Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1917-10-17
SENATOR KENYON
DELIVERS ADDRESS
Continued from Page ~


+, 1t is this doctrine Of the Divine right
remedy for war; l would like to see
1t tried some time, and that is, when
kings and emperors and cars plunge
their nation into war without just
cause not for the vindication of the
honor of the nation, to repel invasion
and matters of that, kind, when they
do it for conquest, for territory, set
ting aside treaties as scraps of pa
per when they do it to satisfy their
own ambitions, Iwould like to see this
little remedy tried. Let every king
and czar and emperor and duke and
dukine go into the first battle on the
fighting line, and he would not have
any war. l haven't seen anything
about the kaiser and his sons getting
very close to gunpowder. He tells men
togo out and die for him; what grand
privilege. Why don't he go out and
die for himself? How did we get in
to this thing now? tell you, 1t is a
pretty solemn chain of circumstances
that got us into this. We were going
towards peace. In 1914, think 1t was
Mr.. Bryan had assured peace treaties
with fourteen nations of the world.
do not know what you think about
Mr.. Bryan. I voted for him for presi-
dent when was boy. and
= do not know ut what we
will be voting for him for
! hope we won't have to vote for him
very soon for president, because |
think so much of him and he is such
a splendid citizen of the world and
this country, you know l would have
a terrible job keeping my republican
ism straight if Bryan ever run for
president again. / hope he never will,
but if there ever was a clean, honor
able, upright citizen in this republic
devoted to the best things of human
hy-it may be that God could have
made a better man in public life than
William Jennings Bryan, but he never
did. When he got down to Washing
ton he found the custom of loading up
foreign diplomats with wine and
champagne; he said am going to
feed these distinguished gentlemen on
grape juice; if they don't like it they
can take their baggage and go home
That took lot of courage to- over
come those customs that had Teen go
ing on at Washington in those years.
1t was great work. Bryan was the
Kind of citizen who did not want war.
He wanted to keep out of this war, but
when he got into it you never heard
peep from him, and you never knew
a better citizen.
That was one of the ways we were
geing towards peace. This nation
of ours had stood for three things.
I do not want some of you republican
friends of mine to get mad at what
say about Bryan. We had stood Tor
three things as a nation. The Mon
roe Doctrine settling the disputes
by arbitration and the freedom OF the
seas. We had written to the lmper-
ial government some OF these propo-
sitions. That was never agreed to
however, by Great Britain or Germany.
What would become of our Monroe
Doctrine # Germany conquered Eng
land and France and took Canada!
We had stood for the freedom OF the
seas. Nobody owns the seas; the
earth is the Lords and the fulness
thereof" but the kaiser concluded
that while the earth was the Lords
tie sea was his, and we are teaching
him differently in this struggle. Close
w the seas and where is the American
farmer? Close up the seas and where
Is the American business man? You
have ruined this country. We cant
stand for those kind of doctrines. We
taught the pirates what this meant
the freedom Of the seas. Those doc
trines stood up in the political life OF
our nation from Monroe to the present
moment. They were all involved In
this contest, and in the midst OF all
of this, in the midst Of our mainten-
ance in the Hague for these great
principles of international law, this
war came upon the world like clap
of thunder out of clear sky. The
president beseached everyone to be
neutral; we tried to be. 1t was diff
cult. The Belgian ravishments, the
ill-treatment of those people, the des-
tructiOn of treaties as mere scraps OF
paper, aroused our people. The visit
Of the Belgian commission to this
country still further added fuel to the
flame, and so it went on, and then the
Lusitania was sunk. All, my friends,
the old German culture of Schiller and
Goethe, the German culture OF art
and science and music and painting,
they had given away to new German
culture which was shown in the bar
arous sinking of the Lusitania. Wo-
men and children went down to
watery grave without chance for
their lives, in violation of the princi-
ples of international law, but we pass
ed that by; we still tried to keep out
of war. Then came little later the
kaiser's peace terms; they were those
of a great conquering power. The
president tried to secure peace terms
from the nation. They were not salts
factory. Then came the ruthless war
! fare. Then came the blocking out OF
the seas, and Mr.. Bernstorff was
handed his passports. Then we had
the Zimmerman note. Now, think OF
a nation that was friendly, nation
filling our land with spys and nation
sending such a note as the thinner
mann note, which was that Mexico
should have Arizona and New Mexico
and that Japan should have Calif0r-
mia. How do you like some friendly
nation dividing up oureUnited States,
and while New Mexico and Arizona
may be composed almost entirely OF
cactus plants we are not goingto give
them up to anybody as long as we have
red blood left in American veins. II
Bernstorff had come, there wasn't any
question what was coming then. Still
We tried to hold off this war: Still
we tried to believe that the promises
that Germany made as to sinking our
boats. in the seas would not be car
ried on further by her. Other boats