The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-12-07
Will soWs MESSAGE A WONDER.
Full DOCUMENT

The message of President Wilson
just delivered to congress must be
pronounced as one of the most Won
derful documents that has yet ema.
mated from his pen.
In sublime and measured steps he
rises equal to the occasion and blaz-
es the way for the allied nations to
pursue as one inspired and anointed
for this supreme emergency.
This message fully sustains the
criticism of Congressman Frank
Clark III saying that Woodrow Will
son today is the most commanding
figure in the world
The president makes it clear and
distinct that no peace talk must be
considered until Germany's defeat is
crushing and overwhelming, and the
terms must be such then as to secure
beyond peradyenture the sovereignty
and independence of the smaller as
we'll as the larger principalities.
First and foremost, we must win
the war. On this head the president
says:
Let there be no misunderstanding.
Our present. and immediate task is to
win the war, and nothing shall turn
us aside from it until it is accom-
plished. Every power. and resource
we possess. whether of men, of mon
ey, or of materials, is being devoted
and will continue to be devoted to
that purpose until it is achieved
After the war is won then the
wrongs. as the president puts it, the
very deep wrongs" committed in this
war must be righted.
THE peace we make" he says.
must deliver the once fair lands and
happy peoples of Belgium and north
ern France from the Prussian con-
quest and the Prussian menace, but it
must also deliver the peoples of Aus
tria- Hungary, the peoples of the Bal
kans and the peoples of Turkey. alike
in Europe and in ASIA from the impu-
dent and alien domination gf the Prus-
sian military and commercial autocra-
cy.
I'VE owe it, however, to ourselves
to say that we do not wish in any way
to impair or to rearrange the Austro-
Hungarian empire. 1t is not an affair of
ours what they do with their own
life, either industrially or politically.
We do not purpose or desire to die
tate to them in any way. We only
desire TO see that their affairs are
left in their own hands, in all matters,
great or small We shall hope to Sc
cure for the peoples of the Balkan
peninsula and for the peple OF the
Turkish empire the right and oppor-
tunity to make their own lives safe,
their own fortunes secure against op-
preston or injustice and from the die
tation of foreign courts or parties.
"And our attitude and purpose with
regard to Germany herself are OF a
like kind. We intend no wrong
against the German empire. no inter-
ference with her international affairs.
We should deem either the one or the
other absolutely unjustifiable, abso-
lutely contrary to the principles we
have professed to live by and to hold
most sacred throughout our life as a
nation"
We must declare war on Austria
Hungary and Turkey, because they
are the vassals of Germany and to all
intents and purposes are one.
The president makes it clear that
the United States wants no foot of
territory and has entered the war to
preserve civilization and give freedom
to all nations
Serbia, Poland, and all the little ma.
tions are not forgotten in the presi-
dents great message and when the
time comes for arranging peace it will
be so arranged that it will be impossi-
BILE for nations to ever again go to
war on mere pretexts or for all the
nations or for any nation to ever
again be plunged into the vortex of
war upon the mere dictum of any one
ruler or any number of rulers.
The people are to be emanicpated.
and have potential voice in all gov.
ernments.