The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-03-05
INAUGURAL ADDRESS


of the whole world. They have
shaken men everywhere with a pas
sion 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 under their influ-
ence. We are a composite and cos
mopolitan people. We are of the blood
of all the nations that are at war. The
currents of our thoughts as well as
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
mind, our industries. our commerce,
our politics, and our social action. To
be Indifferent to it or Independent of
it was out of the question.
"And yet, all the while we have
been conscious that we were not part
of it. In the consciousness, despite
many divisions we have drawn
closer together. We have been deeply
wronged upon the seas, but we have
not wished to wrong or injure in re-
turn; have retained thruout the con-
seriousness of standing in some sort
transcribed the immediate issues of
the war itself AS some of the in
juries done us have become intoler-
able we have still made it clear that
we wished nothing for ourselves that
we were not ready TO demand for all
freedom to live and be at ease against
organized wrong.
TT 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 vim
dictate and fortify peace. We have
been obliged to arm ourselves to make
good our claim to a certain minimum
right and freedom of action. We
stand firm in armed neutrality since
it seems that in no other way we can
demonstrate what it is we insist upon
and cannot forego. We may even be
drawn on, by ell cumstances, not by
our own purpose or desire. to more
active assertion of our rights as we
see them and more immediate as
ISOLATION with the great struggle it
self But nothing will alter our
thought or our purpose. They are too
clear to be obscured. They are too
deeply rooted in the principles of our
national life to be altered.
Desire No Conquest.
I'VE desire neither conquest nor ad-
vantage. We wish nothing that can
be had only at the cost of another
people We have always professed
unselfish purpose and we convet the
opportunity to prove that our profess
sions are sincere.
Much To Do at Home.
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 time and opportunity
serve; but we realize that the greatest
things that remain to be done must be
done with the whole world for a stage
and in cooperation with the wide and
universal forces of mankind and We
are making our spirits ready for those
! I, Fol IN
date wake of the war itself, and will
set civilization up again.
We are provincials no longer
The tragical events of the thirty
months of vital turmoil thru 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 involved, whether we would have
it so or not.
And yet we are not the less Ameri-
cans on that account We shall be
the more American if we but remain
true to the principles in which we
have been bred They are not the
principles of a province or a single
continent We nave known and boosted
all along that they were the prin
ciples of liberated mankind.
What We Stand For.
These. therefore are the things we
stand for, whether in war or in peace:
Cd That all nations are equally in
terested IN the peace of the world and
in the political stability of free peo-
pies, and equally responsible for their
maintenance
CD That the essential principle of
peace is the actual equality of nations
in all matters of right or privilege.
(3) That peace cannot securely or
sustly rest upon an armed balance of
power.
Cd That the seas should be equal
ly free and safe for the use of all peo-
pies, under rules set up by common
agreement and consent, and that, so
far as practicable, they should be ac-
cessible to all upon equal terms.
go That national ornaments should
be limited to the necessities of national
order and domestic safety;
co That the community of interest
and of power upon which peace must