The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1917-03-07
WILSON WARNS
Of i. s. PERIL
President in inaugural Address
Demands Free Seas.
FIRM FOR JUSTICE TO ALL
Principle of Peace Found Only in
Equality of All PeopIes-Govern-
ments Derive Power From
Consent of the Governed.

| lows:
MY Fellow Citizens: The four
| years which have elapsed since last
| stood in this place have been crowded
| with counsel and action of the most
| vital interest and consequence. Per.
haps no equal period in our history
has been so fruitful of important re.
| forms 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.
| dustrial life, liberate and quicken the
processes of our politics to a broader
view of the peoples essential inter
ests. 1t is a record of singular dis
tinction. But / shall not attempt to
review it. 1t speaks for itself and will
be Of increasing influence as the years
go by.
This is not the time for retrospect
1t is time, rather, to speak our
thoughts and purposes concerning the
| present and the immediate future.
Drawn From Domestic Issues.
Although we have conferred coun.
sci and action with such unusual con-
centratiOn and success upon the great
problems of domestic legislation to
which we addressed ourselves four
years ago, other matters have more
attention, matters lying outside our
own 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 irreSistibly
into their own current and influence.
at has been impossible to avoid
them. They have affected the life OF
the whole world. They have shaken
men everywhere with a passion and an
apprehension they never knew before.
1t has been hard to preserve calm
counsel while the thought of our own
people sWayed this way ana that I'M
der their influence. We are a COM
posite and cosmopolitan people. We
are of the blood of all the nations that
are at war. The currents of our trade
run quick at all seasons back and forth
between us and them. The war
inevitably set it's mark from the first
alike upon our minds, our industries,
our commerce, our politics and our So
cial action. To be Indifferent to it or
Independent of it was out of the queS-
ton.
u. S. Not a Part of the War.
"And yet all the while we have been
conscious that we were not part of it.
In that consciousness, despite many
divisions, we have drawn closer to-
gether. We have been deeply wronged
upon the seas, but we have not wished
to wrong or injure in return we have
retained throughout the consciousness
of standing in some sort apart, intent
upon an interest that transcribed the
immediate issues of the war itself. AS
some of the injuries done us have be-
Cane intolerable we have still been
clear that we wished nothing for our
selves that we were not ready to de
mand for all mankind: fair dealing, JUS
tice, the freedom to live and be safe
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. We have been
obliged to arm ourselves to make good
our claim to a certain minimum of
right and of freedom of action. We
stand firm in armed neutrality since
it seems that in no other way we can
demonstrate what it is we insist upon
and cannot fOregO. We may even be
drawn on, by circumstances, not by our
own purpose or desire, to a more ac-
tive assertion of our rights as we see
them and q more immediate asSoca-
ton with the great struggle itself. But
nothing will alter our thought or our
| purpose. They are too clear to be OBJ
scured. They are too deeply rooted in
the principles of our national life to
oe altered. We desire neither con-
quest nor advantage. We wish moth
ing that can be had only at the cost of
| another people. We have always pro-
| fessed unself1sh purpose and we covet
the opportunity to prove that our pro-
| LESSONS are sincere.
Americans ProvinciaIs No Longer.
There are many things still to do
| at home, to clarity our own politics
and give new vitality to the industrial
| processes of our own life, and we shall
| do them as time and opportunity
serve; but we realize that the greatest
| things that remain to be done must be
| done with the whole world for stage
and in cooperation with the wide and
universal forces of mankind and we
are making our spirits ready for those
| things. They will follow in the i'm
| mediate wake of the war itself and will
| set civilization up again. We are pro-
vincials no longer. The tragical
events of the thirty months of vital
| turmoil through which we have just
| passed have made us citizens of the
world. There can be no turning back
| Our own fortunes as nation are In
Ancient Huguenot Privilege.
The French Protestants, who have
sent a deputation TO England TO ap
| peal for help il rebuilding their
| ruined churches in the war area, en-
/ Tow a a,,riouc nriviIpro in CONNECT; or