Evening star., 1917-04-03
The Call to Arms.

In words that will live in the re-
public's annals President Wilson has
greatly. wisely met the nations most
dangerous crisis since the civil war.
Nividly he pictures the causes and the
character of the war which Germany has
thrust upon us and the specific and ur
gent duties imposed upon US as bel
ligcrcnts
His argument and appeal are ire
sistible, because they are rooted in over
whclming national sentiment. His voice
is as the voice of the American people.
His statements and proposals are ap
proved and sustained by substantially
the whole republic.
He advises that Congress declare the
recent course of the imperial German
government to be in fact nothing less
than war against the government and
people of the United States; that it for
mally accept the status of belligerent
which has thus been thrust upon it; and
that it take immediate steps, not only
to put the country in a more thorough
state of defense. but also to exert all its
power and employ all its resources to
bring the government of the German
empire to terms and end the war.
Our thought in accepting Germany's
challenge to war is not of the loss of
property suffered, immense and serious
as that is, but only of the wanton and
wholesale destruction of the lives of
non-combatants, men, women and chill
dren, engaged in pursuits which have
always, even in the darkest periods of
modern history, been deemed innocent
and legitimate. Property can be paid
for; the lives of peaceful and innocent
people cannot be. The present Ger
man submarine warfare against COM
merce is a warfare against mankind.
Confronted with this warfare, the
President says. there is one choice We
cannot make, we are incapable of max
ing: We will not choose the path of sub
mission and suffer the most sacred
be ignored or violated The wrongs
against which we now array ourselves
are no common wrongs; they cut to the
very roots Of human life.
at is fearful thing to lead this
great peaceful people into war, into the
most terrible and disastrous of all wars,
civilization itself seeming to be in the
balance. But the right is more precious
than peace, and we shall fight for the
things which we have always carried
nearest our hearts-for democracy, for
the right of those who submit to au.
thority to have voice in their own
governments, for the rights and liberties
of small nations, for universal do
minion of right by such a concert of
free peoples as shall bring peace and
safety to all nations and make the world
itself at last free
In this war for peace, safety and free
dom for America and all the world; in
defense of American lives, vital rights
and basic principles; between demo
cratic peoples and a despotic govern
ment; between organized democracy and
organized autocracy; waged not against
the German people but against an ire
sponsible government which has thrown
aside all consideration of humanity
and of right and is running amuck. the
President sounds to all America an in
spring call TO arms. The response of
the people and of Congress represent
ing the people will be prompt, united,
emphatic, full of patriotic enthusiasm.
This trumpet call carries its special
stirring and appealing message to every
American in all the land, to young and
old, to rich and poor, to men and women
alike. The responsibility of reply is in
dividual and cannot be shirked or shift
ed. In what form and in what measure
of patriotic devotion and self-saerifice
shall you and / and every one of US
answer this call?