Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-06-01
j. s. IS WAGING WAR
. FOR HUMAN LIBERTY,
MR.. WILSON ASSERTS
Declares America Now Has
Chance to Make Good on
Principles We Have So Long
ProfeSSed

WASHINGTON. May 3O-Asserting
confidence in the virility Of the ma
ton, President Wilson this afternoon
declared it's manhod will respond to this
crisis with results that will hold the
attention of all mankind"
The president spoke at the annual Ar
lington cemetery decoration day se-v-
ices. Paying tribute to the nations
dead the president said:
81 envy them because their great
work for liberty has been accomplished,
while we are In the midst of a work
unfinished, testing our strength where
theirs already has been tested"
The president said men who died to
preserve the union also gave their
lives to preserve the instrument which
we offer the world today"
The liberty Of the nation defended in
the civil war Is not a selfish liberty,
President Wilson said.
I'VE join with the other nations to
fight out the cause of human liberty
which we have an opportunity to vindi-
cate with our blood and treasure
With the help of God, America will
show that she was born to serve man.
kind"
Mrs. Wilson was with the president
Mr.. Commander, and fellow citizens:
The program has conferred an I'M
merited dignity upon the remarks I am
going to make by calling them an adj
dress because I am not here to deliver
an address. l am here merely to show
in my official capacity the sympathy of
this great government with the objects
OF this occasion and also to state lust a
word of the sentiment that Is in my own
heart.
ANY memorial day of this sort is Of
course a day touched with sorrowful
memory and yet 1 for one do not see
how we can have any thoughts of pity
for the men whose memory we honor
today. I do not pity them. envy
them, rather, because theirs is the great
work for liberty accomplished, and we
are in the midst of a work unfinished,
testing our strength where their
strength has already been tested.
There Is a touch of sorrow, but there
is a touch of reinsurance also in a
day like this. because we know how the
men of America have responded to the
call of the cause Of liberty, and 1t fills
our minds with a perfect assurance that
that response will come again in equal
measure, with equal majesty and with
a result which will hold the attention
of all mankind.
when you reflect upon it, these men
who died to preserve the union died to
preserve the instrument which we are
now using to serve the world--a free
nation espousing the cause of human
liberty
I'm one sense the great struggle into
which we have now entered is an Amer
lean struggle because 1t is in defense Of
American honor and American rights,
but II is something even greater than
chat: It is a world struggle. 1t is the
i
where, and in this cause America will
show herself greater than ever because
she will rise to a greater thing.
I'VE have said in the beginning that
we planted this great government that
men who wished freedom might have
a place of refuge and a place where
their hope might be realized, and now,
having established such a government,
having preserved such government,
having indicated the power OF such
government, we are saying to all man.
kind We did not set this govern
nent up in order that we might have
selfish and separate liberty, for we are
now ready to come to your assistance
and fight out upon the field of the world
the cause of human liberty In this
thing America attains her full dignity
and the full fruition of her great pur-
pose.
mo man can be glad that such things
have happened as we have witnessed
I'm these last fateful years, but perhaps
IL may be permitted to US to be glad
that we have an opportunity to show
the principles that we profess to be
living principles, that live in our
hearts. and to have a chance, by the
pouring out of our blood and treasure,
to vindicate the thing which we have
professed.
For, my friends, the real fruitton of
life is to do the thing we have said we
wished to do. There are times when
words seem empty and only action
seems great. Such time has come
and in the providence of God, America
will once more have an opportunity to
show to the world that she was born
to serve mankind"
" ~ n f,