Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1917-04-12

be paid for; the lives Of peaceful and
innocent people cannot be. The pres
ent German submarine warfare against
commerce is warfare against man
| kind.
1T Is n war against all nations.
American ships have been sunk, Amer
lean lives taken, in ways which IL has
stirred us very deeply to learn Of, but
the ships and people of other neutral
and friendly nations have been sunk
and overwhelmed in the waters in the
same way.
There has been no discrimination.
The challenge Is to all mankind. Each
nation must decide for itself how 1t
will meet 1t. The choice we make for
ourselves must be made with a mod
GRAFTON of counsel and temperatures
Of judgment befitting our character
and motives as nation. We must put
excited feelings away. Our motive will
not be revenge or the victorious asscr-
ton of the physical might of the ma
ton, but only the vindication Of right,
Of which we are only single cham
pion.
when | addressed the congress on
the Goth day of February last, thought
that it would suffice to assert our neu-
trnl rights with arms, our right to use
the seas against unlawful interference,
our right to keep our people safe
against unlawful violence.
but armed neutrality. it now APP
pears, is impracticable. Because sub
marines are in effect outlaws when
used against merchant shipping, IT is
impossible to defend ships against
their attacks"
Friendly to Germans.
Speaking of his feelings toward the
mass of the German people, of German
intrigue in the United States, of the
recent overthrow of autocracy in Rus
STA of Austria's fairly good behavior
toward the United States, and of the
nations attitude toward German-Amer-
lean citizens, the president said:
I'VE have no quarrel with the Ger
man people. We have no feeling
toward them but one of sympathy and
friendship. 1t was not upon their I'm
pulse that their government acted in
entering this war. 1t was not with
their previous knowledge or approval.
II was war determined upon 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 accustomed
to use their fellow men as pawns and
tools.
| "Self-gOverned nations do not fill
! their neighbor states with spies or set
the course Of intrigue to bring about
some critical posture of affairs which
will give them an opportunity to strike
and make conquest.
Welcome to Free Russia.
Does not every American feel that
assurance has been added to our hope
for the future peace of the world by
the wonderful and heartening things
that have been happening within the
last few years In Russia?
Russia was known by those who
knew 1t best to have been always in
| fact democratic at heart in all the
vital habits of her thought, in all the
intimate relationships of her people
that spoke their natural instinct, their
habitual attitude toward life. The
autOCracy that crowned the summit of
her political structure, as long as it
had stood and terrible as was the
reality of It's power, was not in fact
| Russian in origin, character, or pur-
pose; and now it has been shaken
off and the great, generous Russian
people have added in all their native
majesty and might to the forces that
are fighting for freedom in the world,
for juctlce, and for peace. Here is
fit partner for league of honor.
Silent as to Austria.
81 have said nothing of the govern
ments allied with the imperial German
government because they have not
made war upon us or challenged us to
defend our right and our honor.
Germans in America.
| I'VE are, let me say again, the sin
cere friends of the German people and
shall desire nothing so much as the
early re-estnblishment of intimate rela-
lions of mutual advantage between us,
however hard 1t may be for them, for
the time being, to believe that this is
spoken from our hearts.
1--WE have borne with their present
government through all these bitter
months because Of that friendship.
1--WE shall, happily, still have an OPP
portunity to prove that friendship in
our daily attitude and actions towards
the millions of men and women of Ger
man birth and native sympathy who
live amongst us and share our life,
and we shall be proud to prove 1t to-
wards 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
| oil l.