The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-04-19

cur LOT moment TO the TACT that
more than 500 of our citizens, men
and women, have been assaulted, raw
Jagged, murdered, or assassinated with
In the very sight of the flag, within
the call of the Stars and Stripes, and
within hearing distance of our own
border? We have submitted in pa
thence. few years ago we went to
war with that same country for ter
iitory Shall we now be charged with
impatience if We serve notice now.
when our citizens have been slain,
| hat when the challenge comes or the
| light is invaded the American repub-
ic will protect it's own?
Different Policy Needed.
! Our commerce has been destroyed:
our ships have been driven from the
ocean, our people have been drowned
or left to perish upon the midnight
| sea. What more could a people do to
evidence to the world their desire for
peace than to do what this nation has
done for the last few years? re-
] eat that, whatever may be said in
justification of the course which has
been pursued in the past, ii must be
evident to every mind that a different
policy is not only essential to the
protection of our people but is of it
self the best guaranty Of peace.
Under the condition in which the
SIfn i.,
hope for protection for ourselves un.
less we give evidence of our in
tention to protect, and, secondly, our
determination and our capacity to
protect. Indecision and timidity un-
der these conditions are invitations to
aggression, invitations to further loss
OF life. Therefore, Mr.. President, be-
ievng, as l do, that the first and
primary obligation of government is
to protect its own and to give absolute
guaranty to those who owe it allie
glance, l can not vote against a reso-
luton which commits this govern
ment to no other proposition than
warning against those who war
against us, to using force against
us. Further than that, this resolution
does not go.
Mr.. President, there is one feature
If this matter which / can not in can
cor pass over without single word
This is not the time to discuss Incl
dental questions or irrelevant ques-
tons; and yet some things have been
said in connection with this situation
in the presidents message and by SEN
ators, which warrant me in the state
ment that in voting for this resolution
it must be understood that ] do not
even tacitly indorse some of the pro-
positions with reference to the man
ner in which this war is to be carried
on. Those matters will reach us
hereafter, at later day of the con-
gress, and then it will be my privilege
absolutely disembarrassed by this
vote, to deal with them as in my
judgment I should.
But One Sufficient Reason.
Suffice it to say now that there
can, to my mind, be but one sufficient
reason for committing this country to
war, and that is the honor and secrr-
ity of our own people and our own
nation. | have no more right, be-
cause, Of my personal sympathy for
other nations, to plunge my country
into war than | would have, out of
malice toward some other power to
send them to slaughter. / hold fast
and firmly to the doctrine that our
own national security, our own ma
tional honor, the rights of our own
people, and the lives of our own citi-
zens are alone, when challenged and
assailed, sufficient to justify me in
voting for a declaration of war !
join no crusade; / seek or accept no
alliances; I obligate this government
to no other power. | make war alone
for my countrymen and their rights,
for my country and its honor.
Mr.. President there is one class of
people in the United States to whom
my heart goes out in special sympa-
thy tonight, and that Is the great class
of citizens of German extraction scat
tered throughout the United States.
They will receive many a wound from
ll-judged words during this unfor-
.tunate situation; and yet, in my judg-
ment, SO per cent Of those citizens
born in Germany, or whose parents
may have been born in Germany, will
be perfectly loyal to this country dur
ing the entire conflict. l doubt them
not at all; I trust them fully, along
with all our people.
1T was natural, it was human, in
deed it would have been inhuman in
them had they not sympathized with
the fatherland during the contest be-
tween that country and other powers;
but when the tocsin of war shall
sound in this country and the presi-
dent of the United States calls for as
sistance from the citizens of this
country, in my judgment they will not
only demonstrate their loyalty as citi-
Zens in civil life but in the most con-
elusive way in which it is within the
power of man to demonstrate his 10y
alty-upon the field of battle. Let us
be very careful not to challenge the
lcitizauship and tho LOYALTY of tboco