Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-06-15
WILSON BARES PLOT
OF FOES; ROOSEVELT
DENOUNCES PACFISTS
President Bares Kaiser's
Peace Intrigue as Part Of
His Plot for World Domi-
nation; Warns Against
Disguised Disloyalties."
THIS is PEOPLES
WAR, HE DECLARES

! Washington, D. c., June 14.-Befort
I a great audience assembled here today
for Flag day celebration. President
Wilson declared anew the the aims
and purposes Of the United States II
entering the world war.
Standing in the shadow of the grea
monument erected to the everlasting
memory Of George Washington. the
president told thousands gathered OF
the grassy slopes about him that the
United States had entered the war MOI
alone to keep the world safe fo'
democracy but also because the "ex
traordinary insults and aggressions o.
the imperial German government LEFT
us no choice but to take up arms II
defense Of our rights as free people
and Of our honor as sovereign gov
ernment."
The United States marine band
played patriotic airs and chorus o1
600 voices, organized among govern
ment clerks, sang. Most persons car
ried small American flags and as the
band played the Star Spangled Ban
ner. a big flag was hoisted to the tor
of the monument.
President Wilson warned the Ameri
can people that Germany has carried
into effect the greater part Of her i'm
mediate plan of conquest and now Is
negotiating a new Intrigue of peace
designed to end the war while her ag
gressions are seCure,
In blunt and certain terms he de-
nounced the American paciflsts and
characterized their ,utterances az utter
dis1oyalties.
Peace, peace. peace has been the
talk Of her. foreign office for now a
year and more" said the president. "A
little Of the talk has been public, but
most OF II has been private. Through
all sorts OF channels It has come to me
and in all sorts Of guises."
TELLS NATIONS WAR AIMS.
The president recited again the
German aggressions which drove the
United States to war. He declared the
purposes for which American soldiers
now carry the Stars and stripes to
Europe for the frst time in history are
not new to American traditions be-
cause realization Of Germany's war
aims must eventually mean the undo
ing OF the whole world. He spoke IN
part as Follows:
I'VE are about to carry our flag into
battle, to lift it where, 1t will draw the
fire of our enemies. We are about to
bid thousands. hundreds Of thousands,
II may be millions, Of our men, the
young, the strong, the capable men Of
the nation. to go forth and die beneath
IT on fields Of blood far avay-for
what?
"It ls plain enough how we were
forced into the war. The extraor-
dinary insults and a0gressions OF
the Imperial German government
LEFT US no self.respeetlng choice
but to take up arms In defense OF
our rlqtts as a free people and Of
our honor as sovereign govern
ment.
"The military masters Of Germany
denied us the right to be neutral. They
filed our unsuspecting communities
with vicious spies and conspirators
and sought to corrupt the opinion OF
our people in their own behalf.
FOES SPREAD sEDiTloN.
"when they found that they could
not do that. their agents diligently
spread sedition amongst US and sought
to draw our own citizens from their al
lesiance-and some Of those agents
were men connected with the ohfcial
embassy Of the German government
itself here In our own capitol. They
sought by violence to destroy our In
dustries and arrest our commerce.
They tried to incite Mexico to take up
arms against US and to draw Japan In.
to a hostile alliance with her-and
that. not by indirection, but by direct
suggestion from the foreign ONCE in
Berlin
"They impudently denied as the use
of the high seas and repeatedly e1ecut-
ed their threat that they would send to
their death any Of our people who ven
tured to approach the coasts OF
Europe. And many Of our own people
were corrupted Men began to look
upon their own neighbors with sus-
picion and to wonder in their hot re-
sentiment and surprise whether there
was any community in which hostile
intrigue did not lurk.
What great nation in such circunl-
stances would not have taken up
arms? Much as we had desired peace.
II was denied us, and not Of our own
choice. This flag under which we
serve would have been dishonored had
We withheld our hand.
THE PRUSSIAN INTRIGUE.
4The war was begun by the military
masters Of Germany. who proved to be
also the masters Of Austria Hungary.
Their purpose has long been iavowed.
The statement OF other nations. TO
whom that purpose was incredible,
paid little attention; regarded what
German professors expounded in their
class rooms and German writers set
forth to the world as the goal of Ger
lContinusd an Paxs u