The midland journal., 1917-06-22

Washington, June 14.-Preslden'
Wilson delivered notable speech
here in commemoration OF Flag Day
in which he again outlined the poslt
tion of the United States in regard tc
the world war. The address is in full
as follows:
NV Fellow Citizens: We meet u
celebrate Flag Day because this nag
which we honor and under when
we serve is the emblem of our UNITY
our power. our thought and purpose
as nation. 1t has no other char
acter than that which we give II from
generation to generation. The choices
are ours. 1t floats in majestic silence
above the hosts that execute those
choices, whether in peace or in war
And yet, though silent, it speaks TO
us,-speaks to us of the past, OF the
men and women who went before us
and of the records they wrote upon
it. We celebrate the day of its birth;
and from it's birth until now it has
witnessed a great history, has fioated
ON high the symbol of great events
of a great plan of life worked out
by a great people. We are about
to carry it into battle to lift 1t where
it will draw the fire of our enemies
We are about to bid thousands, hun
dreds of thousands, it may be mill
ions, of our meu, the young, the
strong. the capable men of the ma
ton, to go forth and die beneath II
on fields of blood far away,-fCr
what? For some unaccustomed
thing? For something for which it
has never sought the fire before
American armies were never before
sent across the seas. Why are they
sent now? For some new purpose
for which this great flag has never
been carried before, or for some old
familiar, heroic purpose for which it
has seen men, its own men, die on
every battlefield upon which Ameri'
cans have borne arms since the
Revolution?
These are questions which must be
answered. We are Americans. We
in our turn serve America, and can
serve her with no private purpose
We must use her flag as She has
always used it. We are accountable
at the bar of history and must plead
in utter frankness what purpose it
is we seek to serve.
1t is plain enough how we were
forced into the war. The extraordi
nary insults and aggressions of the
Imperial German Government left us
no self-respecting choice but to take
up arms in defense of our rights as
a free people and of our honor as a
sovereign government. The military
masters of Germany denied us the
right to be neutral. They filled oul
unsuspecting communities with vicious
spies and conspirators and sought tC
corrupt the opinion of our people in
their own behalf When they found
that they could not do that, theil
agents diligently spread seditior
amongst us and sought to draw oul
own citizens from their allegiance
and some of those agents were mer
connected with the official Embassy
of the German Government itself here
dn our own capital. They sought by
violence to destroy our industries and
arrest our commerce They tried tc
incite Mexico to take up arms against
us and to draw Japan into a hostile
alliance with her,-and that, not by
indirection but by direct suggestion
from the Foreign Office in Berlin
They impudently denied us the use
of the high seas and repeatedly exc
cuted their threat that they would
send to their death any of our people
who ventured to approach the coasts
of Europe. And many of our owl
people were corrupted. Men begaT
to look upon their own neighbors witt
suspicion and to wonder in their hot
resentment and surprise whethel
there was any community in which
hostile intrigue did not lurk What
great nation in such circumstance.
would not have taken up arms? Mucf
as we had desired peace, it was de
MED us, and not of our own choice
This flag under which we serve woulC
have been dishonored had we with
held our hand.
But that is only part of the story
We know now as clearly as we knew