The Tupelo journal., 1917-06-22
PRESIDENT WILSON'S
FLAG DAY SPEECH
United States Forced Into War
Says the President.

spoke as follows on the American
Flag:
ssMy Fellow Citizens: We meet to
celebrate Flag Day because this flag
which we honor and under which we
serve is the emblem of our unity,
our power, our thought and purpose
as nation. 1t has no other charac-
ter than which we give it from
generation to generation. The
choices are ours 1t floats in majes
tic silence above the host that
execute those choices, whether in
peace or in war. And yet, though
silent, it speaks to us-speaks to US
of the past, of the men and women
who went before us and of the records
they wrote upon it.
"We celebrate the day of its birth,
and from it's birth until now it has
witnessed a great history has floated
on high the symbol of great events,
of great plan of life wroked out
by great people. We are about to
carry it into battle, to lift it where it
will draw the fire of our enemies.
We are about to bid thousand, hun
dreds of thousand, it may be mil
lions of our men, the young, the
strong, the capable men of the Ma
tion,, to go forth and die beneath it
on fields of blood far away-for
what? For some unaccustomed
rthing? For something for which it
has never sought the fire before?
american armies were never
before sent across the seas. Why are
they sent now? For some new pur
pose, for which this great flag has
never been carried before, or for
some old, familiar, heroic purpose for
which it has seen men, its own men,
die on every battlefield upon which
Americans have borne arms since
the Revolution?
"These are questions which must
be answered. We are Americans,
We in our turn serve America, and
can serve her with no private pur-
pose. We must use her flag as she
has always used it, We are account
able at the bar of history and must
plead in utter frankness what purpose
it is we seek to serve.
Cites Plotting of Germany.
'sIt is plain enough how we were
forced into the war. The extraordi-.
nary insults and aggressions of the
Imperial German Government left us
no self-respecting choice but to take
up arms in defense of our rights as
a free people and of our honor as a
sovereign Government. The Military
masters of Germany denied Us the
right to be neutral. They filed our
unsuspecting communities with VI
cious spies and conspirators and
sought to corrupt the opinion of our
people in their own behalf. When
they found that they could not do
that, their agents diligently spread
sedition amongst us and sought to
draw our own citizens from their al
legiance-and some of these agents
were men connected wit hthe official
embassy of the German Government
itself here in our own capital.
"Tney sought by violence to de-
stroy our industries and arrest our
commerce. They tried to incite Mex
leo to take parms against US and
to draw Japan into a hostile al
lance with her, and that not by in
direction, but by direct suggestion
from the Foreign Office in Berlin.
They impudently denied us the use
of the high seas and repeatedly exc
.cuted their threat that they would
send to their death any of the people
who yentured to approach the coasts
of Europe.
'And many of oun own people
were corrupted. Men began to look
upon their own neighbors with sus-
picion and to wonder in their hot re-
sentiment and surprise whether there
was any community in which hostile
intrigue did not lnrk. What great
nation in such circumstances would
not have taken up arms? Much as
we had desired peace it was denied
us, and not of our own choice. This
flag under which we serve would
have been dishonored had we with
held our hand.
Reassures German People.
"But that is only part Of the story.
We know now as clearly as we knew
before we were ourselves engaged
that we are not the enemies of the
German people and that.they are not
our enemies They did not originate
or daSire thiS hideouS war or wish