The Benson signal., 1917-03-10

be drawn on, by circumstances, not by
our own purpose or desire, to more
active assertion of our rights as we
see them and more immediate asso-
citation with the great struggle itself.
But nothing will alter our thought or
our purpose. They are too clear to be
obscured. They are too deeply rooted
in the principles of our. national life to
be altered. We desire neither conquest
nor advantage. We wish nothing that
can be had only at the cost of another
people.
Now Citizens of the World.
We have always professed unselfish
purpose and we covet the opportunity
to prove that our professions are sin
cere. There are many things still to
do at home to clarity our own politics
and give new vitality to the industrial
processes of our own life, and we shall
do them as time and opportunity serve;
but we realize that the great things
that remain to be done must be done
with the whole world for a stage and
in cooperation with the wide and uni
verSal forces of mankind and we are
making our spirits ready for those
things. They will follow in the imme-
diate wake of the war itself and will
set civilization up again.
We are prOvincialS no longer. The
tragic events of the thirty months of
vital turmoil through which we have
just passed have made us citizens of
the world There can be no turning
are involved, whether we would have
it so or not.
And yet we are not the less Ameri-
cans on that account. We shall be the
more American if we but remain true
to the principles in which we have
been bred. They are not the principles
or a province or of a single continent.
We have known and boasted all along
that they were the principles of lib
Grated mankind.
America's National Greed.
These, therefore, are the things we
shall stand for, whether in war or in
| peace:
That all nations are equally interest
| ed in the peace of the world and in
the political stability of free peoples
and equally responsible for their main
| tenance;
| That the essential principle of peace
! is the mutual equality of nations in all
matters of right or privilege;
That peace cannot securely or justly
| rest upon an armed balance of power;
That governments derive all their
| just powers from the consent of the
governed and that no other powers
should be supported by the common
| thought, purpose or power of the fam
| lily of nations;
| That the seas should be equally free
and safe for the use of all peoples,
under rules set up by common agree
ment and consent and that, so far as
practicable, they should be accessible
| to all upon equal terms;
That national armaments should be
limited to the necessities of national
| order and domestic safety;
| That the community of interest and
| of power upon which peace must
henceforth depend imposes upon each
nation the duty of seeing to it that
all influences proceeding from it's own
| citizens meant to encourage or assist
revolution in other states should he
sternly and effectually suppressed and
| prevented.
L need not argue these principles to
| you, my fellow countrymen; they are
your own, part and parcel of your own
| thinking and your own motive in az
| fairs. They spring up native amongst
us. Upon this platform of purpose and
| of action we can stand together
| Nation Must Stand Unit.
| And it is imperative that we should
stand together We are being forged
| ablaze through the world. In their ar
dent heat we shall, in Gods providence,
let hope, be purged of faction and
division, purified of the errant humors
of party and of private interest and
shall stand forth in the days to come
with a new dignity of national pride
and spirit Let each man see to it
that the dedication is in his own heart,
| the high purpose of the nation in his
own mind, ruler of his own will and
| desire.
and solemn oath to which you have
been audience because the people of
the United States have chosen me for
this august delegation of power and
have by their gracious Judgment
named me their leader in affairs.
I know now what the task means. /
realize to the full the responsibility
which it involves I pray God 1 may
be given the wisdom and the pru-
dence to do my duty in the true spirit
of this great people. I am their serv-
! ant and can succeed only as they sus-
tain and guide me by their confidence
| and their counsel.
| The thing I shall count upon, the
| thing without which neither counsel
| nor action will avail, is the unity of
| America-an America united in feeling,
| in purpose and in vision of duty, of
| opportunity and of service. We are to
| beware of all men who would turn the
| tasks and necessities of the nation to
| their own private profit or use them
| for the building up of private power;
| trigue break the harmony en-
barrass the spirit of our people; be-
ware that our government be kept
pure and !ncorrupt in all it's parts.
| United alike in the conception of our
duty and in the high resolve to per-
| form it in the face of all men, let us
| dedicate ourselves to the great task to
which we must set our hand. For my
| self I beg your tolerance, your cOun-
| tenance and your united aid. The shad-
oWs that now lie dark upon our path
will soon be dispelled and we shall
walk with the light all about us If we
are but true to ourselves-to ourselves
as we have wished to be known in the
| thought of all those who love liberty
! and Justice and the right exalted