he no responsible government in Germany with which to settle peaee terms for an indefinite period...

...It is morally certain that wide differences of opinion will develop among Germans as to tlie quality or degree of democracy that shall be established...

...Knowing that we had a paramount interest in the freedom of Hie seas, that evtv-y message and address put forth by the President proclaimed that fact, that it was considered so vital that it was prominently assigned as the second of hia peace proposals, Great Britain now sets it aside as "not acceptable" and "reserves complete freedom on this subject when" she "enters the peace conference...

...And the President in his messag* urging Congress to deelare war, proclaimed the object and purpose for which we should fight to be: "for the ultimate pear.c of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German people tnelnded: for the rights of nations great end small and the privilege of men everywhere to choMe their way of life and obedience...

...If that right was to be aeeorded to the Empire then assuredly people of Germany must be guaranteed the God-given rignt that belongs to all nations everywhere, to determine the scope and reach, of democracy which will satisfy the hopes and p.spirationa of her own people...

...In his note to Germany on November 6th the President quotes the Allied Governments as saying regarding that proposition that: "Clause two, relating to what is usually described as the freedom of the seas, is open to various intepretations, some of which they could not accept...

...It was Macauley who said: "We deplore the outrages which accompany revolutions, put the more violent the outrages the more assured we feel that a revolution was necessary...

...T;)e free, constant, un-threaicned i'terrourse of n;*ti->ns is an essential part of the procecs of peace und development...

...They were unique essays touched artistically with color and sound to catch the imagination and r.Uure the popo> lar understanding...

...upon equal -t.erms...

...It took them ten months to determine th.it, one of his propositions was +oo uncertain and ambiguous to accept...

...must alike in law and in fact be free...

...Woe be unto the innoeent and helpless ones involved in the cataclysm, if the wrath of God should finally be let loose upon the war profiteers, until they pay back in full measure for every drop of Wood sacrificed to their ruthless greed...