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

the nations house upon rock. so 3,
will not fan when the rains descend
and the floods come and the winds
blow
We may look upon preparedness
with as little favor as we look upon
taxes, but we pay the taxes because
We want the protection for which the
taxes pay.
Democracy refuses to be frightened
by those who pretend to fear that this
great land Of freedom will descend in
to the abyss Of militarism
1t knows that militarism can no
more thrive in this country than the
cookie and the tare can thrive amid
the wheat of the husoandman who
loves his land, 1t knows that prepar-
ednesS, that reasonable preparedness
will not kill democracy in this coun-
try any more than it killed democracy
in Switzerland. 1t knows that reason
able preparedness will ensure us peace
just as it ensured peace for Switzer.
land though war thundered at her
doors.
Militarism in the United States is
as impossible as the shadow of a
ghost in the midday sun We had a
triumphant army in 1776, We had an
invincible navy in 1872 and in 1860
we had the two greatest armies the
world had ever seen.
But when the crisis passed that
called these freemen to the colors the
;irst to leap forward at their coun.
try's call were the first to return to
the farms and factories whence they
came
From the ranks of democracy they
came as silently as Putnam left his
plough in answer to the shot hearo
around the world; and back to de-
mocracy they went as silently as the
southern heroes whose horses Grant
returned that they might plow the We
ry fields which had been narrowed by
their cannons' wheels.
National Soul.
These, then, are the principles that
have been asserted and followed by
the president of the United States
during the past two years,-that the
United States shall not embroil itself
in European strife, that the United
States shall endeavor to maintain
friendly and cordial relations with
every other nation and that the Uni
ted States shall firmly assert and
maintain and be prepared to assert
and maintain its neutral rights against
every belligerent.
Nothing in the assertion of these
principles by the president has caused
the nation so many anxious hours as
the fear that the temper of the Am
erican people might be misunder-
stood.
Efforts have been made and may be
made again to create an impression
here and abroad that in asserting
these principles the president spoke
for only a fraction of the American
people, that the nation itself was di-
vided and that the presidents solemn
words could be disregarded because
the American people would not stand
solidly behind him.
This convention must make it
plain that all divisions among the
American people stop at the oceans
edge This convention must declare
and must give the country the means
to declare that when the president of
the United States speaks to a foreign
power, he speaks for every citizen of
America; that when the nations chief
executive asserts a policy that has
been an American policy since the be-
ginning of the nation, his action has
behind it the force and strength of
loyal and united people.
We, who know and love America,
know how false. how vain, how un-
real. are the efforts of those who pic
ture us to the world as divided against
ourselves. We know that so far as our
international relations are concerned
we hold but one faith, acknowledge
but one loyalty, follow but one flag.
We of this convention, representing
every section of the United States,
speaking for every racial strain in
America, must send fourth a message
to all the world that will leave no
room for doubt
We must enable every real Ameri-
can to stand up and assert his Ameri-
canism We must make the issue SO
clear that every ballot box in the
land may become a monument to the
loyalty Of American manhood.
The citizens of this country win
stand behind their president because
his policies are right. They will stand
behind him because his policies are
the policies which have brought the
nation a century Of prosperous and
honored peace. They will stand be-
hind him because they want these
policies continued, that prosperity pro-
longed, that peace assured.
Yet over and above every other
reason that the nation may have for
upholdlng its president is the neces-
sity Of proving to the world that we
are a united people.
So long as the other nations of the
earth realize that the millions under
flag think as one, believe
as one and act as one in the face of |
foreign war, we shall be free from |
foreign intrigue, and all that 1t en-
-ails. Once let the notion get abroad |
hat this nation is merely a confed-
eration Of diverse and conflicting al
egiances, and we shall never be safe
rom the nachinations of foreipn