Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1918 — WILSON REJECTS ANY PEACE WITH GERMAN KAISER [ARTICLE]

WILSON REJECTS ANY PEACE WITH GERMAN KAISER

Says Autocracy Must Go and Submarines Quit—End Murder Rule. ALLIES WILL DICTATE TRUCE Will Make Separate IU-ply to the Governments of Austria-Hungary —President Issues Statement Declaring Ixwn Failure Spells Defeat. Washington, Oct. 15.—President Wilson issued this statement on the fourth Liberty loan: “The reply of the German government to my note of Inquiry dated October 8 gives occasion for me to say to my fellow countrymen that neither that reply nor any other recent events have In any way diminished the vital Importance of the Liberty loan. Relaxation now, hesitation now, would mean defeat when victory seems to be In sight; would mean years of war Instead of peace upon our own terms. | "I earnestly request every patrlotio American to leave to the governments of the United States and of the allies the momentous discussions Initiated by Germany and to remember that for each man his duty Is to strengthen ths hands of these governments and to do it In the most Important way now Immediately presented;—by subscribing to the utmost of his ability for bonds of the fourth Liberty loan. “That loan must be successful. I am sure that the American people will not fail to see their duty and make it successful.'*

Washington, Oct. 15.—1 n a forceful rejoinder, rejecting the Teutonic proposals for a compromise, President Wilson Informed the German government that peace will he dictated by the United States and the allies. f He made It clear that there will be no compromise with the Huns and that the sooner they surrender Unconditionally and give adequate guarantees of acceptance of the peace terms already outlined the sooner the war will end. Rejects Armistice Plea. Tiie president rejected the German suggestion of the creation of a mixed commission to arrange for the evacuation of teritory Invaded by the Germans. He informed Berlin that the conditions of evacuation and the granting of an armistice would he determined by Marshal Foch and his associated generals. In addition, the president lays down the condition that there can be no armistice except on terms assuring the United States and the allies of the maintenance of their present military supremacy over Germany, a supremacy which will be relied upon to enforce the allied terms of peace. Must Stop Atrocities. Having outlined an armistice based upon terms of complete surrender on the part of the Huns, the president went on to say that a cessation of hostilities would not even be considered so long as the German armed forces continue to perpetrate atrocities and Inhumanities on land and sea. Before the allied nations will consent to an armistice the German navy must cease torpedoing passenger steamers and lifeboats containing survivors and the German army must cease plundering and destroying cities and villages and deporting their inhabitants to Industrial slavery in Germany. , . Must Oust Autocracy. If the central powers sooner or later obtain an armistice on these terms, there will remain the question of the conditions on which the United States and the allies will enter Into a binding peace treaty with the German nation, and to these conditions the president in his reply directs the attention of the German people. The Prussian military autocracy, with its power to disturb the peace of the world, must go, Mr.’ Wilson says, and he reminds the German people that it is within their power to destroy this menace to their own real welfare and to other nations’. When Prussian autocratic rule is stamped out, the German people, the president intimates, -will find the road to peace shorter and easier. Must Return Alsace. One outstanding point which does not appear in the president’s note—a point on which the world has been asking questions—can be answered DOW. When the president declared that the wrong done to France when Germanyfopk Alsace-Lorraine should, bn

righfed he meant thnt Alsace-Lorraine should .be returned to France. A separate reply to Asutrla-Hnn-gary Is being drafted by the president, and this answer is likely to affect vitally the situation in the dual monarchy, which appears to be on the verge of dissolution or desertion of Germany or of both. The president having taken so firm a stand against compromise with Germany, the administration proclaimed a prosecution of the war to victory with redoubled vigor. 250,000 Men a Month. “The government will continue to sent over 250,000 men, with their supplies every month, and there will be no relaxation of any kind,” Mr. Tumulty, secretary of the president, said. Secretary of War Baker, who returned from France, said: “The war department is pressing forward as rapidly as it can the augmentation of the army and its supply. We are going a{)ead.” % Incidentally Secretary Baker disclosed that President Wilson himself is one of the four members of the suDreine war council .which .is directing

the’proseciltlon of thenar. The" other members are Premier Lloyd George of Great Britain, Premier Clemenceau of France, and Premier Orlando of Italy. The president votes by cable when the war council la sitting at Versailles. Wilson's Answer to Note. The text of the president’s answer follows: “The unqualified acceptance by the present German government and by a large majority of the reicnstag of the terms laid down by the president of the United Suites of America In his address to the congress United States t»n the Bth of January, 1918, and In his subsequent addresses justifies the f president, in making a frank and dirbdt statement of his decision with regard to the communications of the German government of the Bth and 12th’ of October, 1918. “It must be clearly understood that the process of evacuation and the conditions of an armistice are matters which must be left to the judgment and advice of the military advisers of the government of the United States and the allied governments, and the president feels it his duty to say that no arrangement can be accepted by the government of the [Jnlted States which does not provide absolutely satisfactory safeguards and guarantees of the maintenance of the present military supremacy of the angles of the United States and the allies in the field. Huns Must End Crimes.

“He feels confident that he can safqly assume that this will also be the judgment and decision of the allied governments. “The president feels that It Is also his duty to add that neither the government of the United States nor, he Is quite sure, the- governments with which the government of the United States Is associated as a belligerent, will consent to consider an armistice so long as the armed forces of Germany continue the Jllegal and inhumane practices which they still persist in. , “At the very time that the German government approaches the government of the United States with proposals of peace its submarines are engaged In sinking passenger ships at dfca, and not the ships alone, but the very bouts In which their passengers the crews seek to make their may to safety; and In their present enforced withdrawal from Flanders and France the German armies' are pursuing a course of wanton destruction which has always been regarded as In direct violation of the rules and practices of civilized warfare. “Cities and villages, If not destroyed, ore being stripped of all they contain, not only, but very often of their very inhabitants. . “uujq nations associated against Ger-

maffy cannot be expected to agree cessation of arms while acts of lnh*> manlty, spoliation and desolation *l* being continued which they justly loo|| upon with horror and with burning hearts. “It is necessary, also in order th*t there may be no possibility of mlswto derstandlng that the president shoulf very solemnly call the attention of tig government of Germany to the lans guage (tnd plain Intent of one of th* terms of peace which the German gov* ernment has now accepted. It Is con* tained In the address of the president delivered at Mount Vernon on the Fourth of July last. Must End Atrocities. “It is as follows: ‘The destruction of every arbitrary power anywhere that can separately, secretly and of It* single choice disturb the peace of the world; or, if it cannot be presently destroyed, at least its reduction to virtual Impotency,’ continue on land and sea.” "The power which has hitherto controlled the German nation Is o? the sort here described. It Is within the choice of the German nation to alter lt> The president's words just quoted naturally constitute a condition precedent to peace. If peace Is to come by the action of the German people themselves. “The president feels bound to say that the whole process of peace will. In his judgment, depend upon the defInltenesn and the satisfactory character of the guarantees which can be given In this fundamental matter. “It Is Indispensable that the governments associated against Germany should know beyond a peradventur* with whom they are dealing. , “The president will make a separat* reply to the royal and. Imperial government of Austria-Hungary. “Accept, sir, the renewed assurance* of my high consideration. (Signed) “ROBERT LANSING." “MR. FREDERICK OEDERLIN, “Charge d’affaires, ad Interim, la charge of German Interests In th* United States.”