The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-11-13
CHAMP cLARk's BEAUTIFUL TRI-
Butte TO WILSON

Perhaps-who knows?-when Presi-
dent Wilson has finished his course
as Chief Magistrate of this mighty
Republic, and when historians come
to assign his place in the pantheon
of fame, they will pass over the great
domestic measures of his administra-
ton, such as tariff revision, currency
legislation, and so forth, and declare
that his successful efforts TO keep the
United States out of war constitutes
his clearest title to the gratitude of
his country.
In ms famous first inaugural ad
dress, which has become a classic.
and which every boy and girl should
commit to memory as a literary ex-
ercise, Thomas jefferson stated our
ideal relations with foreign nations
in these words: Peace, commerce,
and honest friendship with all ma
tions; entangling alliances with none"
words fifty spoken. and therefore
like apples of gold in pictures Of
silver"
That is the sum and substance OF
our international creed, to which We
have adhered without the shadow Of
turning. A wiser or a nobler creed
no nation ever had.
It's latest exposition is found In the
terse, luminous, emphatic, opportune
neutrality message of President
Woodrow Wilson, proclamation
which all good and sensible citizens.
of whatever persuasion, political or
religious, uphold and applaud.
Americans are a peace-loving peo-
pie. We believe in John Millions fine
saying: Peace hath her victories
ne less renowned than war" Presi-
dent Wilson expressed with great
delicacy and felicity the sentiments
of all true Americans when he tend
cred his kindly offices to the belliger-
ent powers in order to stop the IT,
tantic struggle across the sea. For
tunate in his coign of vantage, hap
by in the confidence of a powerful
people, let us hope that he will sue
coed in his philantropic endeavors,
and that upon him will rest the bles-
sing vouchsafed to the peacemakers
in tho
When boy back in the hill coun-
try of Kentucky | attended an cleo
tion for the first time and saw four
men shot during one day. One man
fired six bullets at another man, and,
missing his intended victim, wounded
an innocent bystander in the leg. In
this astounding Old World conflict
America is the severely injured limo
cent bystander, and from a natural
desire not to be injured any more, as
we'll as from motives of friendship
and humanity, we wish to. see a
speedy end to hostilities.
The first reason why we desire
peace in anti-Atlantic countries is
that we are akin to somebody over
there, and our hearts go out to our
kindred in their sore distress. This
applies to us all, whether our ances-
tors came over 800 years ago, as mine
did, or at later time. 1t applies with
peculiar force to our 100000 citi-
zens who were born in the countries
now in battle array.
Another reason why we want peace
is that the war has disturbed almost
every business in which any of our
people are engaged, entailing sor-
row, suffering and want on millions
of Americans who had no hand what
soever in precipitating the awful stu
alton.
Who started it no man seems to
know. What it is about appears
equally obscure. In his celebrated
poem, "Blenheim,' Southey caused
old Caspar to give his grandson, Pet
erkin, glowing account of the bat
tie, whereupon the boy propounded
the pertinent and far-resounding
question, What good came of it at
last?"-a question which has not been
answered to this day. So, perhaps. it
will be with this war-the bloodiest
in all the hoary register Of time.
No matter who got it up, no matter
what it is about, we fondly hope and
fervently pray for its early conclu-
sion, not only for the sake of human
ity and civilization, but for the sake
of our own prosperity and happiness.
We take both an altruistic and self
ish view of it.
In 1923, when the Greeks rebelled
against the Turks, Daniel Webster in
a memorial speech appealed to the
moral sentiment of tbo world v,biob