Norwich bulletin., 1916-02-28

Wilson told members and guests at a
Gridiron club dinner last night that
America ought to keep out of the Eu-
ropean war at the sacrifice of every
thing except 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. 1t
was made public tonight, 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.
Spoke With Unusual Gravity.
The president spoke of the nations
affairs with unusual gravity. His
hearers, including several hundred
members of government departments,
business men and correspondents,
were brought to their feet cheering
when he concluded with these words:
Says VaIor is cireumspect.
"I would be just as much ashamed
to be rash as l would to be a coward.
Valor is self respecting. Valor is cir
cumspect. Valor strikes only when it
is right to strike. Valor withholds it
self from all small implications and
entanglements and waits for the great
opportunity when the sword will flash
as II carried IHe llBnI heaven
upon its blade"
President Wilson's Address.
The address follows:
II have very little to say tonight ex-
cept to express my warm appreciation
| of the invariable courtesy of this club
and of the reception you have so gem
erously accorded me. 1 find that am
seldom tempted to say anything now
! adays unless somebody starts some-
-, toll, 4
anything.
Responsibilities of Office.
"Your talk, Mr.. Toastmaster, has
been a great deal about candidacy for
the presidency. 1t is not a new feel
ing on my part but one which l en-
tertain with a greater intensity than
formerly that man who seeks the
presidency of the United States for
anything that it will bring to him is
an audacious fool. The responsibilities
of the office ought to sober a man even
before he approaches it. One Of the
| difficulties of the office seldom ap-
preciated, / dare say, is that it is very
pie are talking and particularly while
so many people are talking in a way
that obscures counsel and is entirely
off the point.
Principle of Human Liberty.
The point in national affairs, gen.
| tlemen never lies along the lines of
| expediency. 1t always rests in the
was not founded upon any principle
| of ezpediency; it was founded upon a
| profound principle of human liberty
and of humanity and whenever it
bases it's policy upon any other foun-
dations than those it builds on the
sand and not upon solid rock. 1t
seems to me that the most enlighten-
| ing thing a man can do is suggested by
| something which the vice president
said tonight. He complained that he
found men who, when their attention
was called to the signs of spring, did
| not see the blue heaven, 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.
Would Like to Hear Talk of the
People.
TT seems to me that if you do net
think of the things that lie beyond
and away from and disconnected from
this scene which if we attempt to
| think and conclude, you will inevitably
| be led astray. 1 would a great deal
| rather know what they are talking
about around quiet f1resides all over
this country. than what they are talk
| ing about in the cloak rooms OF con-
gress. ! would a deal rather know
what the men on the trains and by
the waysides and in the shops and
on the farms are thinking about and
yearning for, than hear any of the
vociferous proclamations of policy
which It is so easy to hear ana so
easy to read by picking up any scrap
of printed paper. There is only one
way to hear these things and that is
constantly to go back to the foun-
tains of American action. Those foun-
tains are not to be found in any re-
Gently discovered sources.
Justice Founded on Humanity.
Senator Harding was saying just
now that we ought to try when we
are a hundred million strong to act in
the same simplicity of principle that
our forefathers acted in when we were
three million strong. 1 heard some
body say l do not know the exact sta
tistics, that the present population of
the United States is one hundred and
million thinking the same things that
that original three million thought,
the hundred million will be saved for
an ilIustrious future. They were
ready to stake everything for an idea
and that idea was not expediency, but
Justice And the infinite difficulty of
public affairs. gentlemen, is not to dis
cover the signs of the heaven and the
directions Of the wind, but to square
the things you do by the not simple
but complicated standards of justice
Justice has nothing to do with expe-
diency. Justice has nothing to do with
the temporary standard whatever. 1t
Is rooted and grounded in the funda-
mental instincts Of humanity.
Ought to Keep Out of War.
America ought to keep out of this