New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-15

Secreta,7 Lansing introduced Mr. Wilson. T
1yept Vqshinqton an hour before I'D almost ceased
speech foLows:
Ny Fellow Citizens: We meet TO celebrate Flag
Day because this flag which honor and under which
we serve is the emblem of unity, our power our
thought and purpose nation. 1t has no other char
aeter than that which we give it from generation to
generation The choices 1t floats in males
tic silence above the hosts that execute those choices
whether in peace or in And yet though silent, it
speaks to usspeaks Of the past Of the men and
women who went before and Of the records they
wrote upon IT. We celebrate the day Of It's birth, and
from its birth until now it has witnessed great his
tory has Aoated on high the symbol Of great events
Of great plan Of life worked out by great people
We ere about TO carry 1t into battle, TO lift It
where it will draw the fire of our enemies We are
about 70 bid thousands hundreds Of thousands, 1t may
be millions of our men, the young, the strong, the
capable men Of the nation TO 90 forth and die beneath
it on fields of blood far away-for WHAT For some
unaccustomed thing? For something for which It has
never sorght the fire before? American armies we're
never before sent the Why they sent
now? For purpose, for which this great
flag has never been carried before, for some old.
familiar, heroic purpose for which it has seen men,
its own men, die on every battlefield upon which Amer
leans have borne arms since the Revolution?
These are questions which must be answered. We
are Americans. We in turn America, and
can serve her with no private purpose. We must use
her flag as she mas always used IT, We accountable
at the bar of history, and must plead in utter frank
ness what purpose il is seek TO serve
II lain how We
war TIE extraordinary insults and aggressions OF
the Imperial German government left US no self-re-
spectng choice but take arms in defence OF our
rights as a free people and Of our honor as SOW
ereign government The military masters Of Germany
denied US the right to be neutral They filed our IN
suspecting communities with vicious spies and con-
sprators and sought corrupt the opinion Of our peo
pie in their behalf.
When they found that they could not do that their
agents diligently spread sedton amongst US and sought
to draw our own citizens from their aneglance-and
some OF these agents were men connected with the
official embassy Of the German government itself here
in our own capital They sought by violence to de-
stroy our industries and arrest our commerce Ihey
tried 20 incte Mexico TO take up arms against US and
70 draw japan into hostile alliance with her-and
that not by ndrection, but by direct suggestion from
the Foreign Office in Berlin.
They impudently denied US the use OF the hisn
seas and repeatedly executed their threat that they
would
ventured to approach the coasts Of Europe. And
many Of cur own people corrupted. Men began
to look upon their neghbors with suspicion and 10
wonder in their hot resentment and surprise, whether
there was any community which hostile intrigue did
not Turk.
What great nation in such circumstances would
not have taken up arms? Much as we had desired
peace il was denied US, and not Of our own choee'
This flag under which serve would have been DIS
honorei had we withheld our hand.
But that is only part Of the story. We know now
as clearly knew before we were ourselves en-
gagged that the enemies Of the German peo-
pie and that they not our enemies. Ihey dld not
originate or desire this hdeous or wish that we
should be drawn into it, and are vaguely conscious
that we are fighting their cause they will day
see t. as well as our own They are themselves IN
the grip o, the same sinister power that has now az
last stretched ugly .aons out and drawn blood from
Us Tho whole world is at because the whole world
is in the grip that power and is trying out the great
battles which shall determine whether It Is to be
brought Under its mastery fling itself free
The war was begun by the military masters Of Ger
MANY who proved to be also the masters Of Austria
Hungary. These men have never regarded nations as
PEOPLES men, and children OF Ike olood and
frame as themselves, for whom governments existed
and in whom governments had their life They have
regarded them merely serviceable organizations
which they could by force intrigue bend or corrupt
states in particular and the peoples who could be
overwhelmed by force as their natural tools and in
struments of domination.
Their purpose has long been avowed. The states
men Of other nations, whom that purpose was in
credible paid little attention; regarded what German
professors expounded in their cassrooms and German
writer's get forth the world as the goal Of German
policv as rather the dream of minds detached from
practical affairs preposterous private conceptions OF
German destiny than the actual plans Of responsible
rulers but the rulers Of Germany themselves knew all
the while what concrete plans what well advanced IN
triges lay back of what the professors and the writers
were saying and glad 70 forward unmolested,
filing he thrones Of Balkan States with German
rrnces putting German officers at the service OF lur
kew 20 drill her armies and make interest with her
Government developing plans Of sedition and rebellion
in India and Egypt setting their fires in Persia
The demands made by Austria upon Serbia were
mere single step in plan which comprised Europe and
Asia from Berlin TO Bagdad. They hoped those de-
,,ords might not arouse Europe, but they meant 70
nress them whether they did not for they thought