The weekly soliphone., 1917-04-05

trusted foundations of political lib
 erty.
 | 'We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities flor ourselves, no material compen- , sation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of man. | kind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been as secure as the faith and the freedom of the nations can make them.
 Just because we fight without seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for. AUSTRIA NOT MAKING WAR ON US.
 "I have said nothing of the gov ernment allied with the. imperial government of Germany because |they have not made war upon us or challenged us. to defend our rights and our honor. The Austro- Hungarian government has, indeed, avowed it's unqualified indorsement and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine warfare adopted now without disguise by the inn perial German government, and it has therefore not been possible for this government to receive Count Tarnowski, the ambassador recently accredited to this government by the imperial and royal government |of Austria Hungary; but that gov ernment has not actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United States on the seas, and l take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna. We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because there are no other means of defending our rights.
 "It will be all the easier for us. to conduct ourselves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and fair nf mus, not in enmity toward people or with the desire to bring any in- jury or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right and is run ming amuck.
 We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German peo ple- and shall desire nothing sol much as the early establishment of intimate relations of mutual ad- vantage between us, however hard it may be for them, for the time
 
 en from our hearts.
 we have borne with their pres ent government through all these bitter months because of that iendship-exercising a patience and forbearance which would other wise have been impossible. We shall, happily, still have an oppor 'tunity to prove that friendship in our daily attitude and actions to- wards the millions of men and wo- men of German birth and native share our life, and we shall be proud to prove it towards all who are in fact loyal to their neighbors and to the government in the hour |of test. They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had never known any other fealty 'or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind and purpose.
 WILL DEAL FIRMLY WITH DIS
 LOYALTY.
 "If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with firm hand of stern repression; but if it lifts it's head at all it will lift it only here and there and without coun- tenance except from a lawless and malignant few.
 "It is a distressing and oppres- sive duty, gentlemen of the con gress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our |hearts-for democracy, for the fright of those who submit to au- thority to have voice in their own