Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-02-01
President Scores Americans Seeking
To DraV y. S. Into European War
And Praises Loyalty of Most People

a dupe as to be enga ged in it if it had
} any suspicion of that type.
But / am not as innocent as l look,
and believe that l can say for my col
) leagues in Washington that they are
Just as watchful in such matters as you
would desire them to be.
| Now. there is another misapprehen-
sion that ] do not wish you to enter
tain. Don't suppose that there is any
new or sudden or recent inadequacy on
the part of this government with re-
spect to preparation for national de-
Tense.
Il have heard some gentlemen say
that we have no coast defcnSeS worth
talking about. because defcnses are not
nowadays advertised. you understand.
and they are not visible to the naked
eye. SO that if you passed them and
nothing exploded you would not know
that they were there. And the coast
defenses of the United States. while not
numerous enough, are equipped in the
most modern and efficient fashion. You
are told that there has been some sort
of neglect about the navy.
Navy Lacks Only Quantity.
There has not been any sort of neg
lect about the navy. We have been
slowly building up navy, which in
quality is second to no navy in the
world. The only thing it lacks is guam
tity. In size it is the fourth navy in
by some gentlemen in this very region
that 1t was the second. In fighting
force, though not in quality. it is reck
oned by experts to be fourth in rank
| in the world. and yet when go on
board these ships and see their equip
ment and talk with their officers l sus-
pect that they could give an account
of themselves which would raise them
l,1, sI1 =, .,ln dc
of that very quaint saying of the old
darky preacher. The Lord says unto
Moses. come forth, and he came fifth
and lost the race.
But l think this. navy would not
come fourth in the race.
What we are proposing now is not
| a sudden creation of a navy, for we
have a splendid navy, but the definite
working out of a program by which,
| within five years. we will bring the
navy to a fighting strength which
| otherwise might have taken eight or
ten years: along exactly the same lines
of development that may have been
followed. and followed diligently and
intelligently. for at least a decade past.
| There is no sudden panic, there is no
sudden change of plans. All that has
happened is that we now see that we
ought more rapidly and more thorough
ly than ever before to do the things
which have always been characteristic
of America. For she has always been
proud of her navy and has been addict
ed to the principle that her citizenship
must do the fighting on land. We are
working out American principles lit
tie faster. because American pulses are
| beating little faster, because the
world is in a whirl, because there are
incalcula BILE elements of trouble broad
| which we cannot control or alter. 1
would be derelict to the duty which
you have laid upon me if l did not
tell you that it was absolutely neces
DrinCinleS in this
matter. now and at once. Yet all the
time, my fellow citizens, l believe that
we are merely interpreting the spirit
of America"
! Spiritual Unity in America.
who shall say what the spirit of
America is? 1 many times heard orators
apostrophize this beautiful flag. which
Is the emblem of the nation. 1 many
times heard orators and philosophers
speak of the spirit which was resident
in America.
81 always have, for my own part.
felt that it was an act of audacity to
attempt anything of that kind, and
when 1 have been outside of the coun-
try, in foreign lands, and have been
asked if this. that or the other was
true of America. I have habitually
said nothing stated. in general terms,
is true of America, because it is the
most variegated and varied and multi
form land under the SUM-. And yet I
know, my ellow-citizens, that if you
turn away from the physical aspects
of the country. IL you turn away from
the variety of the streams of blood
that make up our great population, if
you turn away from the great varla-
ton of occupation and of interest
among our fellow citizens. there is a
spiritual unity in America.
4. there things
/ which stir every heart in America, no
matter what the racial derivation or
the local environment, and one of the
things that stir every American Is the
love of invididual liberty. We do not
stand for occupation. We do not stand
for material interest. We do not stand
for any narrow conception even of
political institutions, but we do stand
for this. that we are banded together
in America to see to it that no man
shall serve any master who is not of
his own choosing.
Champions of Both Americas.
And we have been very liberal and
generous to this idea. We have seen
great people, for the most part not the
same blood with ourselves, to the south
. of us build up policies in which this
same idea was pulsed and pregnant,
this idea of free institutions and in
dividual liberty; and, when we have
seen hands reached across the water
from older political policies and inter-
! fere with the development of. free in
stitutions of the western hemisphere.
We have said, No, we are the cham
!. pions of the freedom of popular SOW
ereignty, wherever it. displays or ex-
ercises itself, throughout both Amer
; icas.'
LAS l came along the line of the rail-
way today l was touched to observe
that everywhere, upon every railway
station, upon every house, where Va
: flag could be procured. some temporary
! standard had been raised from which
there fioated the Stars and Stripes.
They seem to have OWNED the errand
on which l had come, that we must
subordinate every individual interest.
and every local interest, to assert once
more, if 1t should be necessary to as
sert them, the great principles for
! which that flag stands.
do not deceive yourself as to where
the colors of that flag came from, those
lines of red are lines of blood, nobly
and unselfshly shed by men who loved
the liberty of their fellow-man more
than they loved their own lives and
fortunes. God forbid that we should
| have to use the blood of America
to fresh the color of that flag but If 1t
ever should be necessary again to as
sert the majesty and integrity of those
ancient and honorable principles. that
flag will be colored once more, and,
j.. \ in hetpp cOlored will he O1ori6ad op6