Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-06-22
President Tells Plans Of Ger.
many and Reviews U. S.
Aims in Flag Day
Speech.
SPIES WORK IN AMERICA
Intrigue of Teuton Government
Pointed Out After Declara-
ton That Insults Forced
the U. s. to Fight.

Washington, June 14.-Before a great
audience assembled here today for q
Flag day celebration, President Wilson
declared anew the aimsa and purposes
world war.
No Choice But War.
Standing in the shadow Of the great
monument erected to the memory of
George Washington. the president told
thousands gathered on the grassy
slopes that the United States had
entered the war not alone to keep the
cause the extraordinary insults and
aggressions Of the Imperial German
government left us no choice but to
take up arms in defense Of u rights
as a free people and Of our honor az a
sovereign government"
The Stars and Stripes are going to
a strange land, the president said, for
a purpose as old as American traditions.
Woe To D%isturbers.
For us there is but one choice"
said the president. w have made it.
Woe be to the man or group of men
h a seeks to stand in our way in this
day Of high resolution when every
principle we hold dearest is to be vim
dictated and made secure for the saliva
lAOn VI lldIlOIlS. we AI0 fcdOy 10 QlSdO
at the bar of history and u flag shall
wear a new luster. Once more we shall
make good with our lives and fortunes
the great faith to which we were born
and a new glory shall shine in the face
Of u people,"
President Wilson warned against per-
hitting Germany to end the war now
by an Intrigue of peace" while her ag-
g%ressions were secure.
The president said:
my fellow citizens: We meet to cell
citrate Flag day because this flag which
we hone and under which we serve
is the emblem of unity. our power.
It has no other character than that
which we give 1t from generation 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 I'M women
who went before us and of the records
they wrote upon it. We celebrate the
day if it's birth; and from it's birth until
now it has witnessed a great history,
has floated on high the symbol of great
events, of a great plan of life worked
out by a great people. We are about to
will draw fire of our enemies. We are
about to bid thousands, hundreds of
thousands, it may be millions, of uor
men. the young, the strong, the capable
men of h nation, to go forth and die
beneath it on fields of blood far away
for what? For some unaccustomed
thing? Flo something for which it has
sought the fire before? Ameri-
a armies were never before sent
across the seas. Why are they sent
now? For some new purpose, for
which this great flag has never been
carried before, or for some old, familiar,
heroic purposes for which it has seen
field upon which Americans have
borne arms since the revolution?
German Insults Force War.
These are questions which must be
answered. We are Americans. We in
u turn serve America. and can serve
her with no private purpose. We must
use her flag o. she has always used it.
We are accountable at the bar of his
tory and must nlead in utter frankness
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 rec
speeding choice but to take up arms in
defense Of our rights as a free people
and of u honor as a sovereign gov
eminent. The military masters Of Ger
kAeAA AAA AO SANS AA6Ak " NC 1lCuIIdl.
They filled our u~nsuspecting communi-
ties with vicious spies and %conspira-
tors n sought to corrupt the opinion
of our people in their own behalf.
When they found that they could not
do that. their agents diligently spread
sedition amongst us and sought to draw
u W citizens from their allegiance
and some of those agents were men
connected with the official embassy of
the German government itself here In
our own capitol. They sought by yio-
lence to destroy our industries and ar
rest u commerce. They tried to in
cite Mexico to take up arms against
US and to draw Japan into a hostile
alliance with her-and that. not by In
direction. but by direct suggestion from
the foreign office in. Berlin"
FLAG D%ishonored by Peace.
They impudently denied us the use
of the hieh seas and repeatedly exc
cuted their threat that they would send
to their death any Of people who
ventured to approach the coasts OF
Europe. And MANY of our own peoule
were corrupted. Men began to look
upon their neighbors with suspicion and
to wonder in their hot resentment and
surprise whether there was any COM
munity in which hostile intrigue did
not Turk. What great nation In such
circumstances would not have taken
up arms? Much as we desired peace
it was denied US. and not of u own
choice. This flag under which we
serve would have been ~dishonored had
we withheld our hand. &
But that 10 only 1T OF the story
We know now as clearly AZ we knew
before we were ourselves engaged that
we are not the enemies OF the German
people. and they are not Dur enemies