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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1917)
' rfr Ty , jyswrv "wfT?"!.? fC',',WJ'!!Wlf V"1 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