Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-10-19
PRESIDENTS WORDS
BELIED HIS DEEDS"
SAYS ROOSEVELT

tamcly when wrongs were committed by
the strong against the weak, oven al
though we had covenantcd that such
wrongs should not be committed. The
hrst was the course Of honor. of tenn
porary risk and of permanent safety. He
dld not follow it. The second was the
course of dishonor. of temporary safety
and of permanent danger. He followed it.
AS TO the course we ought to have fol-
lowed. it is TO be found laid down in his
own uttcrancos, and in the platform of
his own party
For three years there has been no pro-
lection of our citizens abroad The rights
of a citizen of the United States TO de-
mand protection of his government when
wrongcd by foreign power have been
settled by the Supreme Court of the
United states, when it said (S3 l.. S. u. 7W !:
1T is the privilege of citizen of the
United states to demand the care and
protection of the federal government
over his life. liberty and property when
on the high seas or within the jurisdiction
of foreign governments" This applied
to our citizens on III" LUSitania and the
Arabic who lost their lives from Ger
man submarines. 1t applied to our citi-
zcns in Mexico and Chihuahua who lost
their lives at the hands of the Mexican
soldiers of Carranza. 1t applied to the
Americans whose property was taken in
violation Of the principles of international
law by the English fleet. The right to
life comes ahead of the right to property,
and unless We first deal with the offenses
against the lives of our citizens we have
no justification for dealing with offcnses
against the property rights of our citi-
zons. But if we had done our duty in
the first case, it would then have be-
come incumbent upon us to do our duty
in tho latter case. Al this moment our
first duty should be to see that American
citizens, especially women and children.
shall not be set ahoat in row boats miles
off our coast on the October seas, as n
result of submarine attacks on merchant
vessels
This case OF Belgium was the first
Of Mr.. Wilson'S international sins. 1t
combined lofty promise and complete
failure in performance II consisted of
words which were nullincd by deeds In
thos" respects he made II the precedent
which he followed ever afterwards He
followed II when he wrote his "strict aC-
Countablity" note to Germany and then
for a year held Germany to no account
ability, either strict or loose while il
sunk ship after ship with thousands Of
non-combatants including hundreds of
Americans; and no atonemcnt has been
4 maze Tor Inc llNtS tnuS lOSt 70 thlS UHN.
When he dealt with our property rights.
he announced to England hat the United
States intended fcarcssly to accept the
championship" Of neutral rights. But
rs in the cas-" of his note to Germany
he did nothing to back UP his words
They were words and nothing else He
said he would hold Mexico to a 'striCt
responsibility" and he did not hold her
to any responsibility. He said he would
and he did not hold her to any account
ability. He said that the English block
adc was illegal, Ineffective, and indc-
fcnsiblc: and he neither made his words
good nor acted on them. He announced
that he would insist on all our rights:
and then h" abandoned them all He
wrote strong notes, to both sides; and
he took no action to back up the notes
to either side. We accomplished nothing
with either side. We incurred resentment
from both sides In just one respect we
belligercnts to agree on one point. They
agree in their uttor contempt for Amer
lea, in their conviction that the American
people cannot he goaded into virlc action
to defend tn" lives of their men, women
and children, and in their certainty that
WE are actuuJ'd only by the desire to
profit by tho agonics Of our European
brothers.
Instead of speaking softly and carry
ing a big stick. President Wilson spoke
bombasicaly and carried a dishrag"