The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1916-02-29
AVOID WAR, SAYS
PRESIDENT WILSON
Speaks of Nations Affairs With
Gravity
AT GRIDIRON CLUB
President Says He Would be
Just as Much Ashamed TO
be Rash as He Would to
be Coward.

guests at Gridiron Club dinner
last night that America ought
to keep out of the European war,
"at the sacrifice of everything
except this single thing upon
which her character and her his
tory are founded, her sense of
humanity and justice"
The address was confidential
since the speeches at the din
ners of the Gridiron Club, COM
posed of newspaper correspond
ents, are not reported. 1t was
made public tonight, however,
with the consent of the president
and the club, because many of
those who heard it urged that
it should go to the country.
The President spoke of the ma
tons affairs with unusual grav"
ity. His hearers, including sew
eral hundred members of con-
gress, government officials, busi
ness men and correspondents,
were brought to their feet cheer
ing when he concluded with these
words:
True ValOr.
81 would be just as much ash
AIMED to be rash as | would to
be a coward. Valor is self-re-
specting. Valor is circumspect.
Valor strikes only when it is
right to strike. Valor withholds
itself from all small implica-
tions and entanglements and
waits for the great opportunity
when the sword will flash as it
it carried the light of heaven
upon it's blade"
In his address he said:
"I have very little to say to-
night. except to express my
warm appreciation of the inva-
riable courtesy of this club and
of the reception you have so
generously accorded me. | find
that am seldom tempted to say
anything nowadays unless some
body starts something and to-
night nobody has started any
thing.
"Your talk, Mr.. Toastmaster,
has been a great deal about the
candidacy for the Presidency. 1t
is not a new feeling on my part,
but one which ] entertain with
a greater intensity than former
ly, that a man who seeks the
Presidency of the United States
for anything that'it will bring to
him is an audacious fool. The
responsibilities of the office
ought to sober a man even be-
fore he approaches it. One of
the difficulties of the office sell
dom appreciated, / dare say, is
that it is very difficult to think
while so many people are talk
ing, and particularly while so
many people are talking in way
that obscures counsel and is en-
tirely off the point.
National Affairss.
"The point in national affairs,
gentlemen, never lies along the
lines of expediency. 1t always
rests in the field of principle.
The United States was not
founded upon any principle of
expedfency, it was founded upon
q profound principle Of human
liberty and of humanity, and
whenever it basis it's policy upon
any other foundations than those
it builds upon the sands and not
upon the solid rock. 1t seems
me that the most enlightening
thing a man can do is suggested
by something which the Vice
President said tonight. He
complained that he found men
who, when their attention was
called to the signs of spring, did
not see the blue heaven, did not
see the movement of free clouds,
did not think of the great spaces
of the quiet continent, but
thought only of some immediate
and pressing piece of business.
1t seems to me that if you do
not think of the things that lie
beyond and away from and dis
connected from this scene in
which we attempt to think and
conclude you will inevitably be
led astray. would a great deal