Lincoln County times. (Jerome, Idaho) 1911-1919, 1917-06-21
SCORES THE KAISER
PRESIDENT SAYS MILITARY MAS.
TIERS DENIED U. S. RIGHT
TO BE NEUTRAL.
FILLED COUNTRY WITH SPIES
rallied in Attempt to Spread sedition
HERMAN People in Grip Of Same
SinIster Power That Has
Drawn Blood From US.

! june lO."IItSl
"ilson in Flag day address deliv-
cred here on Thursday declared that
we were forced into the Worldwide
war by the extraordinary insults and
"sgressions of the military masters of
Germany.
Inc presidents address in part is as
follows:
My Fellow Citizens: We meet r.
celebrate Flag Day because this flag
winch we honor and under which we
serve IS the emblem Of our unity. our
power, our thought and purpose as a
nation. II has no other character than
'hat which we give ii from generation
To generation. The choices are ours
II n"ats In majestic silence above the
hosts that execute those choices
whether in peace or in war. And YET
though silent. it speaks to us-speaks
10 Us OF the past. of the men and WON
en- who went before us and of the rec
ords they wrote upon it. We celebrate
the day Of its birth and from its birth
until now II has Witnessed great his
tory, has floated on high the symbol of
/
worked out by great people. We are
about TO carry 1t into battle, to lift ii
where II Will draw the fire Of our en-
emles We are about to bid thousands.
hundreds of thousands II may be mil.
lions Of our men, the young the strong
the capable men of the nation. to 20
i"rth and die beneath Il on fields of
blood far away-for what? For some
unaccustomed thing? For something
Tor which 1t has never sought the fire
beforef American armies were never
before sent across the seas Why are
they sent now? For some new pur-
pose. for which this great flag has new
or been carried before. or for some old
FAMILIAR, heroic purpose for which il
has seen men. its own men. die on ev-
cry battlefield upon which Americans
have borne arms since the Revolntionf
These are questions which must be
answered. We are Americans. We IN
our turn serve America. and can serve
her with no private purpose. We must
use her flag as she has always used IT,
We are accountable at the bar of his
tory and must plead in utter frankness
what purpose IL is we seek 10 serve.
United States Forced Into War.
II is plain enough how we were
forced into the war. The extraordl-
| nary insults and aggressions of the i'm
perial German government left us no
self-respecting choice but to take up
arms in defense of our rights as "A free
l manila md of h.r .
government. The military masters OF
Germany denied us the right to be neu-
trail. They filed our unsuspecting com.
munities with vicious spies and CON
splrntors and sought to corrupt the
opinion Of our people In their own be
half When they found that they could
not do that. their agents diligently
spread sedition amongst us and sought
10 draw our own citizens from Their
allegiance, and some Of those agents
were men connected with the official
embassy Of the German government IL
self here In our own capital. They
sought 10y violence to destroy our in
duStries and arrest our commerce.
They tried To incite Mexico To take up
arms against us and to draw japan in
To hostile alliance with her-and
that. not by indrection. but 10y direct
suggestion from the foreign office i'm
Berlin. They impudently denied us
the use Of the high seas and repeated.
ly executed their threat that they
would send 10 their death any of our
people who ventured to approach the
coasts of Europe. And many of our
own people were corrupted. Men be-
gan to look upon their own neighbors
with suspicion and to wonder i'm their
hot resentment and surprise whether
there was any community in which
hostile intrigue did not Turk. What
great nation in such circumstances
would not have taken up arms? Much
as we had desired peace, II was denied
MS, and not Of our own choice. This
flag under which we serve would have
been dishonored had we withheld oul
hand.
No Emnity Toward German People.
But that is only part of the story
We know now as clearly as we knew
before we were ourselves engaged that
| we are not enemies OF the Herman peO-
pie and that they nre not our enemies.
They did not originate or desire this
hidcous war or wish that we should he
drawn into II; and we are vaguely con
scious that we are fighting their cause.
as they will some day see II. as well as
our own. They are themselves in the
grip of the same sinister power that
has now at last stretched its ugly tai
ons out and drawn blood from us. The
whole world is in the grip of that pow.
or and is trying out the great battle
which shall determine whether il is To
be brought under its mastery or fling
itself free.
The war was begun by the military
masters of Germany. who proved To he
also the masters of Austria-l Hungary
| These men have never regarded ma
| lions MS peoples, men. women, and
children of like blood and frame as
themselves. for whom governments eX-
listed and I'm whom governments had
their life. They have regarded them
merely as serviceabe organizations
which fhpv could Inv force or Intrigue