Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1917-12-20
RECOMMENDS WAR
AGAINST AUSTRIA.
DOES NOT RECOMMEND WAR
AGAINST BULGARIA AND
TURKEY AT PRESENT.
PEACE IS OUT OF QUESTION
Nothing Shall Turn United States
Aside Until War ls Won and Ger.
many 10 Beaten--Greeted With Ap-
plause.

plause.
MISUNDERSTANDING declaration
Of war against Austria Hungary was
+. recommended to congress by President
Wilson.
The president did not, however, rec.
ommend a declaration of war against
Turkey and Bulgaria at this time.
Immediate war against Austria, the
president told congress-, was necessary
to meet the anomalous situation the
United States faces in its war with
Germany even though, he declared,
Austria was not her own mistress and
merely vassal of Germany.
The same logic. he said, would be to
war against Turkey and Bulgaria. But
they do not yet, he added, stand in the
path of the United States in its war
against Prussian autocracy.
In ringing and definite terms, the
president declared that nothing shall
turn the United States aside until the
war is won and Germany is beaten. All
talk of peace he pronounced out of the
question.
Peace, the president declared, could
come only when the German peopie
make 1t through rulers the world can
trust; when they make reparation for
the destruction their present rulers
have wrought and when Germany re.
cedes from all the territory acquired
by armed conquest.
The president spoke as follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress:
Eight months have elapsed since |
last had the honor of addressing you.
They have been months crowded with
events Of immense and grave singifi.
canoe for us. shall not undertake to
detail or even to summarize those
events. The practical particulars of
the part we have played in them will
be laid before you in the reports of the
executive departments. shalt discuss
only our present outlook upon these
vast affairs, our present duties, and
the immediate means Of accomplishing
the objects We shall hold always in
view.
shall moi go back to debate the
causes of the war. Intolerable wrongs
done and planned against las by the
sinisters masters have long since be-
come too grossly obvious and odious
to every true American to need to be
rehearsed.
But shall ask you to consider again
and with a very grave scrutiny our
detectives and the measures by which
we mean to attain them; for the pur-
pose Of discussion here In this place
is action, and our action must move
straight towards definite ends. Our
object Is, Of course, 10 win the war;
and we shall not slacken or suffer our
selves to be diverted until 1t is won.
But It is worth while asking and an.
swering the question, when shall we
consider the war wen?
From one point of view it Is not
necessary to breach this fundamental
matter. do not doubt that the Amer
lean people know what the war is
about and what sort of an outcome
they will regard IS & realization Of
their purpose in it. As nation we are
united IN spirit and intention. / pay
little he,d>to those who tell me 9TH
erwise. hear the voices of dissent
who does not? I hear the criticism
and the glamour of the noisily thought.
less and troublesome. l also see men
here ana there hing themselves in i'm
potent disloyalty against the calm, in
domitable power Of the nation. hear
men debate peace who understand
neither its nature nor the way in which
we may attain it with uplifted eyes
and unbroken spirits.
But l know that none of these speaks
for the nation. They do not touch the
heart Of anything. They may safely
be left to strut their uneasy hour and
be forgotten.
But from another point of view
believe that 1t Is necessary to say
plainly what we here at the seat Of
action consider the war to be for and
what part we mean to play in the set
Element of its searching issues. We are
the spokesman of the American people
and they have a right to know whether
their purpose is ours. They desire
peace by the overcoming Of evil. by the
defeat once for all Of the sinister
forces that interrupt peace and render
it impossible, and they wish to know
how closely our thought runs with
theirs and with the action we propose.
They are impatient with those who de.
sire peace by any sort of compromise
deepl yand Indignantly impatient but
they will be equally impatient with us
IL we do not make 1t plain to them
what our detectives are and what we
are planning for in seeking to make
conquest of peace by arms.
I believe that speak for them when
l say two things: First, that this In
tolerable thing of which the masters
Of Germany have shown us the ugly
face, this menace of combined intrigue
and force which we now see so clearly
as the German power, thing without
conscience or honor or capacity for
covenanted peace. must be crushed