Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1917-06-21
War BATTLE
FOR ZONES
WILSON SAYS
President Tells Plans OF Ger
many and Reviews U. S.
Aims in Flag Day
Speech.
SPIES WORK IN AMERICA
Intrigue of Teuton Government
Pointed Out After Declara-
ton That Insults Forced
the U. S. to Fight.
SPIES WORK IN AMERICA

the v. 3. TO Fight.
Washington, June 14.-Before a great
audience assembled here today for a
Flag day celebration, President Wilson
declared anew the aims and purposes
of the United States in entering the
world war.
No Choice But War.
Standing in the shadow of the great
monument erected to the memory of
George Washington, the president told
slopes that the United States had
entered the war not alone to keep the
world safe for democracy, but also be-
cause h Extraordinary insults and
aggressions of the Imperial German
government left us no choice but to
take up arms in defense of u rights
as a free people and Of our honor as a
sovereign government"
The Stars and Stripes are going to
q strange land. the president said, for
a purpose as old as American traditions.
Woe To Disturbers.
For us there is but one choice"
said the president. w nav made it.
Woe be to the mar or group Of men
that seeks to stand in our way in this
day of high resolution when every
principle we hold dearest is to be vim
Dictated and made secure for the saliva
ton of nations. We are ready to plead
at the bar of history and our flag shall
wear q new luster. Once more we shall
make good with our lives and fortunes
the great faith to which we We're born
and a new glory shall shine in the face
of our people"
President Wilson warned against per-
hitting Germany to end the war now
by an intrigue of peace" while her ag-
gressions were secure.
The president said:
MY fellow citizens: We meet to eel
citrate Flag day because this flag which
we honor. and under which we serve
is the emblem of our unity, our power,
our thought and purpose as a nation.
1t has no other character than that
which we give it from generation to
generation. The choices are ours. IT
floats in majestic silence above the
hosts that execute those choices,
whether 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 if its birth; and from it's birth until
now it has witnessed a great history,
has floated on high the symbol of great
events, of a great plan of life worked
out by a great people. We are about to
carry it into battle, to lift it where it
will draw fire of our enemies. We are
about to bid thousands, hundreds of
thousands. 1t may be millions, of uor
men. the. young, the strong, the capable
men of the nation, to go forth and die
beneath it on fields of blood far away
for What? For some unaccustomed
thing? For something for which it has
never sought the fire before? Ameri-
can armies were never before sent
now? For some new purpose. for
which ~thisSgreat flag has never been
carried before, or for some old, familiar,
heroic purposes for which it has seen
men, it's own men, die on every battle
field upon which Americans have
borne arms since the revolution?
German Insults Force War.
These are questions which must be
answered. We are Americans. We in
our turn serve America. and can serve
her with no private purpose. We must
use her flag as she has always used it.
We are. accountable at the bar of his
tory and must plead in utter frankness
what purpose it is we seek to serve.
ct is plain enough how we were
forced into the war. The extraordinary
insults and agg-essions Of the imperial
German government left us no self re-
specting choice but to take up arms in
defense Of u rights as a free people
and of u honor as a sovereign gov
eminent. The military masters of Ger
AAidAAJ la I'D itS A5l ~ NC A1CoSl dl
They filled our u~nsuspecting communi-
ties with vicious spies and conspira.
tors and sought to corrupt the opinion
of our people in their w behalf
When they found that they could not
do that, their agents diligently spread
sedition amongst us and sought to draw
our w citizens from their allegiance
and some of those agents were mer
connected with the official embassy Of
the German government itself here il
our own capitol. They sought by vic.
lence to- destroy u industries n ar
cite Mexico to take up arms agains'
us and to draw Japan into a hostile
alliance with her-and that, not by in.
direction. but by direct suggestion from
the foreign office in Berlin"
Flag Dishonored by Peace.
They ~impudently denied us the US
of the high seas and repeatedly exc
cuted their threat that they would sen,
to their death any of u people VIII,
ventured to approach the coasts o
Europe. And many of our own peoul
were corrupted. Men began to lool
upon their neighbors with suspicion ant
to wonder in their hot resentment an,
surprise whether there was any com
munity in which hostile intrigue di'
not Turk. What great nation in sucl
circumstances would not have takel
UP arms? Much as we desired peace
it was denied US, and not of our owl
choice. This flag under which W
serve would have been dishonored ha'
we withheld our hand.
But that is only LIT of the story
We know now as clearly as we kney
before we were ourselves engaged tina
we are not the enemies of the Gerrna,
people. and they are not our enemies
They did not originate or desire thi
hideous war or wish that we shout
be drawn into 1t; and we are vaguel
conscious that we are fighting thei
cause, as they will some day see it. a
we'll as our own. They themselves are i
the grip of the same sinister powe
that has now at last stretched its ugl
talons out and drawn blood from u:
The whole w-orld Is at war because tn
whole world is in the grip OF that powe
and is trying out the great battle whic
shall determine whether. 1t is to /
brought under its mastery or fling itse
free.
Wa Forced on World.
..The, war wa begun by the militar
masters OF Germany, who proved to