The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-04-03


at least 500, 800 Inen, who should. in
my opinion, be chosen upon the prin-
ciple of universal liability to service
and also the authorization of s.ubse-
quent additional increments in equal
force so soon as they may be needed
and can be handled in training.
Financing War Loans.
1T will involve also, of course. the
granting of adequate credits to the
government sustained, 1 hope, SO far
as they can equitably be sustained by
the present generation by well con-
ceived taxation. 1 say sustained so
far as may be equitable by taxation
because it seems to me that it would
be most unwise to base the credits
which will now be necessary entirely
on money borrowed. 1t is our duty,
I most respectfully urge. to protect
our people so far as we may against
the very seriou hardships and evils
which will be likely to arise out of the
initiation which would be produced by
vast loans.
In carrying out the measures by
which these things are to be accom-
plished we should keep constantly in
| mind the wisdom of interfering as lit
tie as possible in our own preparation
and in the equipment of our own mill
tary forces with the duty-for it will
| be a very practical duty-Of supply
| ing the nations already at war with
they can obtain only from us or by
our assistance. They are in the field
and we should help them in every
way to be effective.
Advises Clear Judgment.
Il shall take the liberty of suggest
| ing thru the several executive depart
ments of the government for the con-
| Sideration of your committees meas
ures for the accomplishment of the
several objects I have mentioned. 1
| hope that 1t will be your pleasure to
| deal with them as having been framed
after very careful thought by the
| branch of the government upon which
| the responsibility of conducting the
war and safeguarding the nation will
| most directly fall.
while we do these things, these
deeply momentous things let us be
very clear, and make very clear to all
| the world, what our motives and our
objects are. My own thought has not
been driven from it's habitual and nor
| NAL course by the unhappy events of
| the last two months, and I do not be-
lieve that the thought of the nation
has been altered or clouded by them.
Still World Peace in View.
ct have exactly the same things
in mind now that I had in mind when
| 1 addressed the senate on the 22nd of
| January last, the same that 1 had in
mind when I addressed the congress
on the third of February and on the
26th of February. Our object now,
as then, is to vindicate the principles
of peace and the justice in The life of
the world as against selfish and auto
| cratic power and to set up amongst the
really free and self governed people
of the world such concert of pur-
pose and of action as will henceforth
insure the observance of these prin-
ciples.
Neutrality is no longer feasible or
desirable where the peace of the world
is involved and the freedom of its
peoples, and the menace to that peace
and freedom lies in the existence of
autocratic governments backed by or
Iganized force which Is controlled who'll
ly by their will, not by the will of
their people.
No Quarrel With German People.
I'VE have seen the last of neutrality
in such circumstances. We are at the
beginning of the age in which it will
be insisted that the same standards
of conduct and of responsibility for
wrong done shall be observed among
n; lions and their governments that
are observed among the individual
citizens of civilized states.
We have no quarrel with the Ger
man people. We have no feeling to-
ward them but one of sympathy and
friendship. 1t was not upon their i'm
pulse that their government acted in
governing this war. 1t was not with
their previous knowledge or approval;
it was a war determined upon as wars
used to be determined on in the old.
unhappy days when peoples were no.
where consulted by their rulers and
wars were provoked and waged in the
interest of dynasties or of little groups
of ambitious men who were accus-
toned to use their fellow men as
pawns and tools.
"Self-goyernment nations do not fill
| hoir iUb with
the course of intrigue to bring about
some critical posture of affairs which
will give them an opportunity to
strike and make conquest. Such de-
signs car be successfully worked only
, under cover and where no one has the
right to ask questions.
Urges Partnership of Nations
'Cunningly contrived plans of de-
ception or aggression carried, it may
be, from generation to generation, can
be worked out and kept from the light
only within the privacy of courts or
behind the carefully guarded conf
dences of narrow and privileged class.
They are happily impossible where
public opinion commands and insists
upon full information concerning all
the nations affairs.
"A steadfast concert for peace can
never be maintained except by part
| nership of Democratic nations. No
autocratic government could he trust
| ed to keep faith with it or observe its
covenants. 1t must be a league of
honor, a partnership of opinion In
trigue would eat it's vitals away: the
plottings of inner circles who could
plan what they would and render ac-
count to no use would he a corruption
seated at it's very heart.
"Only free peoples can hold their
purpose and their honor steady to a
common and prefer the interest of
mankind to any narrow interest of
their own. Does not every American
feel that assurance has been added
to our hope for the futt re peace of
the world by the wonderful and heart
ening things that have happened with
in the last few weeks in Russia? Rus