The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1917-11-02
WHY WE FIGHT.

review of the events that finally forced
us into war, when there remained mo
other means of defending our rights"
The soldier of an autocratic kaiser
may fight best when he understands
least of the true meaning Of the war.
To tell him the facts would be to chill
his enthusiasm. But the citizen sol
der of n democracy is entitled to
know for what purposes he enters the
struggle. He fights best when he sees
most clearly why he fights.
The resolution of congress declaring
a state of war april 6, 1919 ex-
presses the immediate cause in these
few words:
"The imperial German government
has committed repeated acts Of war
against the government and the people
of the United States of America"
Chief among the acts of war were
attacks by German submarines on
American ships and on unarmed mer-
chant ships of other nations carrying
American passengers. vessels OF
every kind" said the president in his
address to congress on April 2, 1917,
whatever their flag, their character
their cargo, their destination, their err
rand, have been ruthessly sent to the
bottom without warning and without
thought of help or mercy for those on
board, the vessels of friendly neutrals
along with those Of belligerents."
There were other acts of hostility In
addition to the submarine warfare. In
his Flag day address delivered at
Washington on June IA, 1917, the pres
ident summed up the events that
brought on war as follows:
1T is plain enough how we were
forced into the war. The eXtraor-
binary insults and aggressions Of the
imperial German government left us
no self-respecting choice but to take
up arms In defense of our rights as
free people and of our honor as a SOW
eregn government. The military
masters of Germany denied us the
right to be neutral. They filled our
unsuspecting communities with vicious
spies and conspirators and sought to
corrupt the opinion of our people in
their own behalf. When they found
that they could not do that, their
agents diligently spread sedition
amongst us and sought to draw our
own citizens from their allegiance
and some of those agents were men
connected with the official embassy of
the German government itself here in
our capital. They sought by violence
| 4 tn ut nd
our commerce. They tried to incite
Mexico to take up arms against us
and to draw Japan into hostile ALI
ance with her-and that, not by indi-
rectiOn, but by suggestion from the
foreign office in Berlin. They impu-
IDENTIFY denied us the use of the high
seas and repeatedly executed their
threat that they would send to their
death any of our people who ventured
to approach the coasts Of Europe"
The record out of which grows our
deep conviction that 1t is necessary at
once to put a curb on so powerful and
INSCRIPTIONS an enemy is set forth in
an official publication "How the War
Came to America"
Judging the German government
now in the light of our honest attempt
to keep the peace, we could see the
great autocracy and read her record
through the war. And we found that
record damnable. With ia
natical faith In the destiny Of German
kultur as the system that must rule
the world, the imperial governments
actions have through years of boast
ing, double dealing, and deceit tended
toward aggression upon the rights of
others. And If there still be any doubt
as to which nation began this war,
there can be no uncertainty as to
which one was most prepared, most
exultant at the chance, and ready in
stantly to march upon other nations
even those who had given no offense.
The wholesale depredations and hide
Gus atrocities In Belgium and In Ser
bia were doubtless part and parcel
with the imperial governments pur-
pose to terrorize small nations into
abject submission for generations to
come. But In this autocracy has been
blind. For its record In those coun-
tries, and In Poland and In northern
France, has given not only to the allies
but to liberal peoples throughout the
world the conviction that this menace
to human liberties must be utterly
shorn of Its power for harm.
"For the evil 1t has effected has
ranged far out Of Europe-out upon
the open seas, where Its submarines
in defiance of law and the concepts of
humanity have blown up neutral ves-
sells and covered the waves with the
dead and the dying, men and women
and children alike.
"All this we know from our own ex-
perience with the imperial govern
ment. AS they have dealt with Eu-
rope, so have they dealt with us and
with all mankind. And so out of
these years the conviction has grown
that until the German nation Is divest. |