The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-09-21


join those already In the field, thu
men who are giving their lives tina
America and all the world may b
free.
las go up and down the state o.
North Dakota on business for thu
Red Cross. or on my own persona
business, want to be able to lool
unashamed into the faces OF the
mothers, the wives. and the sisters
whose lips have formed into that
stern, sweet, tender smile shat hides
a heart that Is breaking over the
sacrifice 1t Is called upon to make
] want to be able to grasp the hands
Of the men who today and tomorrow
and through the weeks to come, will
walk alone into the fields because
the sons who walked with them a
few days ago have marched away
with the colors. When at last this
war ends and the boys Of today come
back to US as veterans, l want to be
able to look them in the face and
say that while l could not go out
there with them, I did all that l could
to protect them from assaults from
the rear. And my conscience tells
about to say. could not do these
things.
Russian Plight in Point.
LAS basis for what l must say,
recall for a few minutes the history
Of Russia during the past few
months. 1t Is recent history, and
your own minds will tell you that
am speaking truly.
Go back Of that history, and re-
call the great basic policy Of the
great German chancellor, Won Bis
marck. 1t was the "drei Kaiser
bund," the union of the emperors
of Germany, Austria and Hungary,
for offense and defense. for the
carrying out of a common purpose.
And when this war has ended, when
the tacticians and the strategists, cast
ing aside all questions Of principle,
strike a balance, they will say that
the great. the fatal error; of EN-
peror Wilhelm was when he split
with the Russian car.
And let me say, my friends, that
no one knows this better than this
same Emperor Wilhelm no one has
testified to it so eloquently as he.
To correcting that error he was
bending every energy Of his diplo-
mats and his secret agents. To
rectifying that error, he had called
to his aid the czarina herself, a
princess of Hesse. And that alliance
was almost consummated, so that
the fate of free peoples everywhere
hung in the balance, when the spirit
of democracy itself, founded on
eternal truth, rose up and struck in
its own behalf, deposed a Romanof
from the ancient throne Of the czars
and startled the world with the
spectacle of the Russian republic.
German Answer-Paeifists.
And what, ask, was the answer
Of Germany to that newborn re-
public? Was it more artillery, belch-
ing out death and suffering from
the lighted lips of great iron-throat-
ed cannon? No. Was it advancing
waves Of gray clad infantry, NOV
ing on in unbroken lines? No. What
was 1t, then? Pacihsts! Pacifists,
and the paid agents Of the German
empire moving among the bewilder-
ed people of free Russia and asking,
What are we fighting for?'; asking
that miserable question and demand
ing State your terms of peace
And when that question and that
demand had wrought discord and
among the people of Rus
STA, had demoralized the armies Of
the new republic, had made i'm
potent the arm of Kerensky, then,
and not until then, did the artillery
strike and the infantry move up, All
yes, when that question and that de-
nand had done their deadly work.
then was the destruction wrought
that threatens democracy every
so it is that / say that, in view
Of that recent history, written in the
blood of Russians who had at last
found the liberty their people had
sought for through all the weary
the man or the woman in
America today who goes up and
down the country asking, What are
we lighting for?' and crying, State
your terms of peace is either hope
Iessly ignorant or thoroughly dis
loyal And do not care whether
that shot lands in the senate of the
United States and on those who mis-
represent us there. or on the timer
ant agitator Grating from soap-box
On the street corner.
From the lips of the best father
and mother that l think any man
ever had, l learned early to be 0bed-
ent to constituted authority. to ac-
cept without question the will of the
majority. learned that lesson again
IN my college and my law-school.
learned 1t again at the affairs of my
lodge. I believe in ii, with all the
power and earnestness that is in me,
believe in il as the foundation stone
If government, and God knows that
have tried to live up to 1t. And be-
cause l do believe in it so wholly
and unreservedly, l have held my
peace when many things have hap
oened in this state the wisdom Of
which doubted.
Right TO Rebel.
"sut when the governor Of Z
North Dakota attempts to use
the power of his high Office to
guarantee shelter and asylum
here to those who come to preach
the doctrine that so nearly
wrecked the newborn Russian
republic, when he sends, his at
torney general to Fargo with in
structions to force the loyal
patriotic people of my home city
10 turn over their buildings to
those who have been denied a
resting place by every other
neighborinq state, when he at
tempts to construe the law that
guarantees freedom of speech az
giving protection to those who
preach ssdition, disloyaIty and
the repeal of the law at whose
summons your own boys have
marched away, when he says we
must give them shelter in Fargo
that they may put through a
program that experience itself
has taught means stabbing our
troops in the back, then ! rebel
and / protest with every ounce Of
power in my being, And IL IL
need be, ! shall carry that pro-
test to the very steps Of the
capitol at Bismarck, and IL the
men of North Dakota will not 90
with me. thank God the loyal
patriotic mothers and sisters OF
our soldiers will
"It was only this week-and read
low from the report as given in The