The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-08-22
Wednesday, August 22, 1917
AMERICA FOR AMERICANS.

In Union on Saturday Congress
man Samuel j. Nichols addressed tn
voters in that county, answering
some of the utterances of those wh'
would question the right Of thi
country to defend it's liberties, ant
showing why the United States hat
been forced to recognize a state o:
was as existing between this c%ountr!
and Germany.
The speech shows that Congress
man Nichols is something more thar
a politician. His speech evidences
the sentiments of a statesman, anC
of a man who is for his own country
first, and who dares to defend il
against enemies abroad and traitors
at home. The speech is so good ano
so complete that we give it at length
"When I received an invitation
from your committee to speak in I'm,
ion County at a patriotic celebration,
I was not at all surprised, because
so far as the record shows Union
County is the only county in the
United States which furnished more
than her quota of men before the
draft law was put into effect, there
fore you can see why I was not sur
prised that patriotic meetings were
to be held in your county.
81 have spoken with much pride to
cabinet members, to senator's and to
members of the house about your
record and before / start my dicsus-
sion of the war proposition | want
to again congratulate you upon the
splendid record that you have made.
81 feel that it is my duty today to
tell you why we were brought into
this war, because I think possibly,
holding the position I do, that 1 am
more familiar with the situation than
some of you are. You know, and
know, that no man has fought harder
to keep this country out of the terri
BILE conflict across the water than our
noble president. Congress was behind
him in this matter, and to be perfect
ly frank with you, some of US
thought that we had suffered too
much before this wise man gave US
the word Co.
Why America is at War.
"To begin with, when the Lusitan-
ia was sunk and our men, women
and children were sent to the bottom
of the sea the blood of every Ameri-
can citizen rose in his veins and
clambered for revenge. Our presi-
dent said Hold! If there is any rea-
sonable way for Germany to explain
this terrible tragedy, let's give them
a chance to do it. They tried to ex-
plain by saying that American citi-
zens should not travel on ships of a
b%elligerent nation. We lever con-
ceded this proposition for an instant,
but we did, upon their assurance, alb
solutely sworn to by them, decide
that we would await developments
and see whether or not they would
be true to their pledge and not let
the thing occur again. Numerous
other cases of the same kind happen
ed and still we took their explana-
ton in each case, hoping almost
against hope that Germany really was
not trying to force us into the a
"In the meantime Germany had
the effrontery to deliberately inform
our government that they intended
to sink, not only the ships of bellig-
erent nations, but the ships of the
United States, if they were caught
in certain zones, and Immediately
after this notification they started a
wholesale slaughter upon not only
the property of American citizens but
the lives of your people and mine.
Even then, although the whole coun-
try and the whole world knew that
we had every justification for declar-
irg war our president desisted, but
informed Germany that if these de-
predations continued we would have
to declare a state of war.
German Perfdy.
"While all these murders were be-
ing perpetrated u secret service
men had Of course been trying to
keep up with Germany and find out
their intentions. At this juncture it
developed, not by guess, but by direct
written testimony, that Germany had
made q proposition to Japan and to
Mexico to invade u country, muir
der our citizens and take u proper
ty. They had ever gone so far as
to promise Mexico the States of Tex
as. California and New Mexico in
case Germany, with the assistance OF
japan and Mexico, could conquer US
1- @F n fanr0