Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-06-14

Peace Talk in Germany.
Peace. peace, peace has been the
talk of her foreign office now for a
year or more: not peace upon her own
initiative. but upon the initiative of the
nations over which she now deems her
self to hold the advantage" the Presi-
dent said.
The military masters under whom
Germany is bleeding" he said at an
other point. see very clearly to what
poirt fate has brought them. If they
fall back. or are forced back an inch.
their power, both abroad and at home.
will fall to pieces like house of cards. :"
And it is the power at home the Ger
man government now is thinking about
primarily, the President asserted.
The President began by reciting the
aggressions Of the German government
which drove the United States to war.
He reiterated that I'VE are not the enc
mics of the German people. and they
are not our enemies" The traditions
for which the American soldiers carry
the flags to Europe. he stated. are not
new. since realization Of Germany's war
aims must ultimately mean the undoing
of the world.
Address Of the President
The President spoke, in full. as fol-
lows:
My Fellow Citizens:
We meet to celebrate Flag day
because this flag which we honor
and under which we serve is the
emblem of our unity. our power,
our thought and purpose as a ma
tion. 1t has no other character than
that which we give 1t from genera
tion to generation. The choices are
ours. 1t floats 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 to us of the past. of the
men and women who went before US
and of the records they wrote upon
1t. We celebrate the day OF its
birth. and from its birth until now
1t has witnessed great history,
has foated on high the symbol of
great events. of greatplan of life
worked out by great people. We
are about to carry it into battle. to
lift 1t where 1t will draw the fire of
our enemies. We are about to bid
thousa nds, hundreds of thousands.
II may be millions OF our men. the
young, the strong. the capable men
of the nation. to go forth and die
beneath 1t on fields of blood far
away-for what? For some unac-
customed things? For something
for which 1t has never sought the
FIRE before? American armies were
never before sent across the seas
Why are they sent now? For some
new purpose. for which this great
flag mas never been carried before
or for some old, familiar, heroic
purpose for which it has seen men.
it's own men. die on every battlefield
upon which Americans have borne
arms since the revolution?
These are questions which must
be answered. We are Americans
We In our turn serve America. and
can serve her with no private pur-
pose. We must use her flag as she
has always used IL. We are account
able at the bar of history and must
plead in utter frankness what pur-
pose II Is We seek TO serve.
1t is plain enoxgh how We were
forced into the war. The extraor-
dinary insults and aggressions of
the imperial German government
left us no seif-respect.ng choice but
TO take up arms in defense OF our
rights as free people and of our
honor as a sovereign government
The military masters Of Germany
denied us the right 10 be neutral.
They filled our unsuspecting COM
munit.es with vicious spies and con-
spirators and sought to corrupt the
opinion of our people in their own
behalf When they found that they
could not do that, their agents dill
gently spread sedition amongst us
and sought to draw our own citi-
zens from their allegiance-and
some of those agents were men
connected with the official embassy
of the German government itself
here in our own capital They
sought by violence to destroy our
industries and arrest our commerce.
They tried TO incite Mexico to take
up arms against us and to draw
Japan into hostile alliance with
her-and that, not by indirection.
but by direct suggestion from the
foreign Office in Berlin. They i'm
pudently denied us the OF the
high seas and repeatedly executed
their threat that they would send to
their death any of our people who
ventured to approach the coasts of
Europe. And many of our own peo-
pie were corrupted. Men began TO
look upon their own neighbors with
suspicion and to wonder in their hot
resentment and surprise whether
there was any community in which
hostile intrigue did not lurk. What
great nation in such circumstances
would not have taken up arms?
Much we had desired peace. it
was denied US. and not of our own