New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-01
Stop the Mouth of Sedition

! am not boiling Win rh6e' MI A
am not even excited. The point is this my
son, my only child, in prompt response 10
his country's duly sounded call, is to-day
headed for the French trenches, there 20 be
the target for German bullets. Every voice
raised here at homo, 70 discourage others
from going with him, they TO back him ana
bs 10 back them. and 80 70 make their mighty
work q success at the least sacr1hee 70 enS'
increases the chance, already eonsideraoIe'
that h. will never como back TO his mother
and me. I think that that voice ought 70
DO st;lled before his has been.
But this view, so important to me- so i'm
portapt 10 the fathers and mothers OF the
thoBsspds who marched down Fifth Avenue
Yesterday and to the parents OF the hundreos
Of thousands that are being gathered from
ell over this land 70 places of training ano
departure, IS the very least OF IL Inc great
thing Is that until the world rids itself OF
nations Organized into beasts Of prey no
mans home is worth building. No mans
business is worth pursuing. No mans wife
or his Graded baby, getting breath OF 'FeSh
air in the street in front of his house, is safe
from rape or death.
have often heard it remarked that this
way Is unpopular. What war ever was pop
uIar.s eycept 70 the greed, lust and ambition
that caused it? What ever was popular
70 people who want 10 live in the enjoyment
of pcsce. order and liberty The word pop
ular" in connection with a war is despica-
HE. But never before has there been war
,rbera the principle Of individual liberty, the
right 10 make home, TO 60 about freely
20 do ones lawful business without inter
Ypntjon. to protect ones women and children
AGAINST the barbarity Of lust and murder
las beon so definitely presented to the Amer
lean people as it is presented to US to-day
Lexington and Concord were not so bad as
this The issue that brought us into con-
e;ct with one another sixty years ago was
not 50 bad as this
Not "popular"l Do you suppose that five
millions OF fathers like myself would per-
init our boys to be taken away from u.s.
hustled into barces and then planted straight
IN the way Of bullets and bombs and killing
stenches If we didn't think it was their duty
70 20 and our duty TO urge them to 90? Do
Won suppose that we five millions would per-
NIT handful Of men down in Washington
n irpose upon US billions Of taxes for US
20 pay next year If We didn't think they
ought 20 do il and that we ought to pay
II the war was unpopular, do you suppose
that we would leave the manifestation OF
tbs. fact 10 a rabble on a street corner in
Butte or on Broadway?
In 10 now nothing has been allowed to 60
very far in this country unless It accorded
with the will Of the people, and the reason
tina. We are 81 war with Germany is because
we intend to keep things that way. The rea-
son we are standing these taxes, the reason
we are handing guns TO our young men, IS
because. after patience against provocation
unexampled in history after hopes created
one day only to he blasted the next, after
proofs that we couldn't believe until proofs
that we could no longer doubt we have at
last become convinced that the end for
which the German armies were sent against
France and Flanders and Russia means not
their conquest only, but ours also-means
that If that end is successful in Europe 1t Is
an everlasting menace TO national organiza-
ton and Individual liberty everywhere on
this earth
What is tho use Of trying 70 keep up a
home and to conduct business, farm,
profession, to earn a living that will con-
tent your wife and educate your children,
# you have got to spend half OF what your
labor earns and, to the interruption OF your
business, spend years OF your life creating
military equipments and performing mill
tary service in order TO be ready to beat
some ravenous beast that is watching for
the right time 70 spring at you? The Ger
man people must now get the sense Of this,
ut whatever cost 20 them or US. They are
responsible. They don't have TO have the
Hohenzollerns and the German military
autocracy unless they want them, nor unless
they mean what their goddess rulers mean.
They are not obliged TO have William and
his scheme any more than We have been
obliged TO have our Presidents, from Wash
ington to Wilson. No blacksmith ever shod
horse, TO farmer titled a field to better
result than is got when our President speaks
the mind Of the American people in his an
swer TO the Pope telling the German people
that before this war can end the purposes
for which they have permitted their armies
90 be sent out must be definitely abandoned
How perfectly Mr.. Wilson said what the
nation means is proved by the fact that We