East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1916-06-14
KEYNOTE SPEECH


1
These noisy critics forget that an
appreciation ot honor is as elemental
in every man as the instinct which
calls the flush of rage TO the cheek OF
the blaze Of anger 10 the eye. When
the honor of this country is outraged
of the glory of its Flag is beSmirched
the man OF the street, the toiler in the
fields, the artisan in the shops, the
man who shoulders his musket and
marches away at his countrys call
will need no one to tell him, no one
to show him where duty lies and man
hood calls The men who will do the
fighting viii not have to be drummed
to war--they will summon themselves
to battle with the valor of Jackson
and the ardor of a Wayne.
Preparedness
The genius of this country is for
peace. Compared with the blood
smeared pages Of Europe our records
are almost immaculate, In the maxi
ing of no other nation has conquest
played so small part. stolen wealth
does not fill our Golfers or ravished
territory swell our domains
We have built our greatness on the
resources Of nature and the peaceful
toll of our people The ring of the
anvil not the rattle of the saber. the
song OF the reaper. not the shrek of
the soldier, the clatter of the shuttle
not the crack of the rifle have won us
the place we occupy today in the coun-
ellis of the world.
| With us war has never been a
choice, it has always been a fate. we
would like TO furl the flags of war
and still its throbbing drums: we sigh
for the day when men will beat their
swords into plowshares, their spears
into pruning hooks; but we recognize
that the miracle is yet to be performed
which perfects human nature and i'm
bues nations with the spirit to do unto
others as they would 90 unto US.
Like the old Mohawk chief who
loved peace. we would like to throw
the tomahawk of war so high in the
sky that no mans hand could ever
pun it down. But when some other
tribe among the races of men sends
Us bundle of arrors wrapped in the
skin of rattlesnake, we want, like
old Governor Bradford Of Massachu-
setts, to be in a position to send that
rattlesnakes skin back stuffed with
powder and with ball.
We deprecate the compulsion but We
recognize the need of the policeman
on the beat, the safe In the bank and
| the Watchdog on the farm
We pray for the millennium but we
accept things as they are. AS men OF
common sense We realize that, for a
nation, the policy of turning the other
cheek when unjustly smitten means
national decapitation with a funera,
at which our people would be the
mourners, our enemies our heirs.
We fought one war for existence
and one for survival. We fought one
war to exclude foreign influence and
another TO preserve internal peace.
And we would fight four more wars
/ for the same reasons, but the reasons
/ we must have. Wnen necessity de-
/ mands we stand ready to meet with
force the enemies of our liberty, the
defamers of our honor and the foes
of our integrity. The war across the
seas has brought home to us the fear
that so long as men are men and ma.
tions nations, wars will continue.
We have been aroused from our
dreams of the millennium to the
knowledge that nothing that men cher
ish is safe from assault that the man
who would preserve his rights to life
to liberty, and to happiness. must
stand ready to defend those rights with
the last drop of his blood.
We have been carried too close to
the rocks of war during the past two
years to believe that those rocks do
not exist. And looking into the future
we can perceive that if our sovereign
ty is not challenged, if our. peace is not
assailed it will only be because the
world knows that we are strong
enough to defend ourselves from ev.
cry foe.
For these reasons this administra-
| tiOn has done more for our army and
our navy than any administration in
cur history.
More than this, it has modified the
resources Of the nation to meet the
needs Of war It has placed the
wealth Of the country back Of the
strength of the country, the toiler
back of the soldier and the sailor.
And to our opponents we say you
can't create an army, can't build a
navy in the course of a day; to them
we say if our navy is not strong
enough, if our army is not big enough,
he republican party is eighty per cent
to blame, for the republican party has
been in control of this nation eighty
per cent Of the time during the past
fifty years.
The democratic party advocates and
seeks preparedness, but it Is prepared
ness for defense, not preparedness for
aggression.
1t is the preparedness which builds