NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ONE of the most important declarations of the war was made by President Wilson at New York last Saturday. It would be well that people here should weigh his words and recognize their exact significance for us all. After very sensibly explaining that he could not have taken the Austrian Emperor's letter seriously even if he had been informed about it last year, President Wilson went on to say that the American people would never be diverted from the purpose of winning the war by any insincere approaches upon the subject of peace. " I can say with a clear conscience that I have tested these intimations and I have found them, insincere." Then we come to the most emphatic and most grave part of the speech where President Wilson developed his idea of what the only proper peace must be. He pointed out that Germany desired a free hand in the East, whatever she may pretend to concede in the West. " Now, so far as I am concerned," he said, " I intend to stand by Russia as well as by France."
