The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1917-06-14


a speech solemn with warning oil
suffering the country must en-
dure but deep with the conviction
that the nation fights for the
right.
The president spoke in the
shadow of the Washington monu-
ment before huge crowd OF gov
eminent employees at a Flag day
observance.
The presidents address was
re-consecration of Flag Day.
1t was a speech that stung IN
the bitterness of his arraignmen'
of Germany--not of the German
people, but of Germany's auto
Gratis.
He pictured Germany's mill
tary masters" in a sinister plot
reaching ont. corrupting, intrigu'
ing, scheming TO deceive their Owl
people and master the people and
power of other smaller nations
Ito throw a broad belt OF German
military power and political con
troll across the very center oil
Europe and beyond the Mediter'
ranean into the heart of Asia"
Austria a Dupe
The president named Austria.
Hungary as the dupe of Germany
"autocrats," Bulgaria and Turkey
as their catspaws.
He earnestly inveiged against
any consideration of alleged Ger.
man peace feelers put out now by
those who having set their net and
reached the zenith of their domi.
nation, now see their power slip
ping and their sinister plans about
to come to naught.
Likewise he bitterly assailed
German propagandists In the
United States, who are seeking by
insidious means to undermine the
nation here at home.
America, the president said
wars for the first time across the
seas because the principles for
which she now fights arc exactly
those for which she has waged
every other victorious war in her
history and because she was forced
to fight "in defense of our rights
as a free people and of our honor
as a sovereign government"
"A New Glory"
For us there is but one
choice" the president solemnll
declared.
eve have made 1t. Woe to the
man or group of men that seeks
to stand in our way In this day oil
high resolution when every princi.
pie we hold dearest is to be vindi.
Gated and made secure for the sal.
walton of the nations. We arc
ready to plead at the bar of his
tory and our flag shall wear 6
new lustre.
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 our people"
The president said in beginning
This flag has floated on high
in symbol OF great events, of the
great plan of life worked out by a
great people.
1--WE are about to carry 1t into
battle, to lift it where it will draw
the fire of our enemies.
I'VE are about to bid
thousands, hundreds of thou
sands, II may be millions, of
our men. the young, the
strong, the capable men of
the nation. to go forth and
die beneath II in fields of
blood far away-fOr what?
For some unaccustomed thing?
For something for which IL
has never sought the fire be-
fore? American armies were
never before sent across the
sea. 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 purpose, for
which It has seen men. its own
men, die on every battlefield on
which Americans have borne arms
since the revolution?
Must BE Answered
These are questions which must
be answered. We are Americans.
We in our turn serve America, and
can serve her with no private pur-
pose. We must use her flag as
she has always used 1t. We are ac-
at the bar of history and
must plead in utter frankness what
purpose it is we seek to serve"
After arraigning numerically
the German plotters, In the faith
erland and abroad, he concluded:
"Do you not now understand
the new intrigue, the intrigue for
peace, and why the masters of
Germany do not hesitate to use
any agency that promises to effect
that purpose, the deceit of the ma
tons?
"Their present particular aim
is to deceive all those who thru
out the world stand for the rights
of people and the self-government
of nations; for they see what i'm
strength the forces of JUS
tice and of liberalism are gather
ing out of this war.
In America, Too.
"They are employing liberals in
their enterprise. They are using
men, in Germany and without, as
their spokesman whom they have
hitherto sought to silence. Let
them once succeed and these men,
now their tools, will be ground to
power beneath the weight Of the
great military empire they will