Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-02-25
LETTER OF WILSON
ON RIGHTS ON SEA

Washington, d. c., Feb. 25.--Follow-
ing is the text of President Wilson's
letter to Senator Stone:
THE White house, Washington, Feb.
"a, 1916.-My Dear Senator: | very
warmly appreciate your kind and
frank letter of today and feel that 1t
calls for an equally frank reply.
Your are right in assuming that |
shall do everything in my power to
keep the United States out of war. |
think the country will feel no uneasi-
ness about my course in that respect.
Through many anxious months / have
striven for that object, amidst diff
culties more manifold than can have
been apparent upon the surface, and
so far | have succeeded. l do not
doubt that | shall continue to succeed.
1.-THE course which the central Euro
pean powers have announced their in
tention of following in the future with
regard to undersea warfare seems for
the moment to threaten insuperable
obstacles, but its apparent meaning is
so manifestly inconsistent with explic-
it assurances recently given us by
those powers with regard to theil
treatment of merchant vessels on the
high seas that l must believe that ex-
plantations will presently ensue which
will put different aspect on it
I'VE have had no reason to question
their good faith or their fidelity to
their promises in the past, and l, for
one, feel confident that we shall have
none in the future.
But in any event our duty is clear.
| No nation, no group of nations, has the
right, while war is in progress, to al
i ter or disregard the principles which
all nations have agreed upon in miti-
cation of the horrors and sufferings of
war; and if the clear rights of Amer
lean citizens should ever unhappiy
be abridged or denied by any such &C
ton we should, it seems to me, have
| in honor no choice as to what our own
course should be-
For my own part | cannot consent
to any Infringement of the rights of
American citizens in any respect. The
honor and self-respect of the nation is
involved. We covet peace and shall
preserve it at any cost but the loss of
honor. To forbid our people to exercise
their rights for fear we might be called
upon to vindicate them would be a
deep humiliation indeed. 1t would be
an implicit, all but an explicit, acquies-
ence in the violation of the rights of
mankind everywhere and of whatever
nation or allegiance
1T would be a deliberate abdication
OF our hitherto proud position as
spokesman, even amidst the turmoil of
war, for the law and the right 1t
would make everything this govern
ment has attempted and everything
that it has achieved during this terri
BILE struggle of nations meaningless
and futile.
1T is important to reflect that if in
this instance we allowed expediency
to take the place of principle the door
would inevitably be opened to still
further concessions Once accept a
single abatement of right and MANY
= other humiliatiOns would certainly fol-
low, and the whole fine fabric of inter
E national law might crumble under our
hands, piece by piece
What we are contending for in this
matter is of the very essence of the
things that have made America a SOW
: ereign nation. She cannot WELD them
: without conceding her own impotencv
: as a nation and making virtual sur
render OF her Independent position
among the nations of the world.
Il am speaking, my dear senator, il.
7 deep solemnity, without heat with a
: clear consciousness of the high re-
| spoHsibilities of my office and as your
l sincere and devoted friend. If we
should unhappily differ, we shall diff
: fer as friends; but where issues SO
momentous as there are involved we
: must, just because we are friends,
: speak our minds without reservation,
: WOODROW WILSON.
| Hon. William J. Stone, United
States senate"