The Washington herald., 1916-01-30

ernment Of the United States has not
been called upon by the one side or the
other to protest and intervene with its
moral influence II not with its physical
force So that 1t IL as II we were the
great audience before whom this stipend
Gus drama IL being played out, and we
are asked to comment upon the turns
and crisis OF the plot And not only are
We the audience. and challenged to be
the umpire. so far as the opinion OF the
world is concerned, but all the while
our own life touches these matters at
many points OF vital contact
THE United States is trying to keep
up the processes Of peaceful commerce
while all the world is at war. and while
the world is in need of the essential
things which the United States produces,
and yet by an oversight. for which II
is difficult TO forgive ourselves. we did
not provide ourselves when there was
peace and opportunity with a mercantile
marine, by means OF which we coulo
carry the commerce of the world without
the interference of the motives of other
nations which might be engaged In con-
troversy not our own.
America Believes In Justice.
And so the carrying trade of the
world is for the most part in the hands
of the nations now embrolled in this
great struggle. Americans have gone TO
all quarters of the world. Americans are
serving the business of the world In every
part Of It. and every one of these men,
when his affairs touch the regions that
are on fire, Is our ward, and we must
see to his rights and that they are re-
spected.
DO you not see how all those sensi-
tive places of our life touch these great
disturbances? Now, In the midst OF that,
what is It that we are called on to do
as a nation? / suppose that. from the
first. America has had one peculiar and
particular mission In the world Other
nations have grown rich, my fellow citl-
gems; other nations have been as power
full as we in material resources; other
nations have built up empires and ex-
ercised dominion-we are not peculiar in
any of these things, but we are peculiar
in this, that from the first we have
dedicated our force to the service or
justice and righteousness and peace.
I'VE have said Our chief interests are
not in the rights of property, but In the
rights of men: our chief interests are
in the spirit of men that might be free,
that they might enjoy their lives un-
molested so long as they observed the
just rules of the game, that they might
deal with their fellow men with their
heads erect, the subjects and servants
of no man but the servants only of
the principles upon which their lives
rested.
And America has done more than care
for her own people and think OF her
own fortunes in these great matters. She
has said. ever since the time of Presi-
dent Monroe, that she was the champion
Of freedom and the separate sovereignty
Of the peoples throughout the Western
ideals and she is deeply and permanent
ly pledged to keep those momentous
promises.
Fears They May Enter Campaign.
she not only, therefore, must play her
part in keeping this confia grafton from
spreading to the people of the United
States; she must also keep this confia-
grafton from spreading on this side of
the seas These are matters in which our
very life and whole pride and embedded
and rooted. and we can never draw back
from them. And /. my fellow-citizens,
because OF the extraordinary office which
you have intrusted to me, must, whether
I will or not, be your responsible spokes-
man in these great matters. It is my
duty, therefore, when impressions are
deeply bore In upon me with regard to
the national welfare. to speak to you
with the utm ost frankness about them.
For my own part, am sorry that