168 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
SPECIAL EDITION 
July 4th, 1917 
deuce. They could be kept in 
union only by the presence or con- 
stant threat of armed men. They 
would live under a common 
power only by sheer compulsion 
and await the day of revolution. 
But the German military states- 
men had reckoned with all that 
and were ready to deal with it in 
their own way. 
And they have actually carried 
the greater part of that amazing 
plan into execution. 
Look how T things stand. Aus- 
tria is at their mercy. It has 
acted, not upon its own initiative 
or upon the choice of its own 
people but at Berlin's dictation, 
ever since the war began. Its 
people now desire peace, but can- 
not have it until leave is granted 
from Berlin. The so-called cent- 
ral powers are in fact but a single 
power. Serbia is at its mercy, 
should its hands be but for a mo- 
ment freed. Bulgaria has con- 
sented to its will and Roumania 
is overrun. The Turkish armies, 
which Germans trained, are serv- 
ing Germany, certainly not them- 
selves and the guns of German 
warships lying in the harbor at 
Constantinople remind Turkish 
statesmen every day that they 
have no choice but to take their 
orders from Berlin. From Ham- 
burg to the Persian gulf the net is 
spread. 
Germany’s terms not stated. 
Is it not easy to understand the 
eagerness for peace that has been 
manifested from Berlin ever since 
the snare was set and sprung? 
Peace, peace, peace, has been the 
talk of the foreign office for now 
a year or more, not peace upon 
her own initiative, but upon the 
initiative of the nations over 
which she deems herself to hold 
the advantage. A little of the 
talk has been but most of 
it has private. Through all 
sorts of Channels it has come to 
hie Slid in all guises, but never 
With the terms disclosed which 
the German government would be 
willing to accept. That govern- 
ment has other valuable pawns 
besides those I have mentioned. 
It still holds a valuable part of 
France, though with slowly relax- 
ing grasp, and practically the 
whole of Belgium. Its armies 
close up on Russia and overrun 
Poland at its will. It cannot go 
farther, it cannot go back. It 
wishes to close its bargain before 
it is too late and it has nothing 
left to offer for the pound of flesh 
it will demand. 
THINKING ABOUT POWER AT HOME. 
The military masters under 
whom Germany is bleeding see 
very clearly to what point fate 
has brought them. If they fall 
back or are forced back an inch 
their power both -abroad and at 
home will fall to pieces like a 
house of cards. It is their power 
at home they are thinking about 
now more than their power 
abroad. It is that power which 
is trembling at their very feet 
and deep fear has entered their 
hearts. They have but one 
chance to perpetuate their mili- 
tary power or even their control- 
ing political influence. If they 
can secure peace now with the im- 
mense advantages still in their 
hands, which they have up to this 
point apparently gained, they will 
have justified themselves before 
the German people; they will 
have gained by force what they 
promised to gain by it — an im- 
mense expansion of German 
power, an immense enlargement 
of German industrial and com- 
mercial opportunity. Their pres- 
tige will be secure and with their 
prestige their political power. If 
they fail their people will thrust 
them aside ; a government ac- 
countable to the people them- 
selves will be set up in Germany 
as it has in England, the United 
States, France and in all the 
great countries of modern time 
except Germany. 
The facts are patent to all the 
world, and nowhere are they more 
plainly seen than in the United 
States, where we are accustomed 
to deal with facts and not with 
sophistries; and the great fact 
that stands out above all the rest 
is that this is a people's war, a 
Avar for freedom and justice and 
self-go\ r ernment among all the na- 
tions of the world, a Avar to make 
the Avorld safe for the peoples aaTio 
live upon it and have made it 
their own, the German people 
themselves included ; and that 
Avith us rests the choice to break 
through all these hypocrisies and 
patent cheats and masks of brute 
force and help set the Avorld free, 
or else stand aside and let it be 
dominated by a long age through 
by sheer Aveight of arms and the 
arbitrary choices of self-consti- 
tuted masters, by the nation 
AA’hich can maintain the biggest 
armies and the most irresistible 
armaments — a poAver to Avhich the 
Avorld has afforded no parallel and 
in the face of which political free- 
dom must Avither 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 Avay in this day 
of high resolution when every 
principle Ave hold dearest is to be 
Aundicated and made secure for 
the salvation of the nations. We 
are ready to plead at the bar of 
history, and our flag shall Avear a 
neAv luster. Once more Ave shall 
nake good with our li\ r es and for- 
tunes the great faith to Avhich Ave 
Avere born and a new glory shall 
shine in the face of our people.” 
