The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1917-06-14
LS0NNARlS
CONTINUED from Page u

atinn. It has no other character than
rthat which we giyeit from generation
% generation. The choices are ours.
Itdoats in majestic silence above inc
lIosts that execute those choices
Ighether in. peace or in war. And yet,
Though silent, It speaks to us'-speahs
10 Us OF the past, Of the men anu wv wv
men who went before us and OF tae
ecords they wrote upon It. we ceie-
i,rate the day oflts birth; and from vs.
bifth untfl now 1t has Witnessed a great
|iiIstory. has noated on high the sym.
III Of great events, Of great pian ~, VI
life worked out by great people. we
he about to carry 1t into battle 70 ut
n where It will draw the IRE Oh our
enernies. We are about to bid tnou-
ands. hundreds Of thousands, II may
,e|miilions, Of our men, the young, tle
strong, the capable men OF the nation'
Togo forth and die beneath 1t on neIas
of blood far away,--for what? Nfor
come unaccustomed thing? For some
tlling for which it has never sought tne
fire before? American armies were
never before sent across the seas. why
are they sent now? For some new puF
nose, for which this great flag has nev'
"a been carried before, or for some oIa,
Familiar, heroic purpose for which II
has seen men, Its own men, Ole Oh
every battlefield upon which Amerl'
cans have borne arms since the heVo-'
Tuition?
aThese are questions which must be
Unanswered. We are Americans. Wem
our turn serve America, and can serve
lsher with no private purpose. We must
use her flag as she has always used IT,
We are accountable at the bar OF MIS-
ltory and must plead in utter fTanKneSs
what purpose it is we seek to serve
at is plain enough how we were
forced into the war. The extraordl'
nary insults and aggressions of the III
!. y nerial German government left us no
Z selE.respecting choice but to take up
arms in defense Of our rights as a Tree
sneople and Of our honor as a sovereign
government. The military masters OF
Germany denied us the right TO De
neutral. They filled our unsuspectlhg
communities with vicious spies anu
conspirators and sought tc corrupt the
opinion Of our people in their own De-
half. When they found that they could
not do that, their agents diligently
spread sedition amongst us and sought
IL draw our own citizens from their 81
legiance-and some Of those agents
:wero men connected with the Official
embassy Of the German government IT.
self here in our own capital. They
sought by violence to destroy our IN
dustries and arrest our commerce.
they tried to incite Mexico to take up
arms against us and to draw Japan
into hostile alliance with her,-and
that, not by indirection, but by direct
suggestion from the foreign office in
Berlin. They impudently denied US
the use of the high seas and repeatedly
executed their threats that they would
send to their death any of our people
who ventured to approach the coasts OF
Europe. And many of our own people
were corrupted. Men began to look
upon their own neighbors with sus-
:, picicn and to wonder in their hot re-
sentiment and surprise whether there
was any. communication in which hos
tile intrigue did not Turk What great
nation in such circumstances would
not have taken up arms Much as We
had desired peace, it was denied us,
and not Of our own choice. This flag
under which we serve would have been
dishonored had we withheld our hand.
''But that is only part of the story.
we know now as clearly as we knew
before we were ourselves engaged that
we are not the enemies Of the German
people and that they are not our enc
mics. They did not originate or desire
this hideous war or wish that We
should be drawn into it; and we are
vaguely conscious that we are fighting
their cause, as they will some day sec
it, as well as our own. They are them
selves in the grip Of the same sinister
power that has now at last stretched
its ugly talons out and drawn blood
from US. The whole world Is at war
because the whole world is in the grip
of that power and is trying out the
great battle which shall determine
whether It Is to be brought under Its
mastery or fling itself free.
"The war was begun by tho military
masters of Germany, who proved to
be also the masters of Austrla-Hun-
gary. These men have never regarded
nations as peoples, men, women and
children Of like blood and frame as
themselves, for whom governments ex-
listed and in whom governments had
their life. They have regarded them
merely as serviceable organizations
which they could by force or intrigue
bend Or corrupt to their own purpose.
They have regarded the smaller state,
in particular, and the peoples who
could be overwhelmed by force, as
their natural tools and instruments OF
domination. Their purpose has long
been avowed. The statesmen Of other
nations, to whom that purpose was In
credible, paid little attention; regard
ed what German professors expounded
IN their class rooms and German writ
ers set forth to the world as the goal
Of German policy as rather the dream
Of minds detached from practical az
fairs, as preposterous private conceD'
tons Of German destiny, than as the
actual plans Of responsible rulers; but
the rulers Of Germany themselves
know all the while What concrete plans,
what well advanced intrigues lay back
Of what the professors and the writerS
were saying, and were glad to 90 for
ward unmolested, filling the thrones Of