Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-06-15
Former Chief Executive Of
Nation Deplores Past Lack
of Preparedness and
Pleads for Unity in the
Present Crisis.
SEES DAMAGE FROM
NEW COPPERHEADISM

he delivered here today at the celebra
tion of the semi-centennial Of the
, statehood Of Nebraska, criticized the
national policy Of the United States fol
failure to protest promptly against
German ruthlessness and brutality, de
plored national failure to prepare foa
the war, pleaded for undivided loyalty
to the American dag, denounced the
paciflsts and asked for generous sup
port and for the use Of the Red Gross
in caring for American troops on
European battledelds.
I'VE permitted our national policy,
he said, Ito be swayed by the national
devotions and national antipathies OF
men who exercised the rights Of Amer
lean citizens but showed themselves
traitors to America by the way IL
which they prostftuted our citizenship
to the interests Of Germany or to their
hatred Of England.
coPPERHEAD REVIVAL.
IT would be impossible to overstate
the damage done to the morale flber
Of our country BY the professional paci.
fist propaganda, the peace-at-any-price
propaganda. The professional paci.
fists during the first two and half
years of the war have occupied precise
ly the position Of the coppefheads dur.
ing the time Of Abraham Lincoln.
~The fact that sheer cowardice was
more potent than tho love of peace
was proved by the fact that the leading
paciflsts dared not condemn a single
specific act Of wrong-doing when such
act was committed by the powerful
and brutal foe they most feared-Ger-
many. They clamored for neutrality
between Germany and Belgium. They
denounced war. In Language .whieh re.
fnected a. heavily on the fathers who
were defending their wives and daugh-
ters from Outrage 40 upon the aggres-
sors who systematically practiced npe
and torture. BY their failure to pro-
test against the inhuman torture Of the
poison gas they made It necessary
hereafter to accept this as an ordinary
instrument Of warfare: Just AZ, by our
failure to take immediate action in
connection with the murder Of inno-
cent non-combatants by submarines,
we committed an offense against hu-
manity the effects Of which cannot be
completely eradicated by any subse-
quent action on our part.
"sAFETY FIRST" WRONG MOTTO.
"All this meanness and abandon
ment of duty was championed by the
professional pacihsts on the plea that
And by their political pressure. they
prevented us from preparing, and kept
US utterly unprepared, on the ground
that preparedness invited war; their
motto was safety hrst' not duty
first They cared nothing for right
eousnese. They cared nothing for hu-
manity. They cared nothing for our ma.
tional honor or interest All they ask
ed was a peace that would permit us
to get all four feet in the trough while
we strove to distract attention from
the squalid baseness Of our material
ism by the shrill clAmor of q sham
sentimentality.
"And nevertheless we have not been
kept out OF war. Our avoidance Of
duty simply invited such cumulative
repetition OF insult and injury that
finally war was forced ON US. It mere
ly resulted in our drifting into war
stern foremost, in 4 condition Of such
complete ,inreadiness that We owe m
ignoble safety exclusively to the pro-
lection Of the exhausted nations to
whose help We have announced that
we intend to come.
PLEADS FOR PREPAREDNESS.
From this time on let us insist on
an absolute and undivided American
ism in this land, untempered by any
self-allegiance to the countries from
which our ancestors may severally
have sprung. and untainted BY any un.
worthy national animosity towards
any other country. Let us prepare our
selves spiritually. economically and In
all military and naval matters-includ-
ing as permanent policy the policy Of
universal military trimming and service
80 that never again shall we be ut
terly unready. as We now are, to meet
a great crisis.
''Finally, In the present war. q war
for liberty and democracy against the
ruthless militaristic tyranny Of the
Prussianized Germany Of the Hohen-
zollerns, let us as speedily as possible
train our giant, but our soft and un-
ready. strength, so that we may use
our hardened might to bring the
slaughter to real and final end In the
only way honorably possible by secur
ing for ourselves and our allies the
rlce OF Justice based on an over.
i t1alming victory"
BOER LEADER TO-JOIN