Omaha daily bee., 1917-06-15
U. s, Fights to Keep
World Safe and for
It's Own Defense

AHu yet, tnOuSl SllClll, II opCdho u
us-speaks ,of t.: past. Of the men
and women who went before us and
Of the records they wrought upon it.
"We celebrate the day of its birth
and from it birth until now it has
witnessed a great history. has foated
on high the symbol of great events,
of the great plan Of life worked out
by a great people. We are about TO
carry it into battle, to lift it where it
will draw the fire Of our enemies,
Fight is for Freedom.
1--WE are about to bid thousands,
hundreds OF thousands, it may be
millions, of our men, the young, the
strong, the capable men Of the ma
tion to go forth and die beneath it on
fields of blood far away-for what?
for some unaccustomed thing? for
something for which it has never
sought the fire before? American
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 be-
fore ,or for some old, familiar, heroic
purposes for which it has seen men,
its own men, die on every battlefield
upon which Americans have borne
arms since the revolution:
These are the questions which
must be answered. We are Ameri-
cans. We in our turn serve America
and can serve it with no private pur-
pose. We must use its flag as it has
always used it. We are accountable
at the bar of history and must plead
in utter frankpess what purpose it is
we seek to serve.
German Aggessions Renewed.
1T is plain enough how we were
forced into the war The extraordi-
nary insults and aggressions of the
imperial German government left us
no self-respecting choice. but to take
up arms in defense OF our rights as a
free people and OF our honor as SOW
ereign government. The military pas
tiers of Germany denied us the right
10 be neutral. They filled our unsus-
pecting communities with vicious
spies and conspirators and 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 our
own citizens from their allegiance
and some of those agents were men
connected with the official embassy
OF the German government itself here
in our cwn capital.
They sought by violence to de-
stroy our industries and arrest our
commerce. hey tried to incite Mex
leo to take up arms against us and to
draw Japal. into a hostile alliance
with it and that, not by indirection.
but by direct suggestion from the for
eign Office in Berlin. They impu-
IDENTIFY denied US the use of the high
seas and repeatedly executed their
threat they they would send to their
death any OF our people who ven
tured to approach the coasts of Eu-
rope. And many OF our own people
we're corrupted. Men began to look
upon their own neighbors with sus-
picion and to wonder in their hot re-
sentiment and surprise whether there
was any community i'll which hostile
intrigue did not lurk. What great
nation in such circumstances would
not have taken up arms? Much as
we had desired peace, it was denied
us This flag under which we serve
would have been dishonored had we
withheld our hand.
Democracy at Stake.
But that is only part OF the story.
We know now as clearly as we knew
before We were ourselves engaged
that we are not the enemies of the
German people anG that they are not
our enemies. They did not originate
or desire this hideous war or wish
that we should be drawn into it, and
we are vaguely conscious that we are
lighting their cause, as hey will some
= day see it, as Il as our own. They
are themselves in the grip of the
same sinister power that has now at
asst stretched its ugly talons out and
drawn blood firm US. The whole
world is at war, because the whole
world is in the grip of that power
and is trying out the great battle
which shall determine whether it is
10 be brought under its. mastery or
fling itsel' free.
ING wal was eeg1n oy the mill
.aiy> masters OF Germany, who
proved 70 De also the masters OF
Austlia- hungary lhese men have
never regarded nations as. peoples,
men women and children OF like
blood and frame as themselves, for
''.h whoni governments existed and IN
TL TLioili governments mad their lite.
ney nave regarded them merly
a. serVlGeaple organizations, which
they couio by 1orce or intrigue bend