River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1917-04-12
TO War ON KAISER
President Wilson Says
Germans Force Us to
Enter Conflict.
AUTOCRACY Menace TO Us
Free Nations Must Unite to De-
feat Monarch Who Wants
to Rule World With
Bloody Sword.


peared before the senate and house
in joint session Monday night and
asked the legislative body to declare
that state of war existed between
Germany and the United States. He
asserted that the kaiser'S government
had shown this hostility by it's unre-
stricted submarine warfare which has
cost many American Ewes and by the
network Of the German spy system
which covers this country, and which
has destroyed our property and In
trigued to involve us in war with
Maxico and Japan. The president
called upon congress to use the ma
TONS full resources Of men, money
and supplies in cooperation with the
entente allies to defeat Prussian au-
tocracy as soon as possible and bring
peace to the world.
Mr.. Wilson definitely stated that the
American people have no quarrel with
the great mass of the German people.
He said the German people have been
forced into war with most Of the en-
tire world by the blood lust and greed
and immoral ambition Of the Prussian
autocracy to bully the democratic ma
tons of the earth. And then Presi-
dent Wilson delivered terrific indict-
ment of this same autOcracy. In this
regard he emphatically laid down the
principle that America is taking up
arms to defend itself, but primarily to
nR Cn1f rrnV = n
peoples.
The European war, said the presi-
dent, twas q war determined upon as
wars used to be determined upon in
the old, unhappy days when peoples
were nowhere consulted by their
rulers and wars were provoked and
waged in the interest Of dynasties or
of little groups of ambitious men who
were accustomed to use their fellow
men as pawns and tools.
"a steadfast concert for peace can
never be maintained except by part
nership of democratic nations. No au-
tocratic government could be trusted
to keep faith within or observe it's
covenants. 1t must be a league of
honor partnership of opinion. Only
free peoples can hold their purpose
and their honor steady to q common
end and prefer the interests Of man.
kind to any narrow interest of their
own.
"One of the things that have served
to convince us that the Prussian au-
tocracy was not and could never be
our friend is that from the very outset
of the present war it has filled our I'M
suspecting communities and even our
offices Of government with spies and
set criminal intrigues everywhere
afoot against our national unity OF
counsel, our peace within and without,
our industries and our commerce.
1--WE are accepting this challenge OF
hostile purpose because we know that
in such a government, following such
methods, we can never have a friend,
and that in the presence Of it's organ
ICED power, always lying in wait to ac-
complish we know not what purpose,
there can be assured security for the
democratic governments of the world.
eve desire no conquest, no dominion.
We seek no indemnities for ourselves,
no material compensation for the sac
rifices we shall freely make.
ave are but one of the champions OF
the rights of mankind. We shall be
satisfied when those rights have been
made as secure as the faith and the
freedom of nations can make them.
ave are at the beginning of an age
in which it will be insisted that the
same standards of conduct and OF re-
sponsibility for wrong done shall be
observed among nations and their
governments that are observed among
the individual citizens Of civilized
states.
y =
eve are the sincere friends OF the
German people, and shall desire moth
ing so much as the early re-establish-
ment of intimate relations of mutual
advantage between us, however hard
it may be for them for the time be-
ing to believe that this is spoken from