The Benson signal., 1917-03-10
NATIONAL EQUALITY.
CREED OF AMERICA
PRESIDENT CALLS FOR A UNITED
NATION TO UPHOLD JUSTICE
IN WAR-MAD WORLD.
U. S. Must Stand for Peace With
Honor and Free Of Greed or In
trigue, Declares Wilson in
Inaugural Address.
Western Newspaper Union News Service.

Western Newspaper Union News Service.
Washington, March 6.-Facing, to
use his own words, not retrospect, but
the thought and purpose of the pres
ent and immediate future, Woodrow
Wilson of New Jersey, Monday sub
scribed in public to the oath as his
own successor.
With a new conservation to the ma
tion's service the President, touching
on the international crisis, declared
there could now be no turning back
from the tragical events of the last
thirty months which have brought up
on Americans a new responsibility as
citizens of the world. The President
declared anew that America must
stand for peace, stability of free peo-
pies, national equality in matters of
right, that the seas must be free to all
and that the family of nations shall
not support any governments not de-
rived from the consent of the gov
erned.
Sounding a solemn warning against
any faction or intrigue to break the
harmony or embarrass the spirit OF
the American people, the President
called for an America united in feel
ing, in purpose and in it's vision of
duty, of opportunity and of service
The inaugural address was as fol-
lows:
NV Fellow Citizens THE four years
which have elapsed since last l stood
in this place have been crowded with
counsel and action of the most vital
interest and consequences. Perhaps no
equal period in our history. has been SO
fruitful of important reform in our
economic and industrial life or so full
of significant changes in the spirit
and purpose of our political action.
We have sought very thoughtfully to
set our house in in order order, correct of the tn
dustrial life, liberate and quicken the
processes of our national genius and
energy and lift our politics to broad
er view of the peoples essential inter-
ests. 1t is a record of singular vari-
ETY. and singular@distinction But shall
not attempt to review it. 1t speaks for
itself and will be Of. increasing influ-
ence as the years go by.
This is not the time for retrospect.
1t is time, rather, to speak of our
thoughts and purposes concerning the
present and the immediate future.
Although we have centered counsel
and action with such unusual concen-
tration and success upon the great
problems of domestic legislation to
which we addressed ourselves four
years ago, other matters have more ore
attention; matters lying outside our
own life as a nation and over which
we had mo control, but which, despite
our wish to keep free of them, have
drawn us more and more irresistibly
into their own current and influence
1t has been impossible to avoid them
They have affected the life of the whole
world They have shaken men every
where with a passion and an apprehen-
sion they never knew before. 1t has
been hard to preserve calm counsel
while the thought of our own people
swayed this way and that under their
influence.
Deeply WrOnged Upon Seas.
We are a composite and cosmopolitan
people, We are OF the blood of all the
nations that are at war. The currents of
our trade run quick at all seasons
back and forth between us and them.
The war inevitably set its mark from
the first alike upon our minds, our in
duStrieS our commerce., our politics
and our social action. To be indiffer-
ent to it or independent of it was out
of the question.
And yet, all the while we have been
conscious that we were not part OF it.
In that consciousness, despite many di-
Visions we have drawn closer together.
We have been deeply wronged upon
the seas, but we have not wished to
wrong or to injure in return; have re-
tanned throughout the consciousness
of standing in some sort apart, intent
upon an interest that transcribed the
immediate issues of the war itself. AS
some of the injuries done us have be-
come intolerable we have still been
clear that we wished nothing for our
selves that we were not ready to de-
mand for all mankind--fair dealing,
justice, the freedom to live and be at
ease against organized wrong.
1t is in this spirit and with this
thought that we have grown more and
more aware, more and more certain
that the part we wished to play was
the part of those who mean to vindi-
cate and fortify peace. We have been
obliged to arm ourselves 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 demonstrate what it is we insist
upon and cannot forego. We may even