West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1915-11-11
United States Cannot Submit to the
Curtailment of its Neutral Rights
Protests Against Illegal Blockade
and Insists that International Law
Must be Observed

hef oi tne manhattan club tonight I'm
the Biltmore hotel, set forth his plan
OF national preparedness He was
wildly cheered as he concluded by sew
eral hundred OF New York's most
prominent citizens lawyers. jurors.
politicians and men of finance. com
merce and letters
The President spoke with his won't
ed clarity and precision. He was in.
terrupted now and then by applause
but he remained very calm as he
spoke. II was by all means the most
important speech he has made so
publicly since he took Office and the
throng realized it,
Mr.. Toastmaster and Gentlemen:
/ warmly felicitate the club upon
the completion OF fifty years of sue
cessful and interesting life. Club life
may be made to mean great deal TO
those who know how to use IL.
have no doubt that to great u:any of
you has come genuine stimulation
In the associations of this place and
that as the years have multiplied YOU
have seen more and more the useful
ends which may be served by organi-
cations OF this sort.
But have not come to speak who'll
ly OF that. for there are others of
your own members who can speak of
the club with a knowledge and an
Intelligence which no one can have
nj fal,
ciated with IL. Men band themselves
together for the sake of association
no doubt, but also for something
greater and deeper than that-because
they are conscious OF common inter-
ests lying outside their business oc-
cupations, because they are members
OF the same community and i'm fire.
quent intercourse find mutual stimu-
lation and real maximum of vitality
and power. ! shall assume that here
around the dinner table on this mem
orial occasion our talk should prop
erly turn to the wide and common in
tefests which are most in our
thoughts, whether they be the inter-
csts OF the community or OF the ma
tion.
year and a half ago our thoughts
would have been almost altogether of
great domestic questions. They are
many and of vital consequence We
must and shall address ourselves to
their solution with diligence. firmness,
aud self-possession, Notwithstanding.
we find ourselves in the midst of a
world disturbed by great disorder and
ablaze with terrible war; but our
thought is now inevitably of new
things about which formerly we gave
ourselves little concern. We are
thinking now chiefly of our rela-
tions with the rest OF the world-not
our commercial relations about those
we have thought and planned always
but about our political relations. our
duties az an individual and independ-
ent force in the world to ourselves.
our neighbors and the world itself.
Our principles are we'll known. 1t
Is not necessary to avow them again
We believe in political liberty and
founded our great government to OBJ
tain 1t, the liberty of men and of peo-
ples-of men to choose their own lives
and of peoples to choose their own al
iegiance. Our ambition, also, all the
world has knowledge of. It is not on
ly to be free and prosperous ourselves.
but also to be the friend and thought
ful partisan of those who are free or
who desire freedom the world over.
II we have had aggressive purposes
and covetous ambitions. they were the
fruit of our thoughtless youth as
nation and we have put them aside
We shall, / confidently believe. never
again take another foot OF territory by
conquest. We shall never In any cir
eumstances seek 10 make an independ-
ont people subject to our dominion;
because we believe, we passionately
believe. in the right of every people
to choose their own allegiance and be
free OF masters altogether. For our
selves we wish nothing but the full
liberty Of self-development: and with
ourselves In this great matter we as
sociate all the peoples OF our own
hemisphere. We wish not only for
the United States but for them the
fullest freedom OF independent growth
and Of action, for we know that
throughout this hemisphere the same
aspirations are everywhere being
worked out, under diverse conditions
but with the same impulse and ulti-
mate object.
All this ls very clear 70 us and will.
! confidently predict, become more
and more clear to the whole world as
the great processes OF the future un-
fold themselves II is with a full con
sciousness OF such principles and such
ambitions that we are asking our
selves at the present time what our
duty is with regard TO the armed force
OF the nationl Within a year we have
witnessed what we did not believe
possible, a great European conflict in
volving many OF the greatest nations
of the world The influences Of
great war are everywhere in the air.
All Europe is embattled Force every
where speaks out with a loud and Inn
perious voice in a titanic struggle of
governments, and from one end OF