The Johnson City comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1916-1917, 1917-03-01
THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS

President Wilson has never shown
himself and what he really is quite so
luminously as he does in the add css
to the congress yesterday, in which he
asks for authority to arm his neu raj
ity for the protection of his country's
right and the lives Of its citizens
against the German monsters of the
seas, the submarine, the ruthless en-
ploynent Of which on all alike, friend
and foe, has been ordered from Berlin
With the calmness of conscious rCGti-
tude the president tells the story OF
what Germany is doing and his own
resolve that the United States car nol
rest quietly while this lawlessness
RACES, threatening at any moment the
lives of innocent Americans going
about their lawful errands. He re
calls the sincere and persistent cf-
forts he has made u avoid the thln8
that is threatening, and reneWs his
solmn allegiance to the cause oil non
orable and self-respocting peace; but
he protests that there is something
more terrible than war and something
more deadening to national senslDill-
ties and more destructive of free ana
civilized governments than taking up
the sword-and that something is the
passive condoning Of wrong ana III
Justice, when our own and the lhho-
cents Of other states are made TO SUI
fer for no fault of theirs. HIS ahSu-
age to this point is so solemnly slshl-
dcant and so clearly sets out the mo-
tive and the purposes of the natroh
in this crisis that no man may 8afely
question its force or deny the impress
sive obligation it lays at the doors OF
evarv American citizene. He salo III
the concluding paragraph OF MS ao'
dress:
have spoken of our commerce aho
~ tho legitimate erTands of our peo'
mic on the sea. but you VIII not o'
n,isled as to may main Thought, Ih'
Thought that lies beneath these pras
,a and gives them dignity and Welgh
If is. not of national interest merei!
thar we are thinking. 1t u.s. raIhei
of fundamental human rights, chlel y
IN Tho ,ipht Of life itself. / am no
thinking only of the rights OF Ameri
cans to 90 and come about their ploi
or business by way of the sea- ou
also of something much deeper nue.
more fundamental than that.
am thinging of those rights OIL NJ
mainly without whict there IS no q
ilization. My theme is OF 'hoSe gre"
nrinciples of compassion anu plo'eo
+ion which mankind has sought I
throw about human lives Of men WI
are peacefully at work Keeping VI
industrial process of the "Oflo qu'o
and vital; the lives Of women an
children and those who supply I'll
l.b,r which ministers to their suslei
.nce. We are speaking OF no seiiiS
materian rights, but OF rights "nl'
nur hearts suppora and whose -four
d.tion is that OF righteous compa'
sion for Justice, upon which all laN
all structures alike, of family Oh S'a'
If mankind. must rest, as upon u
ultimate base of our existence al
our liberty. | cannot imagine al
man with American principles at II
heart hesitating to defend these thh'
These are solemn, serious WOW
and in harmony with the spirit
this great republic. We have oo"S''
that we existed as people. an
sniration for loves of liberty OF 1u
tice and righteousness the world oV
II is now for us to make that oo'
or acknowledge ourselves nation
vain braggarts, of "hot-air pre'eh
ers and of hypocrites, and coward
ones at that.-Chattano Times