Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-06-15
VICTORY BY KAISER
WOULD MAKE WORLD
UNSAFE, SAYS WILSON
Thousands Hear Americas
President Speak at Flag Day
Exercises Great Flag Hoist
ed at Washington Monument


flag day address on the Washington
/ monument ground today that Ger
many has carried into effect the greater
/ part Of her immediate plan of conquest
/ and now is negotiating a new intrigue
OF peace designed to end the war while
/ her aggressIOns are secure.
/ All the central empires, the president
/ declared, have been cemented into one
great autocracy-Idden empire, Throw
ing broad belt of German military
power and political control across the
/ very center OF Europe and beyond the
Mediterranean into the heart of Asiar.
/ This accomplished, he said, it is easy
to understand why Germany is fostering
a propaganda for an early peace.
/ Peace, peace, peace, has been the talk
! Of her foreign office for now a year and
more" said the president "A little of
the talk has been public, but most of II
has been private. Through all sorts of
channels 1t has come to me and in all
sorts of guiseS. The military masters
under whom Germany is bleeding see
! very clearly to what point fate has
| brought them. If they can secure peace
now, with the immense advantages stiI1
| In their hands. which they have up to
this point apparently gained, they will
have Justified themselves before the
German people; they will have gained
l by force what they promised to gain by
it,"
The president recited again the Ger
| man aggressions which drove the United
| states TO war. He declared the purposes
! Tor which American soldiers now carry
| the Stars and Stripes to Europe for the
| nrst time in history, are not new to
| American traditions because realization
! OF Germany's war aims must eventuaIIy
| mean the undoing of the whole world.
Secretary Lansingk presided
Many in the audience recalled that
standing in the same spot one year ago
! today, before war seemed so imminent
the president uttered defiance of foreign
citizens political activity in the United
| States. in these words:
There is. disloyalty active in the
( United States and it must be absolutely
crushed. . d" 2" There are those at this
moment who are trying to levy a species
| of political blackmail, saying do what
/ we wish in the interest of foreign SEN
! timent we will wreak our vengeance
! at the polls That is the sort of thing
against which the American nation will
turn with might and triumph of sem
/ timent which will teach these gentlemen
once and for all that loyalty to this flag
is the first test of tolerance in the
United States"
The United States marine band played
patriotic airs and a chorus of 500 voices
organized among government clerks,
sang. Most persons carried small Ameri-
can flags, and as the band played the
Star Spangled Banner. a big flag was
hoisted to the top of the monument.
The presidents speech in full follows:
My fellow citizens: We meet to
celebrate Flag day because this flag
which honor and under which
we serve is the emblem of our unity,
our power, our thought and pur-
pose as nation. 1t has no other
character than that which We give
it from generation to generation.
We celebrate the day of its birth.
and from it's birth until now 1T has
Witnessed great history; has float
ed on high the symbol of great
events, of great plan of life work.
ed out by a great people We are
about to carry it into battle, to lift
IL where Ii will draw the fire of our
enemies.
We are about to bid thousands.
hundreds of thousands, il may be
millions. of our men, the young.
the strong, the capable men of the
nation, to go forth and die beneath
1t on fields of blood far away
for what? For some unaccuStomed
thing? For something for which
Il has never sought the fire before7
American armies were never before
sent now? For some new purpose.
for which this great flag has never
been carried before, or for some old. z
familiar, heroic purpose for which
1t has seen men, its own men, die
on every battlefield upon which
Americans have borne arms since
the Revolution?
These are question which must
be answered
U. 8. LEFT NO CHOICE
BUT TO TAKE UP ARMS.
1t is plain enough how we were
forced into the war. The extra
ordinary insults and aggression Of
the imperial German government
left us no self-respecting choice but
to take up arms in defense of our
rights as a free people and of our
honor as a sovereign government.
The military masters of Germany
denied US the right to be neutral
They filled our unsuspecting COM
munities with vicious spies and con-
spirators and sought to corrupt the
opinion of our people in their own
behalf When they found that they
could not do that, their agents
diligently spread sedition amongst
US and sought to draw our own citi-
zens from their aIlegiance-and
some of these agents were men con-
nected with the official embassy of
the German government itself
here in our capital.
They sought by violence to de-
stroy our Industries and arrest our
commerce. They tried to incite
Mexico to take up arms against us
and to draw Japan into hostile al
lance with her-and that, not by in
direction, but by direct suggestion
from the foreign office in Berlin.
They impudently denied us the use
of the high seas and repeatedly ex-
ecuted their threat that they would
send to their death any of our peo-
pie who ventured to approach the
coast of Europe. : What
great nation in such circumstances
would not have taken up arms?
Continued on Page Q, Col. -