The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1916-02-04
Do Not Wish Nation TO Be
POWerIeSs TO Protect It's
Good Name = Presi-
dent Wilson Makes
Answer Plain.

Des Moines, Feb. 1.-President
Wilson, in addressing the largest
audience of his present trip in which
he Is advocating preparedness, here
tonight asked this question: "Do YOU
want the situation to be such that all
the president can do is to write mes
sages and utter words of protest?"
why, to ask that question is to
answer it," he said.
whenever international law is vio-
lated by one or the other belliger-
ents," the president said, America
was called upon to register a voice
of protest or insistence.'
IF the breaches of international
law, which are in daily danger of oc-
curing, should touch the very honor
of the United States, do you wish to
DO nothing about it? DO you wish to
have all the world say that the flag
of the United States can be stained
with impunity?
Il know there is not man or wo-
man within the hearing of nv voice
who would wish peace at the ex-
pense of the honor of the United
States"
Loudly Appauded.
The presidents address was pune
tuated with thunderous applause. He
spoke gravely but with emphatic pes-
lures to enforce his words. But both
his declaration that the United States
wants peace and his assertion that
the self respect of the nation must
be preserved brought quick responses.
The president declared he was try-
ing to weigh carefully every word
he said. He reiterated that he had
been daily charged to keep the coun-
try out of war and also to uphold IFS
honor.
"And many a night when it has
seemed impossible for me to Sleep"
ne said, because of the apparently
lnextricable difficulties into which our
international relations were drifting.
have said to myself, I wonder if
the people of the United States fully
know what that mandate means to
me- And then sleep has come; be-
cause | knew that there was not a
community in America that would not
stand behind me in maintaining the
honor of the United States.
"The difficulty of keeping America
at peace during this titanic struggle
across the sea can not be disclosed
now; perhaps it never can be dis
closed. How anxious and how diff
hcult this task has been! But my heart
has been in it. | have not grudged
single burden that has been placed
upon me with that end in view"
There are actually men in America
who are preaching war, the president
declared, men who want the United
States to have entangling alliances
abroad. He said he did not think thew
spoke the voice of America, which he
declared to be for peace.
He added that others go further
than he in advocating peace. "They
preach the doctrine of peace at any
price," he added, while men in the
audienced called "Neverw "Never!"
He said these men did not know the
circumstances of the world.
The president declared he hoped if
this war had no other result it would
create an international tribunal to
declaration that he had found the
people of the Middle West for pre-
paredness drew long applause
Some one who does not know our
fellow citizens as well as he ought to
know them, told me there was a GER
tain degree of indifference and
lethargy in the Middle West with re-.
gard to the defense of the nation"
he declared. 81 said / did not believe
1t, but was going out to see. | have
| seen what | expected to see-great
bodies of serious men and women COM
ing together to show their interest in
the object of my visit"
The president closed with a tribute
to the American flag.
"As | look at that flag" he said, "I
seem to see many characters upon it
which are not visible to the physical
eye. There seem to move ghostly
visions of devoted men who, looking
to that flag, thought only of liberty,
of the rights of mankind, of the mis-
sion Of America to show the way to
the world for the realization of those
rights. And every grave of every
brave man in the country would seem
to have upon it the colors of the flag,
II he were true American-would
seem to have on it that stain of red
which means the true pulse of blood;
that patch of pure white, which
means the peace of the soul. And then
these seems to rise over the graves
of those men and to halow their
memories that blue space of the sky
| in which swim those Stars ,,rh;oh