The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-06-14
ROOSEVELT
PLEADS FOR
AMERICANISM
Denounces Pacifists In Flag
Day Speech At Lin
coin
ARE THE MODERN
COPPERHEADs
Asks for Generous Support
For The Red Cross
Society -.-> ,


Lincoln, Neb., June II. Colonel
Theodore Roosevelt, in a speech which
he delivered here today at the celebra-
ton Of the semi centennial of the
statehood of Nebraska, criticized the
national policy of the United States
for failure to protest promptly against
German ruthlessness and brutality, de-
plored national failure to prepare for
the war; pleaded for undivided loyalty
to the American flag. denounced the
pacihsts, and asked for generous sup
port and for the use of the Red Cross
in caring for American troops on Euro
pean battlefields.
I'VE permitted our national policy"
he said, ito be swayed by the national
.devotions and national antipathies OF
men who exercised the rights of Am
eriean citizens but showed themselves
traitors to America by the way in
which they prostituted our citizenship
to the interests of Germany or to their
hatred of England.
Modern coppsrhsads.
1T would be impossible to overstate
the damage done to the moral fibre
of our country by the professional
z pacifist propaganda, the peaee-at-
any price propaganda. The profess
sional pacifists during the first two and
a half years of the war; have occupied
q precisely the position of the copper
heads during the time of Abraham
Lincoln.
The fact that sheer cowardice was
more potent than the love of peace was
proved by the fact that the leading
pacifists dared not condemn a single
specific act of wrong doing when such
act was committed by the powerful
and brutal foe they most feared-Ger-
many. They clamored for neutrality
between Germany and Belgium. They
denounced war in language which re-
hected as heavily on the fathers who
were defending their wives and daugh-
ters from outrage as upon the agrees
sors who systematically practiced rape
and torture. BY their failure to pro-
test against the inhuman torture of
the poison gas they made it necessary
hereafter to accept this as an ordin-
airy instrument of warfare; just as, by
our failure to take immediate action
in connection with the murder Of
innocent non-combatants by sub
against humanity, the effects of which
cannot be completely eradicated by any
subsequent action on our part.
All this meanness and abandonment
of duty was championed by the pro-
fessional pacifists on the plea that
thereby We should be kept out Of war.
And by their political pressure, they
us utterly unprepared, on the ground
that preparedness invited war; their
motto was, Safety first not duty
first. They cared nothing for
righteousness. They cared nothing
for humanity. They cared nothing for
our national honor or interest. All
they asked was a peace that would
permit uH TO get all four feet in the
trough while We strove to distract
attention from the squalid baseness of
our matelialism by the shrill clamor
of a sham -sentimentality.
And nevertheless we have not been
kept out of war Our avoidance of
duty simply invited such cumulative
repetition of insult and injury that
finally war was forced on us. 1t mere
ly resulted in our drifting into war
stern foremost in a condition Of such
complete unTeadiness that we owe an
ignoble safety exclusively to the pro-
lection of the exhausted nations to
whose help we have announced that
We intend to come.
Absolute America nism.
From this time on let us insist on
an absolute and undivided American
ism in this land, untempered by any
self allegiance to the countries from
which our ancestors may severally
have sprung, and untainted by any I'M
worthy national animosity towards any
other country. Let US prepare our
selves spiritually, economically, and in
all military and naval matters-includ-
ing as a permanent policy the policy