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12
The Commoner
The President's Flag Day Address
(Continued from Pago 4.)
stantlnoplo remind Turkish states
men ovory day that thoy have no
choice but to take their orders from
Berlin. From Hamburg tothe Per
sian Gulf the net Is sprflatff.
Is It not easy to understand the
eagornoss for peace that has been
manifested from Berlin over since
tho snare was set and sprung? Peace,
poaco, peace has been tho talk of
her foreign office for now a year and
more; not peace upon her own ini
tiative but upon the initiative of tho
nations over which oho now deoms
herself to hold the advantage. A little
of the talk has boon public, but
most of It has been private. Through
all sorts of channels it has come to
mo, and in all sorts of guiBOS, but
never with tho terms disclosed which
the Gorman government would bo
Willing to accept. That government
has other valuable pawns in its
hands besides those I have men
tioned. It still holds a valuabo part
Of France, though with slowly re
laxing grasp, and practically the
Whole of Belgium. Its armies press
qloso upon Russia and overrun Po
land at their will. It can not go far-
ther; it dare not go back.ft It wishes
,to closo its bargain before it is too
lato and it has little left to offer for
the pound of flesh it will demand.
The military masters under whom
Germany is bleeding see veny clearly
,d what point fate has brought thorn.
If they fall back or are forced back
an Inch, their power both abroad
tand at home will fall to pieces like
& house of cards. It is their power
at homo they are thinking about
how more than their power abroad.
J. is that; power which is trensrsing
&hnderv tholr very feet; and deep fear
has onterod their hearts. They have
ftyut ono chance to perpetuate their
niilitary power or even their .control
ling political Influence. If they can
HI
k ' i.
fend
MalteABartoy
skillfully blended
and processed
make
Grape-Nuts
& most delicious
food in flavor
as well as a
great body, brain
and nerve builder.
"!WaIbasoif
secure peace now, with tho immense
advantage still in their hands which
thoy havo up to this point appar
ently gained, thoy will havo Justified
thomselves before the German peo
ple; thoy wlir-liavo gained by force
what they promised to gain by it
an immense expansion of German
power, an Immense enlargement of
Gorman industrial and commercial'
opportunities. Their prestige will
be securo, and with their prestige
their political power. If they fall,
their people will thrust them aside;
a government accountable to the
people thomselves will be set up In
Germany as it has been in England,
In the United States, in France, and
in all tho great countries of the mod
ern time except Germany. If they
succeed they are safe, and Germany
and the world are undone; if they
fail, Germany is saved and the
world will be at peace. If they suc
ceed, America will fall within the
menace. We and all the rest of the
world must remain armed, as they
will remain, and must make ready
for the next step in their aggression;
if thoy fail, the world may unite for
peace, and Germany may be of the
union.
HOPES TO DECEIVE ALL DEM
OCRACY Do you not now understand the
new intrigue, the intrigue for neace.
and why the masters of Germany do
not hesitate to use any agency that
promises to effect their mirnose. the
deceit of the nations? Their present
particular aim is to deceive all those
who throughout the world stand for
the rights of peoples and the self
government of nations; for they see
what immunse strength tho forces of
justice and of liberalism are gather
ing out of this war. They are em
ploying liberals in their enterprise.
They are using men, in Germany and
without, as their spokesmen whom
they have hitherto oppressed, using
them for their own destruction so
cialists, the leaders of labor, the
thinkers they have hitherto sought to
silence. Let them once succeed and
these men, now their tools, wUl be
ground to powder beneath the weight
of the great military empire they
will have set up; the revolutionists
in Russia will be cut off from all
succor or co-operation in western
Europe and a counter revolution fos
tered and supported; Germany her
self will lose her chance of freedom;
and all Europe will arm for, the next,
the final struggle.
The sinister intrieue is baincr nr
less actively conducted in this coun
try than In Russia and in every count
try In Europe to which the ncAntn
and dupes of the imperial German
government can get access. That
government has many spokesmen
herev in places high and low. They
have learned discretion. They keep
within the law. It is opinion they
utter now, not sedition. They pro
claim the liberal purposes of their
masters; declare this a foreign war
which can touch America with no
danger to either her lands or her in
stitutions; sot England at tho center
of the stage and talk of her nmhiftmi
to assert economic dominion through
out the world; appeal to our ancient
tradition of isolation in thS politics
of the nations; and seek to under
mine the government with false pro
fessions of loyalty to its principles.
WILL MAKE NO HEADWAY
But they will mako no headway
The false betray themselves always
in every accent. It in nniv ffian
and partisans of the German govern
ment wuom we nave already identi
fied who utter these thinly disguised
disloyalties. The facts aro patent to
all tho world, and nowhero are they
more plainly seen than in the United
States, where wo aie accustomed to
deal with facts and not with sophis
tries; and the great fact that stands
out above all the rest is that this is
a peoples' war, a war , for freedom
and justice and self-government
amongst ,all the nations of tho world,
a war to make the world safe for the
peoples who live upon it and have
made it their own, the German peo
ple themselves included; and that
with us rests the choice to break
through all these hypocricies and
patent cheats and masks of brute
force and help set the world free, or
else stand aside and let it be domin
ated a long age through jjy sheer
weight of arms and the arbitrary
choices of self-constituted masters,
by the nation which can maintain
the biggest armies and the most ir
resistible armaments a power to
which the world has afforded no par
allel and in the face of which polit
ical freedom must wither and perish.
