Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1917-03-14
WILSON WARNS
OF U. S. PERIL
President in Inaugural Address
Demands Free Seas.
FIRM FOR JUSTICE TO ALL
Principle Of Peace Found Only In
Equality Of All Peoples-eovern-
ments Derive Power From
Consent of the Governed.

Washington, March 6.-President
Wilson's inaugural address was as fol-
lows:
MY Fellow Citizens: The four
years which have elapsed since last !
stood in this place have been crowded
with counsel and action of the most
vital interest and consequence. Per-
haps no equal period in our history
has been 50 fruitful Of important re-
forms in our economic and Industrial
life or so full Of significant changes In
the spirit and purpose of our political
action.
I'VE have sought very thoughtfully
to set our house in order, correct the
grosser errors and abuses of our in
dustrial life, liberate and quicken the
processes Of our politics to broader
view of the peoples essential inter-
ests. 1t is record of singular dis
tinction. But l shall not attempt to
review II. 1t speaks for itself and will
be of increasing influence as the years
go by.
This is not the time for retrospect.
Il is time, rather. to speak our
thoughts and purposes concerning the
present and the immediate future.
Drawn From Domestic Issues.
Although we have conferred coun-
sci and action with such unusual con-
centration 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 a 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 before.
1t has been hard to preserve calm
counsel while the thought of our own
people swayed this way and that I'M
der their influence. We are a COM
posite and cosmopolitan people. We
are of the blood of all the nations that
are at war. The currents Of our trade
run quick at all seasons back and forth
between US and them. The war
inevitably set it's mark from the first
alike upon our minds our industries,
our commerce, our politics and our So
cial action. To be Indifferent to 1t or
independent of 1t was out of the ques-
ton.
U. S. Not a Part of the War.
"And yet all the while we have been
conscious that we were not part of 1t.
In that consciousness, despite many
divisions, we have drawn closer to-
gether. We have been deeply wronged
upon the seas, but we have not wished
10 wrong or injure in return; we 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 injuries done us have be-
oone intOlerable we have still been
clear that we wished nothing for our
selves that we were not ready to de-
mand for all mankind: fair dealing, JUS
tice, the freedom to live and be safe
agains, organized wrong.
"It 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 vindi-
cate and fortify peace. We have been
obliged to arm ourselves to make good
our claim to a 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 1t IS we insist upon
and cannot fOrego. We may even be
drawn on, by circumstances, not by our
own purpose or desire, TO a more &C
tive assertion OF our rights as we see
them and a more immediate assOcia-
lion with the great strug gle itself. But
nothing will alter our thought or our
nurDOse. They are too clear to be OBJ
scured, They are too deeply rooted in
the principles of our national life to
no altered. We desire neither con-
ouest nor advantage We wish moth
ing that can be had only at the cost Of
another people. We have always pro-
fessed unselflsh purpose and we covet
the opportunity TO prove that our pro-
LESSONS are sincere.
Americans ProVinclals No Longer.
"There are many things still to do
AT home, to clarity our own politics
and give new vitality TO the Industrial
processes of our own life, and we shall
do them as time and opportunity
serve; but we realize that the greatest
things that remain TO be done rust %
done with the whole world for stage
and in cooperation with the wide and
universal forces of mankind and we
are making our spirits ready for those
things They will follow in the I'M
mediate wake of the war itself and will
set civilization up again. We are pro-
yincials no longer. The tragical
events of the thirty months of vital
turmoil through which We have Just
passed have made us citizens OF the
world. There can be no turning back
Our own fortunes as a nation are In