Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-06-16
NEUTRALITY OF WILSON SUITS
EVERYONE BUT THE WAR LORDS

fear that the temper of the American
people might be misunderstood.
Efforts have been made and may be
made again to create an impression here
and abroad that in asserting these prin-
ciples the president spoke for only n
fraction of the American people, that
the nation itself was divided, and that
the presidents solemn words could be
disregarded because the American peo-
pie would not stand solidly behind him.
This convention must make il 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 poll
cy since the beginning of the nation,
his action has behind il the force and
strength of a loyal and united peo-
pie.
We. who know and love America, know
how false. how vain, how unreal are
the efforts of those who picture US to
the world as divided against ourselves.
We know that so far as our information
al relations are concerned we hold hut
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 forth a message
TO all the world that will leave no room
for doubt
We must enable every real American
10 stand up and assert his Americanism.
We must make the issue so clear that
every ballot box in the land may be-
come a monument to the loyalty or
American manhood.
The citizens of this country will
stand behind their president because his
policies are right. They will stand be-
hind him because his policies are the
policies which have brought the nation
a century of prosperous and honored
peace. They will stand Behind him
because they want these policies contin-
ued, that prosperity prolonged, that
that peace assured
Yet over and above every other rea-
son that the nation may have for up
holding its president, is the necessity
of proving TO the world that we are
united people.
So long as the other nations of the
earth realize that the millions under
Americas flag think as one, believe as
one and act as one in the face of for
eign war, we shall be free from foreign
intrigue, and all that it entails. Once
let the notion get abroad that this ma
tion is merely a confederation of di-
verse and conflicting alliances, and we
shall never be safe from the machina-
tions of foreign powers.
A regard for national surety as well
az a pride of personal honor will there
fore bring the American people to the
support of their president. Whether
their blood is drawn from the banks of
the Rhine. or where the river Shan
non flows, whether they hail from AL
pine valleys or the meadows of the
Pyrenees, whether their descent be Ger
man or French, Irish or English. Au-
men who have sworn an oath of -fealty
to the ideals of America will be true.
They may love the lands of their
fathers much, but they love the land OF
their children more. They may cher
sh the memory of the sod from which
they sprung. but they stand ready to
lie for the soil that they have hallowed
with their homes.
Their loyalty to America is more than
loyalty to a name; their allegiance is
more than allegiance to a flag. The
man who serves America serves only
the best in himself. The man who is
loyal to America is loyal only to the
MODEST of humanity's ideals. The man
who swears allegiance to America en-
rolls himself in the ranks of those who
are pledged to freedom, to opportunity.
% justice and to human progress.