OCR Text |
Show HOW PEACE COULD BE SECURED. 11 The Socialists of Germany are holding hold-ing meetings intended to start, negotiations nego-tiations to bring about the end of the vvr We hope their efforts prove H successful. This struggle is causing the untimely deaths of hundreds of thousands of the very' best people on earth, and, at bottom, it is an unjustifiable unjus-tifiable war which no country should desire to continue even to correct cer-JJ cer-JJ tain evils, real or imaginary, The German Socialists have taken the position that no nation should seek terms of peace baaed on territorial terri-torial aggrandizement, and In thi6 they are right. They also declare Alsace-Lorraine Alsace-Lorraine should be neither German nor French territory, but be placed i 4 under independent government That lo is sensible. By removing this II otrip of country from the control of either power would eliminate a source I 1 of danger for the future. The present war Is directly traceable to the hatred ha-tred kept alive by Germany's annexation annexa-tion of those txvo French provinces at the close of the Franco-Prussian war. Earlier still, the French took that part of the Rhine- from the southern south-ern Germans. Belgium should be restored and the people compensated for their losses The Dardanelles should be internationalized, interna-tionalized, a change to which the German Ger-man Socialists subscribe. The one great difficulty to be overcome over-come is that of standing armies and great navies. Germany fears to disarm dis-arm her land forces and Groat Brlt- aln insists on maintaining her naval supremacy. What Is the solution? Let us Inquire as to the primary purpose pur-pose of armies and navies. Are they not an outgrowth of armed tribes seeking seek-ing an advantage0 Are they not main tamed to help bulldoze In trade relations rela-tions and to gain prlvlepcs for the strong over the weak, so thai the people peo-ple of certain nations shall be unduly un-duly favored in the world's trade and in land possess ons" rennet tins selfishness he over -eme by more consideration tor tKf individual norms mwl loss regard for !the collective body? No German 'would regret n see his English neighbor neigh-bor prosper, and no Englishman would I be envious of hi German friend's good fortune, if either thought of the other as an individual, but the moment mo-ment you begin to talk to one or the nthrr of Germany or England, then you arouse jealousy. The cure i to he- found in makintr Englishmen, Germans, Frenchman and Russians realize they should he hrnrhers workilltr for each other a uplift to whom the whole world of human rndf,i'. nr is open ITor- can tills be brought about0 By removing the restrictions against human activities activi-ties which boundary lines enforce. The f'.erman in an English colony should have all the rights possessed by an Englishman, and the. Englishmen English-men in a German dependency should he equally privileged to hold and posc?s and develop. j The war would stop tomorrow, if the ; great warring nations would declare for the home as against the nation; for home building and home protection protec-tion as against clannishness. oo |