Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1917-12-13
President Tells Congress in a
Ringing Address, America
Will Fight to a Finish
PEACE TALK NOW is FOOLISH
Any Settlement With Germany and
Be Worse Than Foolish.


was in the present war to a finish,
and will allow nothing to turn her
aside from the path to victory. He
recommends immediate declaration of
war against Austria but not against
Turkey and Bulgaria.
Following is the address in full:
Gentlemen of the Congress:
Eight months have elapsed since 1
last had the honor of addressing you
They have been months crowded with
events of immense and grave signifi-
canoe for US. 1 shall not undertake to
recall or even to summarize these
events.
1.-The practical particulars of the
part we have played in them will be
laid before you in the reports of the
executive departments. 1 shall dis
cuss only our present outlook upon
these vast affairs, our present duties
and the immediate means of accom-
p1ishing the objects we shall hold al
ways in view.
81 shall not go back to debate the
causes of the war. The intolerable
wrongs done and planned against us
by the sinister masters of Germany
have long since become too grossly
obvious and odious to every true
American to need to be rehearsed.
But l shall ask you to consider again
and with a very grave scrutiny our
detectives and the measures by which
we mean to attain them, for the pur-
pose of discussion here in this place
is action, and our action must move
straight toward definite ends. Our
object is, of course, to win the war;
and we shall not slacken or suffer
ourselves to be diverted until it is
won. But it is worth while asking
and answering the question, when
shall we consider the war won?
From one point of view it is not
necessary to breach this fundamental
matter. do not doubt that the Amer
lean people know what the war is
about and what sort of an outcome
they will regard as a realization of
their purpose in it.
LAS a Nation we are united in spirit
and intention. 1 pay little heed to
those who tell me Otherwise. 1 hear
the voices of dissent-who does notf
/ hear the criticism and the clamor of
the noisy, thoughtless and trouble
some. 1 also see men here and there
fling themselves in impotent disloy-
atty against the calm, indomitable
power of the Nation. 1 hear men de-
bate peace who understand neither its
nature nor the way in which we may
attain it with uplifted eyes and I'M
broken spirits, but / know that none
of these speaks for the Nation. They
do not touch the heart of anything.
They may safely be left to strut their
uneasy hour and be forgotten.
But from another point of view 1
believe that it is necessary to say
plainly what we here at the seat of
action consider the war to be for and
what part we mean to play in the set
Element of its searching issues. We
are spokesman of the American peo-
pie, and they have a right to know
whether their purpose is ours. They
desire peace by the overcoming of
evil, by the defeat once for all of the
sinister forces that interrupt peace
and render it impossible, and they
wish to know how closely our thought
runs with theirs and what action we
propose. They are impatient with
those who desire peace by any sort
of compromise-deeply and Indignant
ly impatient-but they will be equal
1y impatient with US if we do not make
it plain to them what our detectives
are and what we are planning for in
seeking to make conquest of peace by
arms.
The Price of Peace.
I believe that l speak for them
when l say two things: First, that this
intolerable thing of which the mas
tiers of Germany have shown us the
ugly face, this menace of combined
ana 1CTCe WHICH we now see
so clearly as the German power, a
thing without conscience or honor or
capacity for covenanted peace, must
be crushed, and if it be not utterly
brought to an end, at least shut out
from the friendly intercourse of the
nations: and, second, that when this
thing and its power are indeed de-
feated and the time comes that we
can discuss peace-when the German
people have spokesman whose word
we can believe and when those spokes-
men are ready in the name of their
people to accept the common judy
ment of the nations as to what shall
henceforth be the bases of law and
of covenant for the life of the world
we shall be willing and glad to pay
the full price for peace and pay it
ungrudgingly.
We know what that price will be.
It will be full, impartial justice-jus-
tice done at every point and to every
nation the final settlement must at
feet, our enemies as well as our
friends.
A Promise to German People.
You catch, with me, the voices OF
humanity that are in the air. They
grow daily more audible. more articu
late. more persuasive, and they come
from the hearts of man everywhere
They insist that the war shall not end
in vindiotive action of any kind; that
no nation or people shall be robbed OF
punished because the irresponsible