Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-04-21
WILSON ADDRESSES
ASSOCIATED PRESS
fCoutinuec From Page u

mankind. 1t is fairness: it is good VIII
/; at bottom: Il is irnpartialify OF spiri'
| ard Of Judgment. / wish that all OF ou'
| fellow Christians could realize that
There is in some quarters a disposition
| tc cause Sis,erapers in this body polite
Men are even uttering ISLANDERS against
| the United States as IL 10 excite her.
| Men are SAYING that if we should go 10
war upon either side there VIII De
divided America-an abominatle libel OF
| ignorance: But I for one have COM
plete and abiding faith in that great
silent body of Americans who are not
standing up and shouting and expressing
their opinions just now, but are waitins
| to find or, and support the duty OF
America. am just as sure OF their
| solidity and of their loyalty and OF
their unanimity, il We act justly as
am that the history of this country has
at every crisis and turning point Illus
,rated this great lesson. We are the
meoiating nation of the world. DO
not mean that we undertake not to mino
our own business and TO mediate where
other people are Quarreling. ! mean
the word in broader sense. We are
We mediate their blood We mediate
their traditions We mediate their sen
tinients their tastes their Passions; we
are ourselves compounded OF those
things. We are. therefore able to un-
derstand all nations: We are able TO un-
aerstand then, in the compound. not
separately as paftisans. but unitediy.
rs knowing and connpr>hending and EN-
bodying them all. Il is in that sense
that / mean that America is mediatins
nati1n. The opinion. the action Of Amer
lea is ready 70 turn and free 10 turn
in any direction.
No Hamperins Ambitions
Did you ever reflect upon how a.
most all other nations, almost every
other nation has through long centu-
ries been headed in one direction? That
Is not true Of United States. The
United States has no racial momen-
tum 1t has no history back OF II
which makes i, run all its energies
and all its ambitions in one particular
direction: and America is particularly
free in this that she has no hamper
ing ambitions as a world power. II We
have been obliged By circumstances or
have considered ourselves TO b oh.is-
ed by circumstances, IT the past 10
take territory which We otherwise
would rot have thought Of taking.
! / believe / am right in saying that we
/ would have considered il our duty 10
administer that territory. not for our
selves, but for the people living in il
and TO put this burden upon cur con-
sciences, net 10 think that this thing
is ours for our use, but 10 regard our
selves as trustees OF the great business
for those to whom it does reall. be-
long. trustees ready TO hand over the
cosmique trust at any time, when the
business seems to make that possible
and feasible. That IS what l mean by
saying We have no hampering arlbi-
tons. We DO not want a2yth.T. that
does not belong 10 US. Isn't 4 nation
in that position free to serve other ma
tons and isn't a nation Ike that ready
to form some part 81 the assessing
opinion OF the world?
His interest In Trouble
NY interest in the neutrality Of the
United States is not the petty desire
looked for il. but have always found
il. I dc not want 10 walk around
trouble. II any man wants scrap that
is an interesting scrap and worth
while am his man. l warn him that
he is not going to draw me into the
scrap for his advertisement. but il he
is looking for trouble that is the
trouble OF men in general and I can
help little. why then. / am n for IL.
But l am interested IN neutrality be-
cause there is something SO much
greater to do than fight, because
there is something, there is q distinc-
ton, waiting for this nation that 10
nation has ever. ever got. That is the
distinction Of absolute seIt-control and
.elf-Ela stery. Whom do you admire
most among your friends? The irri :
table man? The man out Of whom you
can get a rise without trying? The
man who will fight at the drop of the
hat, whether he knows what tie hat.
is dropped for or not?
Sell Mastcre5 Man
Don't you admire and don't you
fear. If You have 10 contest with him.
the self mastered man Who watches
you with cain eye and comes in only
when you lave carried the thing so
far that you must De disposed OF?
That is the man you respect That is
the man who you know has at bottom
a much more fundamental and terrible
courage than the irritable, fighting
man.
Now c1vet for America this splen-
did courage Of reserve moral force,
and l wanted to point out TO YOU gen.
tlemen simply this: There is news
and news. There Is what IS called news
from Turtle Bay that turns out 10 be
faisehood. at any rate in what Il is
said tc signify and which. if you
could bet the nation to believe il true.
might disturb our equilibrium and our
possession. We ought not to deal
in stuff Of that kind. We ought not
to permit things of that sort to use up
the electrical energy Of the wires, be-
cause its energy is malignant, its en-
ergy is not of the truth, its energy is
Of mischief. 1t is possible to sift
truth.
The Uncertain Report
Il have known some things to go
out on the wires as true when there
was only one man or one group Of men
who could have told the originators Of
the report whether it was true or not,