Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-03-15
President Tells Gridiron Club
That United. States Ought to
Keep Out of European War

President Wilson told members and
guests at a Gridiron Club dinner at
Washington recently that America
ought to keep out of the European
war at the sacrifice Of everything ex.
cept this single thing upon which her
character and her history are founded,
her sense of humanity and justice"
The address was confidential, since
the speeches at the dinners of the
Gridiron Club, composed of newspaper
correspondents, are not reported. It
was made public, however, with the
consent Of the president and the club,
because many Of those who heard it
urged that it should go to the country.
The president spoke of the nations
affairs with unusual gravity. His hear
ers, including several hundred, mem
bers OF Congress, Businessmen and
correspo ents, were brought to their
feet cheering when he concluded with
these words .l-
ASHAMED to Be Rash. e. s.
Il would be just as much ashamed
to be rash as would to be coward.
Valor is self-respecting Valor is cir
cumspect. Valor strikes only when it
is right to strike. Valor withholds tt
self from all small implications and
.entanglements and waits for the great
opportunity, when the sword viii
fash as if it carried the light of heaE-
en- upon its blade" ~
The address follows: g.
Il have very little to say tonight
except to express my warm apprecia.
ton of the invariable courtesy of this
club and of the reception you have so
generously accorded me. / find that
am seldom tempted to say anything
nowadays unless somebody starts
something, and tonight nobody has
started anything. =. NJ I
Your talk, Mr.. Toastmaster, has
been great deal about candidacy for
the presidency 1t is not a new feel
ing on my part, but one which en-.
terrain with a greater intensity than
formerly, that a man WHO seeks the
presidency Of the United States for
anything that it will 1ring to him is
an audacious fool. The responsible
ties Of the Office ought to sober man
even before he approaches it
Expediency Is Wrong.
The point in national affairs, gen.
tlemen, never lies along the lines of
expediency. II always rests in the
field of principle. The United States
was not founded upon any principle
OF expediency: it was founded upon
profound principle of human liberty
and of humanity, and whenever it
bases its policy upon any other foun.
daticns than these, 1t builds on the
sand and not upon solid rock. .
1T seems to me that the most en-
Tightening thing a man can do is sug-
gested by something which the vice.
president said tonight. He COM
planned that he found men who, when
their attention was called to the signs
of spring, did not see the blue heav.
en-, did not see the movement of the
free clouds, did not think of the great
spaces of the quiet continent, but
thought only of some immediate and
pressing piece of business. 1t seems
to me that if you do not think of the
things that lie beyond and away you
VIII inevitably be led astray.
Back to the Fountains.
Il would a great deal rather know
what they are talking about around
quiet fiTesides all over this country
than what they are talking about in
the cloak rooms of Congress-. / would
a great deal rather know what the
men ON the trains and by the Wayside
and in the shops and on the farms