The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-06-22
SPEECH IS PATRIOTIC
HEARD At THE CAPITAL
Why the United States Has
Entered Into Battle
ITS PURPOSE IS PLAIN
Remarkable Utterance Is From
Chief Executive of the
United States
ASSOCIATED Press Dispatch

ASSOCIATED Press Dispatch.l
| From Thursdays Daily.
Washington, June 12.-President
Wilson warned the American people in
a Flag day address on the Washington
Monument grounds today that Ger
many has carried into effect the
| greater part of her immediate plan of
conquest and now is negotiating a
new intrigue of peace"' designed to
end the war while her aggressions are
secure.
All the central empires, the presi-
dent declared have been cemented in
to one great autocracy-ridden en-
| pire, throwing broad belt of Ger
man military power and political con-
troll across the very center of Europe
and beyond the Mediterranean into the
heart of Asia This achieved" he said,
sit is easy to understand why Germany
is fostering a propaganda for an early
peace.
peace, peace, peace has been the
talk of her foreign office now for a
year or MORE" said the president. ga
little Of the talk has been public, but
most of it has been private. Through
all sorts of channels it has come to
me and in all sorts of guises. The
military masters under whom Ger
many is bleeding see very clearly to
what point fate has brought them. If
they can secure peace now with the
immense advantages still in their
hands which they have up to this point
apparently gained, they will have
man people, they will have gained by
force what they promised to gain
by it,
The president recited again the
German aggressions which drove the
United States to war. He declared the
purposes for which American soldiers
now carry the Stars and Stripes to
Europe for the first time in history
are not new to American traditions
because realization of Germany's war
aims must eventually mean the ufl-
doing of the whole world. He spoke in
| full as follows: 90 ~
Flag Speaks to People.
my fellow citizens, we meet to cele-
| brate flag dav Because this flag which
the emblem of our unity. our. power,
| our thought and purpose as q nation.
1t has no other Character than that
which we Gye IT from genera dtioI to t,
| floats in majestic silence above the
hosts that execute those choices. whether
| in peace or in war. And yet. though ST.
| lent. it speaks to us-speaks to us OF
| the past. of the men and women swhc
went before us and of the records they
| wrote uponeit, We celebrate the aay
of its BIRTH and from its birth unit
has sfoatPdi on high the symbol of great
| events, of a great plan Of life worked
out by great people I'VE we, are gs abo9,
where it will draw the fire of our enc
| mics. We are about to bid thousands
hundreds of thousands, it NAV be mil
| lions, of our men. the Young. the strong
| forth and DIE beneath it on fields of blood
| far away for what? For some unac-
| customed thing? For something for whict
it has never sought the fire before
! American armies were never before sem
| across the seas. Why are they sem
| now? For some new purpose. for which
before. or for some old, familiar, heroic
purposes for which it has seen men
| it's own men, die on every, battlefield
| upon which Americans have borne arm:
since the Revolution? e's%
"These are questions which must be
answered. We are Americans We ir
our turn serve America. and can serve
her with no private purpose. We mus
use her flag as she always used it. We
| are accountable at the bar OF history an6
must plead in utter frankness what pur-
| pose it is we seek to serve
| Forced Into War.
| 1T is plain enough how we were forced
| into the war The extraordinary insult:
| and aggressions of the imperial German
| choice but to take up arms in defense
| of our rights as free people and o
orr honor as a. sovereign government
| The military masters of Germany de
| rs ha rioh IN a
| filled our unsusDecting communities witt
| vicious spies and conspirators and sough
to CORRUPT the opinion OF our people
| I'm their own behalf. When they fOunt
that thew could not do that their agents
diligently spread sedition amongst us ant
| sought to draw orr own citizens from
their allegiance-and some OF those agents
| wereNmen connected with the official EN-
| bassy Of the German government 1tsel
here in our own capitol. They sough
violence to destroy our industries ant
| cite Mexico to take up arms against III
and to draw Japan into hostile alliance
with her-.and that, not by indirection
but bv direct suggestion from the for
eign office in Berlin They. fnpudentl,
denied us the use of the high seas art
repeatedly executed their threat that the!
would send to their death any Of on
people who ventured to approach ch'
coasts of Europe. And many of our PEG
pie were corrupted. Men began to tool
upon their own neighbors with suspicio'
L
and surprise whether there was an,
| community in which hostile intrigue dit
| not Turk. What great nation in sucl
| circumstances would not have taken III
! arms? Much as we had desired peace
| it was denied us, and not Of our owl
cEoice. This flag under which We serve
would have been dishonored had W.
| withheld our hand.
/ But that IS only part of the story
We know now as clearly as we knew
| before we were ourselves engaged tina
| We are not the enemies Of the Gerral
| people and that they are not orr enc
| !uicS. They did not Criyinite cor dSsir'
| this hideous war or wish that we shout
be drawn into it. and we. are vaguely
cause as they will some day see it, a
well as o'ir own. They ar: itcHseiNe
| in the grip of the same siniste' powe
that has now at last stretched Its uel'
talons out and drawn blood from us. TIL
whole world is at war because the whole
world Is IN the grip of that mower An.
Is trying out the great battle which slial
deter mine whether it is to he trough
under its mastery or fling itself free
Il Ihe war was begun oy the militar'
r,aS tiers of Germany who proved 10 b.
also the masters of Austria -tungary
TheSo men have never cegardat Nations
as peoples men. women. and children o
whom governments existed and in WHOM
governments had their life. They have
REGARDED them merely as serviceable or
carnations, which thew could by fore
or intrigue bend or corrupt TO their owl
| purpose. Thew have regarded the s'nalle
states in particular. end the peoples VIII
could he overwhelned by farce. nc thei
ton. Their purpose has long hee'
tayOWed, The StateSmen of other ma tons