The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1917-03-05
CONTINUED From Page One.

we nave sought very tnOuSnt-
fully to set our house in order;
correct the grosser errors and
abuses OF our industrial life, lib
crate and quicken the processes
OF our national genius and energy |
and lift our politics to broader
view of the peoples essential in
terests. II
No Time for Retrospect.
! at is a record of singular va
riety and singular distinction.
But ! shall not attempt to review
It. 1t speaks for itself and will
be of increasing influence as the
years go by. This is not the time
I, for retrospect. IL Is time, rather,
to speak our thoughts and pur-
] poses concerning the present and
the immediate future.
Although we have conferred
counsel and action with such I'M
usual concentration and success
upon the great problems of do
nestle legislation to which we ad-
dressed ourselves four years ago,
other matters have more and
more forced themselves upon our
attention, matters lying outside
our own life as a nation and over
which we had no control, but
which despite our wish to keep
free from them, have drawn us
more and more irresistibly into
their own current and influence.
Impossible to Avoid.
at has been impossible to avoid
them. They have affected the
life of the whole world. They have
shaken men everywhere with
passion and an apprehension they
never knew before. 1t has been
hard to preserve calm counsel
while the thought of our own
people swayed this way and that
under their influence.
1--WE are a composite and cos
mopolitan people. We are of the
blood of all the nations that are
at war. The currents of our
thoughts as we'll as the currents
of our trade run quick at all sea-
sons back and forth between us
and them. The war inevitably set
it's mark from the first alike upon
our minds, our industries, our
commerce, our politics and our
social action. To be Indifferent
of it or independent of it was out
of the question.
Not q Part of 1t.
And yet all the while we have
been conscious that we were not
part OF it. In that consciousness,
despite many divisions, we have
drawn closer together. We have
been deeply wronged upon the
seas, but we have not wished to
wrong or iniure in return; have
retained throughout the conscious
ness of standing in some sort
apart, intent upon an interest
that transcribed the immediate
issues of the war itself.
"As some of the injuries done
us have become intolerable we
have still been clear that we
wished nothing for ourselves that
we were not ready to demand for
all mankind-fair dealing, JUS
tice, the freedom to live and be
at ease against organized wrong.
at 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.
I'VE have been obliged to arm
ourselves to make good our claim
to a certain minimum of right
and of freedom of action.
Purpose Unaltered.
I'VE stand firm in armed nell
trality since it seems that in no
lother way can we 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
ia 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 of our purpose. They are
too clear to be obscured. They
are too deeply rooted in the prin-
ciples of our national life to be,
altered. We desire neither con-
quest nor advantage. We wish
nothing that can be had only at
the cost of another people. We
have always professed unselfish
purpose and we covet the oppor-
tunity to prove that our profess
sions are sincere.
Much to DO Mt Home.
There are many things still to
do Mt home, to clarity our own
POLITICS and give new vitality to
the Industrial processes of our
own life and we shall do them as
time and opportunity serve; but
we realize that the greatest things
that remain to be done, must be
dnne with the whole world for a
stage and in cooperation with
the wild eand universal forces of
mankind. and we are making our
shirts ready for those things.
They will follow. in the immediate
wake .of the war itself, and will
set civilization up again. We are
Iprovincials no longer.
1.-THE tragical events of the 80
month sof vital turmoil through
which, we have Just passed have
made us citizens of the world.
There can be no turning back. Our
own fortunes as a nation are in
volvpd whether we would have IL