Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1917-03-09

purpose or desire, to more active as
seytion Of our rights as we see them
and more immediate association with
the great struggle itself. But nothing
will alter our thought or our purpose.
They are too. clear to be obscured.
They are too deeply rooted in the prin.
ciples of our national life to be alter.
ed. We desire neither conquest nor
advantage. We wish nothing that can
be had only at the cost of another PEG.
pie. We have always professed un.
selfish purpose anu we covet the oppor.
tunity to prove that our professions
are sincere.
Are Citizens Of tho World
There are many things still to do at
home, to clarity our own politics and
give new vitality to the industrial pro.
cesses of our own life, and we shall
do them as time and opportunity serve;
but we realize that the greatest things
tha* remain to be done must be done
with the whole world for stage and in
cooperation with the wide universal
forces Of mankind, and we are making
our spirits ready for those things.
They will follow in the immediate
wake of the war itself and will set
civilization up again. We are provin.
Gals 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 a nation are involved
whether we would have it so or not.
And yet we are not the less Ameri-
cans on that account. We shall be
the more American if we but remain
true to the principles in which we
have been bred. They are not the
principles of a province or of a sin
gle continent. We have known and
boasted all along that they were the
principles Of a liberated mankind.
These, therefore, are the things we
shall stand for, whether in war or in
peace.
What Americans stand For
:, That all nations are equally interest.
ed in the peace of the world and in the
political stability of free peoples, and
equal responsibility for their mainte-
nance.
That the essential principle of peace
is the actual equality Of nations in all
matters of right or privilege.
= That peace cannot securely or justly
rest upon an armed balance of power.
That governments derive all their
just powers from the consent of the
governed and that no other powers
should be supported by the common
thought, purpose or power Of the fam
lily Of nations.
That the seas should be equally free
and safe for the use of all peoples, un-
der rules set up by common agreement
and consent, and tlat, so lar as prac-
ticable, they should be accessible to
all upon equal terms.
limited to the necessities of national
order and domestic safety.
That the community Of interest and
of power upon which peace must hence.
forth depend imposes upon each ma
ton the duty of seeing to it that all
influences proceeding from it's own ci-
tizens meant to encourage or assist
revolution in other states should be
sternly and efectually suppressed and
prevented.
All Stand on One Platform
I need not argue these principles to
you, my fellow countrymen; they are
your own, part and parcel of your
thinking and your own motive in af-
Fairs. They spring up native amongst
us. Upon this platform of purpose
and Of action we can stand together.
And it is imperative that we should
stand together. We are being forged
into a new unity amidst the fires that
now blaze throughout the world. In
their ardent heat we shall, in God g
providence, let us hope, be purged Of
faction and division, purified Of the
Grant humors Of party and private in
terest, and shall stand forth in the
days to come with a new dignity of
national pride and spirit. Let each
man see to it that the dedication is in
his own heart, the highest purpose of
the nation in his own mind, ruler of
his own will and desire.
Unity for America
I stand here and have taken the
high and solemn oath to which you
have been audience because the people
of the United States have chosen me
for this august delegation Of power
and have by their gracious dgment
named me their leader in affairs. I
know now what the task means. I
realize to the full the responsibility
when it involves. I pray God may
be given the wisdom and prudence to
do my duty in the true spirit Of this
great people. I am their servant and
can succeed only as they sustain and
Guide me By their confidence and their
counsel. The thing I shall count upon,
the thing without which neither coun-
sci nor action will avail, is the unity
of America-an America united in
feeling, in purpose and in vision of
duty, Of opportunity and Of service:
We are to beware of all men who would
turn the task and the necessities OF
the nation to their own private profit
or use them for the building up Of
private power: beware that no faction
or disloyal intrigue break the harmony
or embarrass the spirit of our people;
beware that our government be kept
pure and incorrupt-in all its parts.
United in the conception Of our duty
and in the high resolve to perform it
in the face Of all men, let us dedicate
ourselves to the great task to which
we must set our hand. For myself I