Carrizozo outlook. [volume] (Carrizozo, N.M.) 1910-1945, 1917-06-22
WAR FOR FREEDOM
President Wilson Tells Of Aims Of
United States.
FORCED TO TAKE UP ARMS
Nation Acting In Defense Of Our
Rights as a Free People and Of
Our Honor as a Sovereign
Government, Is Statement.

Washington. June 10. 49, President
Wilson's Flag day address, delivered In
this city, was substantially Ms follows:
My Fellow Citizens; We meet to
celebrate Fling Day because this iing
which we honor and under which we
serve Is the emblem Of our unity, our
power, our thought nnd purpose rs n
milton. II has no other character than
that which we give Il from generation
10 generation. The choices nre ours,
II floats In majestic silence above the
hosts that execute those choices,
whether In pence or In war. And yet,
though silent, II spenks to us-spcnks
10 us of the past, of the men and w0m-
On who went before us and Of the rec
ords they wrote upon II. We celebrate
the day of It's birth and from lts birth
until now It has Witnessed n great his
tory, has nonted on high the symbol Of
great events, Of n grent plan of life
worked out by n great people. We are
about to carry II into battle, to lift II
where Il will draw the fire OF II en-
emies. We are about to bid thousands,
hundreds Of thousands, It may be mil
lions Of our men, the young, the strong,
the capable men Of the nation, to so
forth and die beneath It On fields Of
blood far nwny-for whnt2 For some
unnccustomed thing? For something
for which II hns never sought the fire
before? American armies were never
before sent across the seas. Why nre
they sent now2 For ,ome new pur-
pose, for which this great flag has new
or been carried before, or for some old,
familiar, heroic purpose for which It
has seer men, It's own men, die on ev-
cry battlefield upon which Americans
have borne arms since the Revolution
These are questions which must he
answered. We are Americans. We IN
our turn serve America, and can serve
her with no private purpose. We must
use her flag ms she has always used It,
We are accountable ut the bar Of his
tory and must plead In utter frnnkncss
what purpose II Is we seek to serve.
Forced to Take Up Arms.
II Is plain enough how we were
forced into the war. The eXtraordl'
nary Insults ana aggresslons Of the I'm.
perlal German government left us ne
self-rcspcctlng choice but to take NJ
arms In defense of our rights as a FIRE,
people and OF our honor rs II sovereign
government. The military masters oi
Germany denied us the right to he neu
trail. They filled our unsuspecting com
munitles with vicious spies and con
spirators and sought to corrupt ia,
opinion Of our people In their he
half. when they found that they coulI
not do that, their agents dlligcntl!
spread scdltlon amongst Us and sough
To draw our own citizens from thel
allegiance, nnd some Of those ngcnt.
were men connected with the oiilcln
embassy of the German government II
self here I'm our own capltul. The.
sought 10y violence To destroy our In
dustrics aud arrest u commerce
They tried to lncitc Mexico 70 take a.
arms against ny and tn draw japan In
to II hostile alliance with hcr-anl
that, not by lndlrcction, but by direc
suggestion from the foreign Office /
Berlin. They impudently denied II
the use Of the high seas and repeated
ly executed their threat that the
would send a. their death amy " otl
people who Ventured 10 npprongh III
coasts of Europe. Aud many Of ou
own people were corrupted. Men be
gan TO look upon their own nelghbor
with suspicion ana TO wonder IN tlcI
hot resentment and surprise whcthC
there was amy community IN whlc
hostile intrigue dld not Turk. VIII
y great nation In such Circumstance,
would not have taken up nrmsY Niue
us we had desired pence. II wns denle
us, and not of our own choice. III
!. flag under which we serve would hay
been %dishonored had we withhold OF
0 hand.
German People Not Enemies.
Z But that IL only part of the stor
We know q rs clearly M we kne
/ before we were ourselves engaged TIT
we are not enemies OF the German pc
pie ana that they arc not our enemle
They did not originate or desire IN
, hideous wal or wish that we should |
drawn into Il; and we are vaguely col
scious that we are fighting their cnus
a rs they viii ON day see II, ns well
, our own. They nre themselves IN u
grip Of the same sinister power tn
; has now NJ last stretched its ugly IA
? ons out and drawn blood from us. n
whole world is In the grip Of that 20,
or and Is trying ont the great bait
n witch shall determine whether It Is
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