Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-04-05
Says United States Must A. I in Bringing German
Government to Terms, but Would Not Involve
Others of Central Powers.
WANTS AN ARMY OF 4 MILLION MEN
Recommends Adoption of Universal Military Service Cooperation
With Entente Allies Granting OF Liberal Financial Credits
and Use of Navy in De stroyng Submarines.

IIOuS VI iuOuefn history, DeeQ QGeIueu
innocent and legitimate. Property can
be paid for; the lives of peaceful and
innocent people cannot be.
The present German submarine
warfare against commerce is a war
fare against mankind. 1t is a war
against all nations. American ships
have been sunk, American lives taken,
in ways which it has stirred US deeply
to learn of, but the ships and people
of other neutral and friendly nations
have been sunk and overwhelmed in
the waters in the same way. There
has been no discrimination. The chal-
lenge is to all mankind. Each nation
must decide for itself how it will meet
ii.
The choice we make for ourselves
must be made with a moderation of
counsel and 9 temperance of judgment
BETTING our character and our mo-
tives as nation. We must put ex-
cited feeling away. Our move will not
be revenge or the victorious aSser-
ton of the physical might of the ma
ton, but only the Yindication of right.
of human right, of which we are only
single champion.
could Never Be Friend"
One of the things that has served
to convince me that the Prussian au-
tOcracy was not and could never be
our friend is that from the very out
set of the present war it has filed our
our offices of government with spies
and set criminal intrigues everywhere
afOOt against our national unity of
counsel, our peace within and without,
our industries and our commerce.
Indeed 1t is now evident that its
spies were here even before the war
began. and it is unhappily not mat
7 ter of conjecture. but q fact proved
in our courts Of justice, that the in
trigues which have more than once
come perflOuSly near to disturbing the
peace and dislOcating the industries
of the country have been carried on
at the instigatiOn, with the special.
and even under the personal direction
of official agents of the imperial gov
eminent accredited to the government
Of the United States.
Even in checking these things and
trying to extirpate them we have
sought to put the most generous in
depreciation possible upon them be-
cause we knew that their source lay
not in any hostile feeling or purpose
of the German people toward us (whO
were no doubt as ignorant of them
as we ourselves were), but only in
the selfish designs of a government
that did what it pleased and told its
people nothing.
Makes Purpose Clear.
while we do these things, these
deeply mOmentOus things. let us be
very clear and make very clear TO all
the world what our motives and our
objects are. My own thought has not
been driven from its habitual and nor
NAL course by the unhappy events Of
the last two months: and | do not be-
lieve that the thought of the nation
has been altered or cl0uded by them.
II have exactly the same things in
L
addressed the senate on the 22d of
January last; the same that I had in
mind when l addressed the congress
or the Sd of February and on the 26th
of February. Our object now, as then,
is to vindicate the principles of peace
and the justice in the life of the world
aS against selfish and autOcratic pow
or and to set up among the really free
and self-governed peoples Of the world
such a concert of purpose and of &C.
ton as will henceforth insure the OBJ
Servance Of those principles.
Neutrality Not Feasible.
Neutrality is no longer feasible or
desirable where the peace of the world
is involved and thes freedom of its
peoples and the menace to that peace
and freedom lies in the existence of au-
tocratic governments backed by organ
lied force which is controlled wholly
by their will, not by the will of their
people. We have seen the last of neu-
trality in such circumstances.
We are at the beginning of an age
in which it will be insisted that the
same standards of conduct and of re-
sponsibility for wrong done shall be OBJ
served among nations and their gov
ernments that are observed among the
individual citizens of civilized states.
No Quarrel With People.
We have no quarrel with the German
people. We have no feeling toward
them but one of sympathy and friend
ship. 1t was not upon their impulse
that their government acted in enter
ing this war. 1t was not with their
previous knowledge or approval
1t was war determined upon as wars
used to be determined on in the old,
unhappy days when peoples were no.
where consulted by their rulers and
wars We're provoked and waged in the
interest of dynastieS or of little groups
Of ambitious men who were accustomed
to use their fellow-men as pawns and
TOOLS
Self-goyerned nations do not fill
their neighbOr states with spies or set
the course of intrigue to bring about
some critical posture of affairs which
will give them an opportunity TO strike
and make conquest. Such designs can
be successfully worked only under
cover. and where no one has the right