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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1917)
The Commoner FEBRUARY, 1917 reparation. Difficult and delicate as these ques tions are, they must be laced with the utmost candor and decided in a spirit of real accommo dation if peace is to come with healing in its wings and come to stay. peace can not he had without concession and sacrifice. There can he nonsense of safety and equality among the nations'if great, preponder ating armies are henceforth to continue hero and there to ho built up and maintained. The statesmen of the world must plan for peace and nations must adjust and accommodate their pol icy to it as they have planned for war and made ready for pitiless contest and rivalry. The ques tion of armaments, whether on land or sea, is the most immediately and intensely practical question connected with the future fortunes of nations and of mankind. "I have spoken upon these great matters without reserve and with the utmost explicitness, because it has seemed to me to be necessary if the world's yearning desire for peace was any where to find free voice and utterance. Perhaps I am the only person in high authority amongst all the peoples of the world who is at liberty to speak and hold nothing back. I am speaking as an individual, and yet I am speaking also, of course, as the responsible head of a great gov ernment, and I feel confident that I have said what the people of the United States would. wish me to say. May I not add that I hope and ue lieve that I am In effect speaking for liberals and friends of humanity In every nation and of every programme of liberty? I would fain be lieve that I am speaking for the silent mass of mankind everywhere who have as yet had no place or opportunity to speak their real hearts out concerning the death and ruin they see to have come already upon thei persons and the homes they hold most dear. "And in holding out the expectation that the people and government of the United States will join the other civilized nations of the world in guaranteeing the permanence of peace upon such terms as I have named, I speak with the greater boldness and confidence because it is clear to every' man who can think that there is in this promise no breach in either our traditions or our policy as a nation, but a fulfilment rather of all that we have professed or striven for. MONROE DOCTRINE FOR AOL THE WORLD, BASIS OF PIjAN "I am proposing, as it were, that the nations should with one accord adopt the doctrine of President Monroe as the doctrine of the world: That no nation should seek to extend its policy over any other nation or peo ple, but that every people should be left free to determine its own policy, its own way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, un afraid, the little along with the great and pow erful. "I am proposing that all nations henceforth avoid entangling alliances which would draw them into competitions of power, catch them in a net of intrigue and selfish rivalry, and disturb their own 'affairs 'with influences intruded from without. There is no entangling alliance in a concert of power. When all unite to act in the same sense and with the same purpose all act in the common interest and are free to live their own Hves under a common protection. "I am proposing government by the consent of the governed; .that .freedom of the seas which in international conference after conference rep resentatives of the United States, have urged with the eloquence of those who are the convinced disciples of liberty, and that moderation of ar maments which makes of armies and navies power for order merely, not an instrument of aggression or of selfish violence. "These are American principles, American pol icies. We could stand for no others. And they are also the principles and policies of forward looking men and women everywhere, of every modern nation, of every enlightened community. They are the principles of mankind and must Prevail." THE PRESIDENT TO THE POWERS While I have not reached the same conclusion the President has in .regard to the wisdom of joining a league to enforce peace, I am glad to add my voice to the chorus of praise -which, he uas called forth by his brave and -timely appeal to the war-mad rulers of Europe. The basis of peace which he proposes Is a new philosophy-: nifriaHneWi,t0, Svernionts, but as old as the Hnn ,J n T0 S n" and II ,s tuo on founda tion upon which a permanent peace can be built. His message is epoch-making and will place him among the Immortals. The phrase, "peace without victory' was "a shot heard round the world. No one can calculate its power for good. Ho has given the belligerents the shock they neededthey must settle the account with their people if they refuSo to heed. May his heart bo gladdened by an early agreement. W. J. BRYAN. P" " - , , , Mr. Bryan's New York Speech From the New York Herald, Feb. 3. Re produced in Chattanooga News. Asserting that no nation involved In the Eu ropean war has done the United States an in tentional injury and that no European nation has challenged America, William J. Bryan, speaking to 5,000 persons last night in Madison Square Garden, roused his pacifist audionce to a frenzy of enthusiasm by his declaration that there is no justification for this country being drawn into war. Mr. Bryan had turned back from a trip to Florida to address the meeting, which was called by the American Neutral Conference committee, as a public testimonial to President Wilson for his recent address to the senate on the subject of world peace. It was called before the Presi dent received the most recent Prussian note im posing restriction upon American use of the high seas. "I am glad," said Mr. Bryan, referring to the Prussian note, "that the President sent his note to the belligerent powers before this new situa tion arose. If we can ask the nations at war to stop in their slaughter, who will say that this na tion should rush into the war at the first op portunity? What a spectacle we would present, asking, them to bo patient and forbearing and then not willing to be patient and forbearing ourselves! These nations are in a death grap