Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-06-14
CERMANY'S ACTS
TOWARD AMERICA
HELD UP TO LIGHT
Denied Us the Use Of the Seas,
and Tried to Ilcite Nations
Against Us
FILLED LAND WITH SPIES
AND SPREAD SEDTTION
Now Using Hungary,
But In the Outcome Pans
to Destroy Her

Washington, June 14.-America is at
war in defense of our rights as free
people and of our honor as a sovereign
government.
President Wilson this afternoon thus
stated why America is fighting in a
speech solemnly vibrant with warning
of the blood and suffering the country
must endure, but deep with the convic
tion that the nation fights for the right
The president 5 address was a recon.
secration of Flag day. 1t was a speech
that stung in the bitterness Of his ar
raignment of Germany-not of the Ger
man people, but of Germany's autocrats.
He pictured Germany's "military mas
ters" in sinister plot for years of in
cubation reaching out, corrupting, in
triguing, scheming to deceive their own
people and master the people and pow
er of other small nations to throw a
broad belt Of German military power
and political control across the very
center Of Europe and beyond the Medi-
terranean into the heart OF Asia. /"
The president named Austria Hungary
as the dupe Of Germany IS "autocrats;"
Bulgaria and Turkey, their catspaws..
He earnestly inveighed any considera-
ton of alleged German peace feelers
put out now by these who, having set
their net and reached the zenith of their
domination, now see their power slip
ping and their sinister plans about to
come to naught. Likewise, he bitterly
assailed German propagandists in the
United States who are seeking by in
sidious means to undermine the nation
here at home.
America, the president said, wars for
the first time across the seas because
the principles for which she now fights
are exactly those for which she has
waged every other victorious war in her
history and because she was forced to
fight nin defense of our rights as free
people and Of our honor as sovereign
government"
"For us there is but one choice" the
president solmenly concluded. ."We have
made it. Woe to the man or group OF
men that seeks to stand in our way in
this day of high resolution when every
we hold dearest is to be vindi-
Gated and made secure for the salvation
of the nations. We are ready to plead
at the bar OF history and our flag shall
wear a new lustre. Once more We shall
make good with our lives and fortunes
the great faith to which we were born
and a new glory shall shine in the face
of our people"
A Bitter Arraignment.
The president said:
"My Fellow Citizens: We meet to
celebrate Flag day because this flag
which we honor and under which we
serve is the emblem Of unity, our power,
our thought and purpose as nation.
It has no other character than that
which we give it from generation to
The choices are ours. 1t
floats in majestic silence above the |
bosts that execute these choices, wheth- |
er in peace or in war. And yet, though |
silent, it speaks to us-speaks to us
Of the past, OF the men and women who
went before us and Of the records they |
wrote upon it. We celebrate the day of
its birth and from its birth until now
It has witnessed great history. 1t has
floated on high in symbol of great
events, of the great plan of life worked
,ut by a great people. We are about to
larry it into battle, to lift it where Il
will draw the fire of our enemies. We
ire about to hid thousands, hundreds of
it may be millions Of our
men, the young, the strong, the capable
nen Of the nation, to go forth and die
beneath it in fields Of blood far away
'or whatf For some unaecustomed
hings For something for which it has
never sought the fire befores Amer
can armies were never before sent
across the sea. Why are they sent nowf
For some new purpose, for which this
zreat flag has never been carried be-
'dre, or for some old, familiar, heroic
purpose, for which it has seen men, its
,wn men, die on every battle field on
which Americans have borne arms since
he revolution2
Were Left No Choice.
"These are questions which must be
answered. We are Americans. We in
,ur turn serve America and can serve
her with no private purpose. We must
1se her flag as she has always used II.
We are accountable at the bar Of his
Tory and must plead in utter frankncss