The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-06-14
WARNS AGAINST
PEACE INTRIGUE
President Points Out De-
signs of Germany to End
the War Now
PRUSSIAN AIMS MEAN
UNDOING OF WORLD
War Aims Are Secure Would Mean
Triumph of Autocracy Flag Day
Address Near Washington Monument


| Address Near Washington Monument
| WASHINGTON June 14-President
Wilson warned the American people in
| q Flag day address on the Washington
Monument grounds today that Germany
has carried into effect the greater part
Of her immediate plan of conquest and
now is negotiating new 'intrigue Of
peace designed to end the war while
her aggressions are secure.
All the central empires, the president
declared, have been cemented into one
great autocracy-ridden empire, '.throw
ing a broad belt of German military
very center of Europe and beyond the
Mediterranean into the heart of Asia.
This accomplished, he said, it 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 for now wear
and more" said the president "a lit
tie of the talk has been public, but
most of it has been private. Through
all sorts of channels II has come to me
in all sorts Of guises. The military
masters under whom Germany is bleed
ing sec very clearly to what point Fate
has brought them. If they can secure
peace now with the immense advan.
tages still in their hands which they
have up to this point apparently gained,
they will have justified themselves be.
| fore the German people; they will have
gained by force what they promised to
gain by it.
The president recited again the Ger
imam aggressions which drove the United
States to war He declared the purpos-
Is 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 re-
alization of Germany s war aims must
eventually mean the undoing of the
whole world. lie spoke III full as fol
lows:
Ny fellow citizens We meet to
celebrate Flag day because, this flag
which we honor and under which We
serve is the emisem Of our unity, our
lpower, our thought and purpose as a
nation. 1t has no other character than
that which we give it from generation
p
1t floats in majestic silence above the
hosts that execute those choices.
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 it. We celc-
bratc the day Of its birth: and from
its birth until now it has witnessed
a great history, has h0ated on high the
symbol of great events, of great plan
of life worked out by great people.
we arc about to carry it into battle to
lift It where it will draw the FIRE of
our enemies. We are about to bid
thousands, hundreds of thousands it
may be millions of our men. the Young,
the strong, the capable men of the ma
tion, to 90 forth and die beneath it on
fields of blood far away-for what
For some unaccuStomed thing? For
something for which it has never sought
the fire before! American armies were
never before sent across the seas. Why
are they sent now2 For some new pur-
, pose, for which this great flag has never
: been carried before, for some old, fami-
liar, heroic purpose for which it has
seen men, It's own men, die on every
battlefield upon which Americans have
borne arms since the RevoIution2
''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 arc accountable at the bar of his
!. tory and must plead III utter frankness
4 what purpose it is we seek to serve.
1T is plain enough how we were
!, forced into the war The extraordinary
? insults and aggressions of the Imperial
German government left us no self-re
!, specting choice but to take up arms in
: Edcfense of our rights as a free people
z and of our honor as q sovereign govern
: ment. The military masters of Ger
many denied us the right to be neu
= trail They filed our unsuspecting com
! lmunlties with vicious spies and conspir
: ators and sought to corrupt the opinion
" OF our young people in their own behalf
When they found that they could not dc
that, their agents diligently spread Sc
IdItlon amongst us and sought to draw
our own citizens from their allegiance
Fand some of these agents were men con
: nected with the official embassy of the
German government itself here in oul
own capital They sought by violence
to destroy our industries and arrest ou,
! commerce. They tried to incite Nexi
: co to take up arms against us and tt
= draw Japan into a hostile alliance will
her-and that, not by indirection, bu
= by direct suggestion from the foreign