Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1917-04-13

ItartmentS OF the government LOT lnt
consideration of your committees
measures for the accomplishment of
the several objects have mentioned. L
hope that ii will be your pleasure to
deal with them as having been framed
after very careful thought by the
branch of the government upon which
the responsibility of conducting the
war and safeguarding the nation win
most directly fall
while we do these things, these
deeply momentous things, let us be
very clear, and make very clear 20 all
the world what our motives and our
objects are. My own thought has not
been driven from its habitual and nor
NAL course by the unhappy events OF
the last two months, and | do not be-
lieve that the thought of the nation
has been altered or clouded by them.
81 have exactly the same things in
mind now that | had in mind when
| addressed the senate on the 22d OF
January last: the same that | had in
mind when | addressed the congress
on the Sd of February and on the 26th
of February. Our object now, as then,
is to vindicate the principles or peace
and justice in the life of the world as
against selfish and autocratic power
and to set up amongst the really free
and self-governed peoples of the world
such concert of purpose and of ac-
ton as will henceforth insure the OBJ
servance of those principles.
World Peace Involved.
Neutrality Is no longer reasonable
or desirable where the peace of the
world Is involved and the freedom of
its peoples, and the menace to that
peace and freedom lies in the exist
ence of autocratic governments back
ed by organized force which Is con
trolled wholly by their will, not by
the will of their people. We have
seen the last of neutrality in such cir
cumstances.
I'VE are at the beginning of an age
in which it will be insisted that the
same standards of conduct and Of re-
sponsibility for wrong doing shall be
observed among nations and their gov
ernments that are observed among the
individual citizens of civilized states.
1--WE have no quarrel with the Ger
man people.
1--WE have no feeling towards them
but one of sympathy and friendship.
II was not upon their impulse that
their government acted in entering
this war. 1t was not with their pre-
vious knowledge or approval.
1T was a war determined upon as
wars used to be determined on in the
old, unhappy days when peoples were
nowhere consulted by their rulers and
wars were provoked and waged in the
interest of dynasties or of little
groups of ambitious men who were ac-
customed to use their fellowmen as
pawns and tools.
Infested With Spies.
"Seh-governed nations do not fill
their neighbor states with spies or set
the course of intrigue to bring about
some critical posture of affairs which
will give them an opportunity to strike
and make conquest. Such designs can
be successfully worked only under
cover and where no one has the right
to ask questions.
"Cunningly contrived plans of decep
ton or aggression, carried, 1t may be
from generation to generation, can be
worked out and kept from the light
only within the privacy Of courts or
behind the carefully guarded conf
dences of a narrow and privileged
class. They are happily impossible
where public opinion commands and
insists upon full information concern.
ing all the nations affairs
"A steadfast concert for peace can
never be maintained except by part
nership of democratic nations. No
autocratic government could be trusted
to keep faith within it or observe its
covenants. 1t must be a league OF
honor, partnership Of opinion. In
trigue would eat it's vitals away; the
plottings of inner circles who could
plan what they would and render &C
count to no one would be corruption
seated at its very heart. Only free
peoples can hold their purpose and
their honor steady to a common end
and prefer the interests of mankind
to any narrow interest of their own.
Does not every American feel that
assurance has been added to our hope
for the future peace of the world by
the wonderful and heartening things
that have been happening within the
last few weeks in Russia?
Russia was known by those who
KNEW IL DeSt 10 nave Deen always III
fact democratic at heart, In all the
vital habits of her thought, in all the
intimate relationships OF her people
that spoke their natural instinct, their
habitual attitude towards life.
THE autocracy that crowned the
summit of her political structure, Ions
as It had stood and terrible as was
the reality of its power, was not In
fact Russian in origin, character, oil
purpose; and now II has been shaken
off and the great, generous Russian
people have been added in all their
naive majesty and might to the forces
that are fighting for freedom in the
world. for justice and for peace. Here
is fit partner for league of honor
Never Our Friend.
"One of the things that has served
to convince us that the Prussian auto
cracy was not and could never be ouI
friend Is that from the very outset OF
the present war IL has filled our un
suspecting communities and even oui
offices of government with spies anc
set criminal intrigues everywhere
afoot against our national unity OF
council, our peace within and without
our industries and our commerce.
Indeed, II is now evident that It's
spies were here even before the wal
A. Il. IL.