ple. We must never forget that there has not been an injury that has come to us that has been intended against us; every injury that has come to us has been incidental to an attempt on the part of the nation inflicting the injury to injure a nation with which it is at war. "God forbid that we would ever compel a na tion to go to war with us which is not our enemy and does not want to go to war. This Is the greatest neutral country. It is the one to which the world is looking to act as mediator. If we go into this war we must step down from that high position and turn over to some other na tion the greatest opportunity the world ever has known. "Some nation must lift the world out o'f the black night of war, and ours is the nation to perform that task. I believe that Providence has selected this nation to lift the moral code, now used between man and man, up to the level of nations. We can not do that if we go into this war. f "No nation has challenged us, and I do not think any natfon will challenge us; but if, in a moment of excitement, one of the madmen of Europe does challenge us, I think we should say to him: 'No, we have priceless Ideals to pre serve and the interests of 100,000,000 people to guard, and we will not get down and Vallow with you in the blood and mire to conform to your false standards of honor "I believe the day is coming when nations will no more feel obliged 'to accent a challenge to go to war, than men now feel themselves obligated to accept a challenge to fight a duel. If some nation must lead the way to this new era, then why not this nation? I believe that for this country to go into this war would be a crime against our own country and against the WOrld' FAITH IN THE PRESIDENT "I have fa'th in the President's desire to keep us out of war. and-1 have faith as well in his ability to do so, as expressed, In4he resolution adopted here tonight." God forbid that we. ever entangle ourselves in the quarrels of the old world If any nation ever attacks this nation then I believe wo ought to fight until the last man is dead. But I don't bellovc that a slnglo 'mother's son should bo carried across 3,000 miics of ocean and mado to dlo on European soil In settlement of European quarrels. I would not exchange the moral prestige of this ropublic for the martial glory of nil the empires that have risen and fallen since timo began. Earlier Mr. Bryan had attacked the news papers of the country, and particularly or Now York city, because, he declared, they did not al ways reflect true public opinion. Ho declared the President and other public officers woro de pendent in large measure upon newspapers for their understanding of what tho public fools, but tho fact remains, ho declared, that tho pub lie ofllcor who relics on the metropolitan press for information on what the people want is apt to bo woefully misled. COMMENDS PEACE NOTE Mr. Bryan was unstinted In his praise of tho President for his address on world peace. Ho termed the address an "epoch-making, heroic, courageous action, which places the President forevor among the Immortals of tho nation." "If any phllosphy has ever been exploded," Mr. Bryan declared, "it is tho philosophy that you can keep tho peace of tho world by being armod to tho teeth. We havo learned that pistol toting among nations Is Just as much a monaco to the peace of nations as pistol toting among men was a menace to the peace of a community. Tho path of history Is lined with tho wrecks of empires built on force. "Peace without victory,' Mr. Bryan declared, "was the only manner In which tho European war could bo settled, unlers tl.j vanquished was to struggle forever under tho force that defeated them." He reiterated his declaration in favor of referendum before war may bo declared. Tho meeting was presided over by Georgo Foster Peabody and the resolution offered by Mr. Peabody was adopted. "In the abiding faith that," tho resolution said, "in the new emergency tlmt confronts us you will still succeed in combining peace with honor and Justice, and in the belief that it is our own first duty to our country and to tho stricken people of the world to keep this natfon out of war, we hereby pledge you our unfaltering sup port." The resolution also suggested that the Pres ident avail himsolf now of the opportunity pro vided in the recent naval appropriation bill to call a congress of the rrreat powers to consider the basis of peaceful adjustment of international disputes. A ijaJ -i ANOTHER REPORT OF SPEECH From tho New York Times, February 3. Ex-Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan told an audience of 5,000 persons at tho peace meeting hold at Madison Square Garden last night by the American Neutral Conference committee that this country should fight till tho lasfman was killed, if it were invaded, but that we should not take part in European quarrels. If any dispute srose which could not be settled by peaceful means, so that It became necessary for us to have war, he saitkthat we should post pone that war until after the present war Is over, so that we should not havo any allies to have a say about When the war should end or about whaftlH? terms of peace should be. The audience, which cheered and rose to its feet several times when Mr. Bryan reached elo quent climaxes and laughed uproariously at the jocular passages which were frequent, adopted a memorandum which was read by George Fos ter Peabody, who presided. They praised Pres ident .Wilson's past endeavors for peace aad suggested that his next move be to call a con gress, of powers to seek a peaceful solution of tho issues of. the war. Mr .Bryan spoke much in praise of President Wilson,' and was applauded frequently ' for It, especially when he voiced his confidence over and over again that tho President would find a means of avoiding trouble. He did not refer directly to the German note, and advocated no course of action in regard to it, beyond his gen eral recommendation, that peace he kept. His speech was composed mainly of abstract max .Ims of pqaqe and, of argument in favor of bin plans, for' assuring peace, especially his project of a constitutional amendment which would tak (Continued on Page 13.) r