Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1917-03-09
WILSON'S PLEA FOR
A UNITED AMERICA
PRESIDENT soLEMNLY REVIEWS
HIS COVENANT IN iNAUG.
uRAL ADDRESS.
Deep Wrongs Inflicted Upon United
States Pictured and Hint Given
That Country May be Forced
Into War.

inaugural address was as follows:
My fellow citizens:
The four years which have elapsed
since last l stood in this place have
been crowded with counsel and ac-
ton OF the most vital interest and
consequences. Perhaps no equal pc
riod in our history has been so fruit
ful of important reforms in our econ
omic and Industrial life or 80 full OF
significant changes in the spirit and
purpose Of our political action. We
have sought very thoughtfully to set
our house in order, correct the gros-
ser errors and abuses of our indus
trial life, liberate and quicken the pro-
cesses of our national genius and en-
ergy and lift our politics to broader
view of the peoples essential inter
ests. II is a record of singular var
iety and singular distinction. But l
shall not attempt to review II. II
speaks for itself and will be of in
creasing influence as the years go by.
This is not the time for retrospect. 1t
is time, rather, to speak our thoughts
and purposes concerning the present
and the immediate future.
New Problems Confronting World.
Although we have centered counsel
and action with such unusual concen-
tration and success upon the great
problems OF domestic legislation to
which we addressed ourselves four
years ago, other matters have more
and more forced themselves upon our
attention, matters lying outside our
own life as nation and over which
we had no control, but which, despite
our wish to keep free of them, have
drawn us more and more irresistibly
into their own current and influence.
1t has been impossible to avoid
them. They have affected the life of
the whole world. They have shaken
men everywhere with a passion and
an apprehension they never knew be-
fore. II has been hard to preserve
calm counsel while the thought OF
that under their influence. We are q
composite and cosmopolitan people
We are of the blood of all the nations
that are at war. The currents OF
our thoughts as well as the currents
back and forth between us and them
The war inevitably set its mark from
the first alike upon our minds, our In
dustries. our commerce, our politics
and our social action. To be indiffer
ent to 1t or Independent Of 1t was out
Of the question.
Injuries Become lntoIerable.
And yet. all the while we have been
conscious that we we're not part OF
IT. In that consciousness, despite
many divisions, we have drawn closer
together. We have been deeply
wronged upon the seas, but we have
not wished to wrong or injure in re
turn; have retained throughout the
consciousness of standing in some
sort apart. intent upon an interest
that transcribed the immediate issues
of the war itself AS some of the in
1uries done us have become intolerable
we have still been clear that we
wished nothing for ourselves that we
were not ready to demand for all man
kind-fair dealing. justice, the free
dom to live and be at ease against or
ganized wrong.
II is in this spirit and with this
thought that we have grown more and
more aware, more and more certain
that the part we wished to play was
the part of those who mean to win
dictate and fortify peace. We have
been obliged to arm ourselves to make
good our claim to certain minimum
of right and of freedom of action. We
stand firm in armed neutrality since
II seems that in no other way we
can demonstrate what it is we insist
upon and cannot forego. We may
even be drawn on, by circumstances
not by our own purpose or desire. tc
a more active assertion OF our rights
as we see them and more immedi
ate association with the great struggle
Itself. But nothing will alter oui
thought or our purpose. They are toe
clear to be obscured. They are toe
deeply rooted in the principles OF oul
national life to be altered. We de
sire neither conquest nor advantage
We wish nothing that can be had only
at the cost of another people. W.
have always professed unselfish pur
pose and we covet the opportunity Il
prove that our professions are sin
cere.
United States No Longer Provincial
There are many things still to de-
at home to clarity our own politics
and give new vitality to the industrial
processes of our own life and WI
shall do them as time and opportunit.
serve; but we realize that the grea
things that remain to be done mus
be done with the whole world fo
stage and in cooperation with thu
wide and universal forces of mankin'
and we are making our spirits read!
for those things. They will follow
In the immediate wake of the war II
self and will set civilization up again
We are provincials no longer. TIT
4 tragical events of the thirty months
of vital turmoil through which w
have just passed have made us citi
zens of the world. There can be m
turning back. Our own fortunes a
a nation are involved. whether w
would have it so or not. And yet W
are not the less Americans on tina
account. We shall be the more Amer