The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-08-03
SHOWING HOW
THE WAR CAME
Continued from Page ~

Imperial Governments actions have
through years of Boosting, double
dealing, and deceit rendered toward
aggression upon the rights of 9TH
ers. And if there still be any doubt
as to which nation began this war
there can be no uncertainty as to
which one was most prepared, most
exultant at the chance, and ready
instantly to march upon other ma
tions-even those who had given n,
offense. The wholesale depredations
and hideous atrocities in Belgium
and in Serbia were doubtless PAL
and parcel with the Imperial govern
ment's purpose to terrorize small ma
tions into abject submission for
generations to come. But in this
the Autocracy has been blind. For its
record in those countries, and in Po-
land and in northern France, has Civ
en- not only to the Allies but to lib
eral peoples throughout the world
the conviction that this menace to
human liberties everywhere must be
utterly shorn of its power for harm.
For the evil it has effected has
ranged far out of Europe-out upon
the open seas, where its submarines
in defiance of law and the concepts
Of humanity have blown up neutral
vessels and covered the waves with
the dead and the dying, men and
women and children alike. It's agents
have conspired against the peace of
neutral nations everywhere, sowing
the seeds of dissension, ceaselessly
endeavoring by tortuous methods of
deceit, of bribery, false promises,
and intimidation, to stir up brother
nations one against the other, in or
der that the liberal world might not
be able to unite, in order that the
Autocracy might emerge triumphant
from the war.
All this we know from our own
experience with the Imperial govern
ment. AS they have dealt with Eu-
rope, so they have dealt with us and
with all mankind. And so out of
these years the conviction has grown
that until the German Nation is d.
vested of such rulers democracy can
not be safe.
There remained but one element to
confuse the issue. One other great
autocracy, the government of the
Russian Gar, had long been hostile
to free institutions; it had been
stronghold of tyrannies reaching far
back into the past; and its presence
among the Allies had seemed to be
in disaccord with the great liberal
principles they were unfolding in
this war. Russia had been a source
of doubt. Repeatedly during the
conflict liberal Europe had been
startled by the news of secret &C
cord between the Kaiser and the
Car.
But now at this crucial time for
our Nation, on the eve of our en-
trance into the war, the free men of
all the world were thrilled and
heartened by the news that the peo-
pie of Russia had risen to throw off
their government and found a new
democracy; and the torch of freedom
in Russia lit up the last dark
phases of the situation abroad. Here
indeed was a fit partner for the
League of Honor. The conviction
was finally crystallized in American
minds and hearts that this war
across the sea was no mere conflict
between dynasties but a stupendous
civil war of all the world; a new
campaign in the age-old war, the
prize of which is liberty. Here at
last was struggle in which all
who love freedom have stake. Fur
ther neutrality on our part would
have been a crime against our an
cestors, who had given their lives
that we might be free.
"The world must be made safe for
democracy"
On the End of April, 1917, the
President read to the new Congress
his message, in which he asked the
Representatives of the Nation to de-
clare the existence of a state Of
war, and in the early hours of tn
9th of April the House by an over
whelming vote accepted the joint
resolution which had already passed
the Senate:
Whereas the Imperial German
Government has committed repeated
acts of war against the government
and the people of the United States