Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-03-02
We Should Keep Out of War.
He Declares, at Sacrifice of
Everything but Our Sense of
Humanity and Justice.
ADDRESSES GR|D|RON CLUB
Speech Ordinarily Would Not
BE Published, but Its Bearing
on Present Situation of For.
eign Relations Urges Mem
bers to Give 1t Publicity.

DeTS 10 Tive IL PUBLICITY.
Washington, Feb. G.-rrcsident Wilson
told members and guests at q Glidiron
club dinner last night that America
ought to keep out of tho European war
''at the sacrifice of everything except
this single thing upon which her char
acter and her history are founded, her
sense of humanity and Justice"
The address was confidential, since
the speeches at the dinners Of the Grid
roa club composed of newspaper corrc-
spondcnts, arc not reported. II was made
public tonight. however. with the con-
sent of the President and the club. be-.
cause many of those who heard it urged
that t should go to the country.
The President spoke of the nation S
affairs with unusual gravity. His hear
crs, including several hundred members
of Congress, government officials, bust
ness men and correspondents, were
brought to their feet cheering when he
concluded with these words:
II would be just as much ashamed to
be rash as I would be 10 be n coward
Nalor is self-respcctng. Valor is circum-
spect Nalor strikes only when IL is right
to strike. Nalor withhods itself from all
small implications AMI acknowledgements
and waits for the great opportunity when
the sword will flash as il it carried the
light Of heaven upon its blade"
The President said. in part
Your talk. Mr. Toastmaster. has been
a great deal about candidacy for tho
presidency 1t is not a new feeling on my
part. but one which I entertain with a
greater intensity than formerly that a
man who seeks the presidency of the Uni
ted States for anything that 1t will bring
to him is an audacious fool. The respon-
sibilities Of tho office ought to sober a
man even before be approaches it. One
of the difficulties of the office seldom
appreciated, dare say, is that ii is very
difficult to think while so many people
are talking. and particularly while so
many people are talking in way that
obscures council and is entirely off the
point
THE point in national affairs, gentle
men, never lies along the lines of eX-
pedicncy. It always rests in the field
of principle. The United States was
not founded upon any principle of ex-
found principle of human liberty and
of humanity. and whenever it bases
it's policy upon any other foundations
than those it builds on the sand and
not upon solid rock. I would a great
deal rather know what they arc talk
ing about around quiet firesides all
over this country than what they are
talking about in the cloak rooms of
-. II l. 40.
know what the men on the trains and
by the wayside and in the shope 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 and so easy
to read by picking up any scrap of
printed paper There is only one way
to hear these things and that is con-
stantly to go back to the fountains
of American action. These fountains
are not to be found in any recently
discovered sources.
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 forcfath.
ers acted in when We were three million
strong. our forefathers were ready I,
| stake everything for an idea, and thai
| idea was not expedency, but justice
And the infinite difficulty OF public at
fairs, gentlemen, is not to discover the
signs of the heaven and the directions
of the wind, but to square the things
you do by the not simple but complicat
ed standards OF Justice Justice ha.
| nothing to do with expediency. Justice
| has nothing to do with any temporary
standard whatever 1t Is rooted anC
grounded In the fundamental instincts o.
humanity.
"America ought to keep out OF thi.
war She ought to keep out of this wa,
, at the sacrifice OF everything excep,
this single thing upon which her char
acter and history are founded, her sense
of humanity and justice. II she sacri
fees that. she has ceased to be America
she has ceased to entertain and to low.
the traditions which have made us proud
to be Americans. and when We go abou
seeking safety at the expense Of human
| ity then ! for one will believe that
have always been mistaken in what
have conceived to be the spirit of Amer
lean history.
| you never can tell your direction ex.
cept by long measurements. You cannot
establish II line by two posts. you have
got to have three at least to know wheth.
er they are straight with anything and
the longer your line tho more certain YOU,
measurement. There is only one way In
which to determine how the future of the
United States is going to be protected
and that is by looking back and seeing
which way the lines ran which led I'D to
the present moment OF power and OF on.
portunity. There is no doubt about that
There is no question what the roll of homo,
i'm America is. The roll Of honor consist,
of the names of men who have squared
their conduct by ideals OF duty. There 4,
no one else upon the roster. there is nr
one else whose name We care to renem
her when we measure things upon n ma.
tional scale And ! wish that whcneye,
an impulsc to settle a thing some shor,
wov tempts us we might close the door an,
tnkc down some old stories Of wha,
| American idealists ana statesmen did ir
the past, and not let in any counsel tina,
does not sound in the authentic voice ot
| American tradition Then VIC shall lie cor
tain what the lines of the future arc no
cause we shall know we are steerin., Ia,
the lines of the past. We shall know Thai
no temporary convenience. no temporar,
Iexpedjency, will lead us either to he ra al
or to be cowardly''