The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-03-08


Limit Armaments.
shington-PresiGen Wilson's in
augural address was an appeal for a
unified nation, a declaration of the
principles which he declared were
bred in US and avowal of our desire
for peace, but also our determination
to maintain our national honor at any
cost.
He reviewed briefly but eloquently
the past four years and declaring thai
he realized the responsibilities tc
which he had been called by the
American people for the next foul
years, invoked the blessings OF God
and His aid in meeting them.
The address OF the president fol
lows:
My fellow citizens:
The four years which have elapsed
since last l stood in this place have
been crowded with counsel and action
of the most vital interest and conse
quence. Perhaps no equal period in
our history has been so fruitful of i'm
portant reforms in our economic and
industrial life or so full OF significant
changes in the spirit and purpose OF
our political action.
I'VE have sought very thoughtfully
TO set our house in order, correct the
grosser errors and abuses OF our in
dIstrial life, liberate and quicken the
processes OF our national genius and
energy and lift our politics to broad
er view of the peoples essential in
terests.
st is record Of singular vitality
and singular distinction. But l shall
not attempt to review it. Ii speaks
for itself and will be Of increasing in
fuence as the years go by.
This is not the time for retrospect
1t is time, rather to speak our thoughts
and purposes concerning the presen;
and the immediate future.
although We have centered counsel
and action with such unusual conceu-
tration and success upon the great
problems of domestic legislation tC
which we addressed ourselves fUu.
years ago, other matters have more
and more forced themselves upon our
attention, matters lying outside of our
life as a nation and over which We
had no control, but which, despite our
wish to keep free of them, have drawn
US more and more irresisubly into
their own current and influence.
1T has been impossible to avoid
them. They have affected the life OF
the whole world. They have shaken
men everywhere with passion and
an apprehension they never knew be
fore. 1t has been hard to preserve
calm counsel while the thought OF our
own people swayed this way and that
under their influence.
1--WE are d composite and cosmopoli-
IAN people. We are of the blood of all
he nations that are at war. The cur
'nts OF our thoughts as well as the
rents of cur trade run quick at all
ons back and forth between Us
them.
war inevitably set its mark
3e first alike upon our minds,
lstries, our commerce, our
nd our social action.
Indifferent to it or indie
it was out of the question.
I the while We have been
hat we were not part OF it.
nat consciousness, despite
any divisions we have drawn closer
together. We have been deeply
wronged upon the seas, but we have
not wished to wrong or injure in re-
turn; have retained throughout the
consciousness of standing in some
sort apart intent upon an interest
that transcribed the immediate is
sues Of the war itself.
"As some of the injuries done US
have become intOlerabla we have still
been clear that we wished nothing for
ourselves that we were not ready to
demand for all mankind-fair dealing,
justice, the freedom to live and be at
ease against organized wrong.
at is in this spirit and with this
thought that we have grown more and
more aware more and more certain
that the part We wished to play was
the part of those who mean to vindi-
cate and fortify peace.
eve have been obliged to arm our
selves to make good our claim to a
certain minimum Of right and of free
dom of action. We stand firm in armed
neutrality, since it seems that in no
other way be can demonstrate what
it is we insist upon and cannot forego.
eve may even be drawn on, by cir
cumstances, not by our own purpose
or desire, to a more active assertion
of our rights as We see them and a
more immediate association with the
great struggle itself.
But nothing will alter our thought
Or our purpose. They are too clear to
be obscured. They are too deeply
looted in the principles of our nation
life to be altered.
We desire neither conquest nor ad-
age. We wish nothing that can
ad only at the cost of another