Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1917-03-05
A.
Ccon'ia'qd from Hf -
DANGER C0MFR0NTS
NATION PRESIDENT
SAYS IN INAUGURAL

for ltSell and VIII Ue OF increasing
influence as the years 20 by This
is not the time for retrospect. It is
time, rather 10 speak our thoughts
and purposes concerning the pres
ent and to the future.
Although we have centercd
counsel and action with such IN
usual concentration and success up
ON the great problems OF domestic
legislation TO which we addressed
\ ourselves four years ago, other mat
tiers have more and more forced
themselves upon our attention,
matters lying outside our own life
us nation and over which we had
no CONTROL but which. despite our
wish to keep free of them, have
drawn us more and more irrisistibly
into their own current and inllu-
ence
1t has been impossible TO avoid
them They have affected the life
of the whole world. They have
shaken men everywhere with a
passion and an apprehension they
never knew before. II has been
hard to preserve calm counsel while
the thought of our Cwn people
swayed this way and that, under
their influence we are composite
and cosmopolitan people. We are
of the blood of all nations that are
at war. The currents of our
thoughts as well as the currents or
our trade. nun quick al all seasons
back and forth between us and
them. The war inevitably Set its
mark from the first alike upon our
minds, our industries, our COM
merce, our politics and our social
actions. To he Indifferent to it or
Indifferent of it was out Of the
question.
'And yet all the while we have
been conscious that We were not part
Of H. In that consciousness, despite
many divisions, we have drawn
close together. We have been
deeply wronqcd upon the seas, but
We have not wished TO wrong or in
jurc N return; have retained thru
out the consciousness OF standing
in some sort apart, intent upon an
interest that transcribed the i'm
mediate issues of the war itself. AS
some some Of the injuries done US
have become intolerablc we have
still been clear that we wished moth
ing for ourselves that we were not
ready to demand for all mankind---
fair dealing, justice, the freedom to
live and be at ease against organic
ed wrong.
1T is in this spirit and with this
thought that we have grown moro
and more aware more and more GER
tain to vindieate and fOrtify peace.
Ne have been obliged to arm our.
selves to make good our Claim to a
certain minimum of right and of
freedom Of action. We stand firm
in armed neutrality since it seems
that in no other way we can demon
strate what is we insist upon and
cannot forego We may even be
drawn on by circumstances not by
our own purpose or desire, to a
more active assertion Of our rights
as we see them and more imme-
diate association with the great
struggle itself But nothing will al.
ter our thought or our purpose.
They arc too clear to be Unsecured.
They are too deeply rooted in the
principles OF our national life TO be
altered. We desire neither con-
quest nor advantage. We wish moth
ing that can be had only at the cost
Of another people. We have always
professcd unscfish purpose and we
covet the opportunity to prove that
our professions are sincere.
There are many things still to
do at home, to clarity our own poll
tics 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 seem
to be done must be done with the
whole world for a stage and in CO.
operation with the life and uniYcr-
. sal forces Of mankind and we are
making our spirits ready for those
things. They will follow in the
immediate wake of the war itself
and win set civilization up again,
We are provincials no longer. Tho
traeicai events of tho thirty month
OF vital turmoil through which we
have just passed made us citizens
Of the world There can be no turn
nJ back. Our own fortunes as ma
ton are involved, whether we would
have il SO or not.
"And yet we are not the less
Americans on that account We
shall be the more American If we
but remain true TO the principles in
which we have been bred They
are not the principles Of a province
or Of single ointment. We have
known and boasted all along that
they were the principles of lber-
atod mankind These. therefore,
are the things we shall stand for,
whether in war in peace
"That all nations are equally in
tercsted in the peace Of the world
and in the political stability Of free
peoples, and equally responsible for
their maintenance.