The Climax-Madisonian. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1914-1917, 1915-06-16
Bryan Discusses the
Note to Germany.
ASKS FOR A HEARING
Willing to Obide By Judgment
of American Public.
TWO SYSTEMS HELD AT ISSUE

interprets the American Note Which
He Refused to Sign as Conforming
to the Old System of Which War Is
the Cornerstone-New System, He
Declares, Is Persuasion, Which EN-,
bodies Argument and Courts Inves.
tlgation.
Washington, June 11.-Assailing the
new note sent by President Wilson to
the imperial German government
which ne had declined to sign, Will
liam Jennings Bryan issued a state
ment addressed to the American peo-
pie. He describes President Wilson
as an exponent of the old system in
dealing with disputes between govern
ments, the system that has war as its
cornerstone. Not only in this assertion
but in others, Mr.. Bryan clearly show
ed that he fears the possibility of war
between Germany and the United
States as the result of Mr.. Wilson,
note.
L.
President Wilson's policy as one OF
firmness supported by force. In Mr..
Bryan's opinion, this policy conforms
entirely to the standard of the old
system, a standard which resulted in
Austria's ultimatum to Servia and
which has since set Europe on fire.
In many ways the Bryan statement
issued is one of the most remarkable
documents with which Washington
ever has had to deal. Never before in
| the history of the nation has there
been a case quite comparable to this
one. Mr.. Bryan's friends give Mr.
Bryan full credit for sincerity and
courage, but his critics feel that his
attack upon the foreign policy of the
president at this crisis in the nations
affairs is more than deplorable and
will eventually react upon Mr.. Bryan
himself.
Bryan's Statement.
| To the American People:
You now have before you the text of
| the note to Germany-the note which It
would have been my official duty to sign
| had remained secretary of state. ask
| you to sit in Judgment upon my decision
| to resign rather than to share RESPONSE
| bility for 1t. I am sure you Will credit
| me with honorable motives, but that IS
| not enough. Good intentions could not
alone for a mistake at such time, on
| such a subject and under such circum-
| stances If your verdict is against me,
| ask no mercy: I desire none If 1 have
| acted unwisely man In public life
| must act according to his conscience, but
| hoWev conscientiously he acts, he must
be prepared to accept without complaint
| any condemnation which his own errors
| may bring upon him; he must be willing
| to bear any deserved punishment from
| ostracism to execution. But hear me be-
| fore you pass sentence.
The president and I agree in purpose;
| we desire peaceful solution OF the dis
| pute which has arisen between the Unit
ed States and Germany. We not only de-
| sire it. but with equal fervor pray for 1T,
| but we differ irreconcilably as to the
means of securing it. If 1t were merely
a personal difference, 1t would be a mat
ter of little moment, for all the presump-
| tions are on his side-tEe presumptions
that go with power and authority. He is
your president; am a private citizen
without office or title-but one Of the
hundred million of inhabitants.
But the real issue is not between per-
sons: II is between systems; and I rely
for vindication wholly upon the strength
Of the position taken.
Among the influences which govern
ments employ in dealing with each other
there are two which are pre-eminent and
antagonistic-force and persuasion. Force
speaks with firmness and acts through
the usual Limitation; persuasion employs
argument, courts investigation and de-
| pends upon negotiation. Force represents
the old systematic system that must
pass away; persuasion represents the
new system-the system that has been
| growing, all too slowly, Ii Is true, but
growing for nineteen hundred years In
| the old system war is the chief corner
stone-war which at best is little better
than war at its worst; the new system
| contefnplates an universal brotherhood
established through the uplifting power
| Of example.
III correctly interpret the note to Ger
many. II conforms to the standards Of
the old system rather than to the rules
OF the new, and I cheerfully admit that
| II is ebundantly suppoted by precedents-
precedents written In characters of blood
| upon almost every page of human his
tory. Austria furnished the most recent
precedent: II was Austria's frmness that
/ dictated the ultimatum against Servia,
which set the world at war. Every ruler
| now participating in this unparalleled
conflict has proclaimed his desire for
peace and denied responsibility for the
war and II is only charitable that we
should credit all OF them with good faith
They desired peace. but they sought Il
according to the rules of the old system
They believed that firmness would give
the best assurance of the maintenance Of
peace and, faithfully following precedent
| they went so near the fire that they were
one after another. sucked into the con-
test
Never before have the frtghtful follie.
| OF the fatal system been 30 clearly -
| vealed as now. The most civilized and on
lightened, aye. the most Christian OF al
}; nations Of Europe are graphing v7u
n each other as II in death struggle Ther
: are sacrificing the best and braveEt o
u their sons on the battenelds they are con
u / verting their gardens into cemeteries ant
their homes into houses OF mourning
they are taxing the wealth If today an
} laying a burden OF debt on the toll OF tn
future: they have filed the air with thun
derbolfs more deadly than those OF Jov
and they have multiplied the perils @
II the deep. Adding fresh fuel to the fam
/ of hate, they have daily devised new hor
rors. until one side Is endeavoring I
drown noncombatants, men. women an
children at sea. while the Other SID
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