The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1917-03-08

Industries, our commerce., our pol
itics and our social action. To bt
Indifferent to it or independent o1
it was out of the question.
"And yet all the while we have
been conscious that we were not
part Of it. In that consciousness
despite many diversions, we have
-drawn closer together. We have
been deeply wronged upon the
seas, but we have not wished to
wrong or imjure in return; have
retained: throughout the con.
seriousness of standing in some
sort apart, intent upon an inter
est that transcended the immed-
late issues of the war itself. As
some of the injuries done us have
become intolerable we have still
made it clear that we wished
nothing for ourselves that we
were not ready to demand for all
mankind-fair dealing, justice,
the freedom to live and be at ease
| against organized wrong.
cit 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 vindicate and
fortify peace. We have been
obliged to arm ourselves to make
good our claim to a certain mini
mum of right and of 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 can
not forego. We may even be
drawn on by circumstances, not
by our own purpose or desire, to.
a more active assertion of Our
rights as we see them and a more
immediate association with the
great struggle itself. But nothing
will alter our thought or our pur-
pose. They are too clear to be OBJ
scurcd. They are too deeply root
ed in the principles of our nation
al life to be altered. We desire
neither cpfr1ueH nor advantage.
We wish nothing that can be had
only at the cost Of another peo-
pie. We have always professed
unselfish purpose and we covet
the opportunity to prove that our
professions are sincere.
"Thcre are many things still to
do at home to clarity our own pol
itics and give new vitality to the
industrial processes Of our own
life and we shall do them as time
and opportunity serve; but we re-
alize that the greatest things that
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 things. They will
follow in the immediate wake OF
the war itself and will set civiliza-
ton up again. We are provin-
cials 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 for
tunes as q nation are involved,
whether we would have it so or
not.
"And yet we are not the less
Americans on that account. We
shall be the more Americans if we
out remain true to the principles
n which we have been bred. They
ire not the principles of a pro-
7ince or of a single continent.
We have known and boasted all
tlong that they were the princi-
lies of a liberated mankind.
These, therefore, are the things
We shall stand for, wether in war
II in peace:
"That all nations are equally
in the peace Of the
world and in the political stabil-
ty of free peoples and equally re-
sensible for their maintenance.
"That the essential principle Of !
,eace is the actual equality of ma
ions in all matters of right or
"That peace cannot securely or
ustly rest.upon an armed balance :
f power.
"That governments derive all !
heir just powers from the consent :
f the governed, and that no other
overs should be supported by
ho comm0n thna,Oht. nnrnosp or