For us there is but one choice. We
have made it. Woe be to the man or
group of men that seeks to stand in
our way in this day of high resolution,
when every principle we hold dearest
is to be vindicated and made secure
for the salvation of the nations. We
are ready, to plead at the bar of his
tory, and our .flag' shall wear a new
luster. Once more we shall make
good with innHives and-.rfortunes the
great faith- to which we were born,
and a new glory shall shine in the
face of our people.
BIG FIELD FOR COL. CALLAHAN
From The Louisville Evening Post
July 2.
Col. P. H. Callahan, president of
the Louisville Varnish Company, will
spend his summer vacation in Wash
ington, where he will manage the
million-dollar fund raised by the
Knights of Columbus to provide rest
rooms, libraries, picture shows and
other forms of instruction and en
tertainment for the thousands of
Catholic young men who will be
members of Uncle am's new army,
When Louisville was called on to
contribute her share to the national
fund raised by the Y. M. C. A. for
work among the soldiers, Col. Calla
han, although one of the leading
Catholic laymen, gave his money and
energy to the good cause.
The million-dollar fund to be
spent by the committee on war ac
tivities of the Knights of' Columbus,
of which Col. Callahan is chairman
will benefit soldiers of all religions,
because the rest rooms will welcome
men of every creed. The purpose of
both the Protestant and Catholic
movements is to conserve the morals
of the young men in the various in
struction camps; and wherever pos
sible there will be co-operation to
that end.
Col. Callahan, who has been for
the past three years chairman of the
commjttee on religious prejudices,
created by the Knights of Columbus,
and Which llRR rinnn an miu
ter a better spirit between Catholics
and Protestants, is enthusiastic over
the new project. He declined a place
on the federal tariff commission ten
dered him by the President, because
he felt that he could render bis
C3mtry a better service in some pri
vate capacity where he could labor
without salary. This opportunity
seems to have fallen into his hands
In this new field.
Col. Cn.11n.hnn imo ninni. -.- i
relations with many of the adminis-
p-v.0 icttumu iu wasnington, and
is a personal friend of Secretary of
War Baker, who has faith in his
judgment.
It is understood that Secretary
VOL-. 17, NO, 7
Baker welcomes the activities nf m
various religious organisation? ?
will extend their repfesXTves Z
cry opportunity to carry out ti,Jv
WUom plans they aro peeing ffj
Salvation Army will have its place
too, m the new camps. The 500,000
young men who will be called "or
training in October win u lor
elected in body, mind or soul. S"
APPJEA7 OF THE ALL-RUSSUN
Brother-' oldiers: In these days
rAt0 Bian People have at
tained their freedom, namely the on
portunity to develop freely their
mental and spiritual forces for tim
better organization of their life li?
us remember that we bear the name
of soldiers only as long as we are
needed for thA ?flfAnno .. ..
- - - u. uui lumer
land against the cruel enemy. Our
uui,jr u.y lu uur country and to our
children is to crush our enemy and
thus defend the liberty we conquered
But having done our duty we will re
turn to our normal work, hnnv tr ,
soil.
Remember, brothers, that the Rus
sian army is a peasant one. rnmnrfo.
ing now the vest men of the whole
peasantry; tnat the Russian land is
the peasant's land: that thA nPnonnf
is the principal toiler on this land-
he is its master, therefore, without
the master it is impossible to sni
properly t? la- question.
Remember, brothers, that when the
ear of wheat is ripe a breeze will
swing it a bug wi.l bend it, a spar
row sitting on it will break t alto
gether, but when the reaper has
bound the ears into a sheaf, what
athlete can break it? We have been
maturing many a century, now, it
seems, we are mature, let us then,
brothers, gather into a sheaf.
The elections to the Constituent
Assembly "are pending. This assembly
will enact the basic laws of the
country, define the form of our gov
ernment and the rights of all the
people. Every one in Russia will have
a right to vote for the de1 gates to
the assembly and as we comprise the
largest- part of the population we
justly should be represented by the
greatest number of delegates who
should look "ter our interests.
Of course, our interests are differ
ent from those o the city people and
the factory workers. If we do not
look after our interests, if we do not
unite, the results of the elections to
tin Constituent Assembly may prove
disadvantageous to us, we may se
lect strangers .o our cau e instead
of friends, we may be decoyed by a
pheasant in the sky to let go the
sparrov ; aie holding ir our
hands.
And our sparrow,, peasant-soldiers,
we consider the following:
1. There is no order in a house
hold without a master; there is no
order in a country without a govern
ment. We have acknowledged as
legitimate the provisional government
until the Constituent Assembly has
created a new one.
2. If in a family every member
wishes to be the master, order dis
appears and the family is disrupted.
It is still worse in such a vast house
hold as our Russian land, when sep
arate groups strive to manage affairs
and give orders they will bring to
naught the liberty for which the
people have struggled for centuries.
Quarrels and disorder will arise,
every one will choose to command
and none will be left to mind. Un
der such conditions the Germans wiu
be able to vanquish us even unarmed.
W have a legal government ana
therefore no private or public or
ganization have a right to give or-
.hMv.-
yjjjjjfcto Urfftji, . .a
