The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-12-07
Chief Executive Details His Plans For
National Preparedness - isloyalty
at Home Observation-Disclosures
Need Of Our Own Ships. 81

gree OF happiness ana Sd1ety anu Ii
most effectually secured against the
danger Of maladministration, and that
when any government shall be found
| inadequate or contrary to these pur-
poses a majority of the community
hath an indubitable, inalienables and
indefeasible right to reform, alter or
abolish it in. such manner as shall be
judged most conducive to the public
veal" We have unhesitatingly ap-
piled that heroic principle to the case
of Mexico and now hopefully await
| the rebirth of the troubled republic,
which had so much of which to purge
itself and SO little sympathy from any
outside quarter in the radical but nee
essary process. We will aid and be-
friend Mexico, but we will not coerce
her, and our course with regard to her
ought to be sufficient proof to all Amer
lea that we seek no political suzerainty
or selfish control.
| The moral is that the states of Amer
lea are not hostile rivals, but coop
Grating friends, and that their grow
ing sense of community Of interest,
| alike in matters political and in mat
tiers economic, is likely to give them a
new significance as factors in interna-
tional. affairs and in the political his
| tory of the world. 1t presents them as
| in q very deep and true sense unit
| in world affairs, spiritual partners,
standing together because thinking to-
gether. quick with common sympathies
and common ideals. Separated they
| are subject to all the cross currents of
| the confused politics Of world Of hos
| tile rivalries: united in spirit and pur-
| pose they cannot be disappointed Of
their peaceful destiny.
None Of the Spirit Of Empire.
This is pan-Americanism. 1t has none
| of the spirit of empire in it. 1t is the
embodiment, the effectual embodiment,
Of the spirit of law and independence
and liberty and mutual service.
A very notable body of men recently
met in the city Of Washington, at the
invitation and as the guests of this
government, whose deliberations arc
likely to be looked back to as marking
a memorable turning point in the his
tory Of America. Z, They We're repre-
sentative spokesman of the several
independent states of this hemisphere
and were assembled to discuss the
financial and commercial relations Of
the republics of the two continents
which nature and political fortune
have so intimately linked together |
earnestly recommend to your perusal
the reports Of their proceedings and of
the actions of their committees You
will get from them. l think. fresh
conception of the ease and intelligence
and advantage with which Americans
of both continents may draw together
in practical cooperation and of what
the material foundations of this hope
full partnership of interest must con-
sist-of how we should build them ana
of how necessary it is that We should
hasten their building.
There is. l venture to point out. an
especial significance just now attach
ing to this whole matter of wing
the Americas together in bonds of hon
orable partisanship and mutual ldvan-
taCe because of the economic readjust-
ments which the world must inevitably
witness within the next generation.
when peace shall have at last resumed
its healthful tasks. In the perform
ance of these tasks l believe the Amer
! icas to be destined to play their parts
together. am interested to fix your
| attention on this prospect now because
| unless you take it within your view
and permit the full significance of it to
command your thought l cannot find
the right light in which to set forth
the particular matter that lies at the
very front of my whole thought as
address you today. l mean national
defense
No one who really comprehends the
spirit Of the great people for whom we
are appointed to speak can fail to per-
! ceive that their passion is for peace.
their genius best displayed in the prac-
tice of the arts of peace. Great democ-
racies are not belligerent. They do not
seek or desire war. Their thought is
of individual liberty and of the free
labor that supports life and the I'M
censored thought that quickens it.
Conquest and dominion are not in our
| reckoning or agreeable to our princi-
pies But just because we demand un-
molested development and the undis-
turbed government of our own lives
upon our own principles of right and
liberty, we resent, from whatever
quarter it may come. the aggression we
ourselves will not practice. We insist
upon security in prosecuting our self
chosen lines of national development.
We do more than that. We demand it
also for others. We do not confine our
enthusiasm for individual liberty and
free national development to the Incl
dents and movements Of affairs which
affect only ourselves. We feel it wher-
ever there is people that tries to walk
in these difficult paths of independence
and right From the first we have
made common cause with all partisans
of liberty on this side the sea and have
deemed it as important that our neigh
bors should be free from all outside
domination as that we ourselves should
be; have set America aside as whole
for the uses of independent nations and
political freemen.
Out of such thoughts grow all our
policies. We regard war merely as a
means OF asserting the rights Of peo-