The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-06-18
NO PEACE BEFORE VICTORY

| war, either before or since we got
into it, this Flag Day speech Iealt
with facts.
The facts cannot be repeated too
often, in view of the subtle efforts
which the German agents in this
country, renegade congressman, and
pacifst dreamers are making to poi
son public sentiment against the war
and handicap the government in its
Industrial and military preparations,
BY renegade congressman we refer
to those men who are abusing their
postal franking privilege by spread
ing broadcast throughout the country
copies of the proGerman speeches
they made in Congress before the
war was declared, Or in their at
tempts to defeat the compulsory mill
tary service law.
The Presidents words ring out
clear and true above the fog Of all
these pro-German sophistries and pac.
ifist fallacies. .,i 80
1.-THE military masters of Germany
denied us the right to be neutral
That ID the Presidents major pre-
mise, and no firmer foundation could
have been laid for the terrible indict.
ment OF the German military autoc-
racy which followed @i,'N. .
1t is we'll that all Of Us, especially
those of US. who are faint-hearted or
inclined to doubt the. wisdom of, the
policies which eliminated in our dee
laration Of war against Germany, be
reminded. from time to time that our
war with Germany was not of. our
choosing, but was forced upon US;
that it could not have been avoided
except with dishonor and the loss of
selfrespect. !,
1T is plain enough how we we're
forced isto the wary said the Presi.
dent. The. extraordinary insults ant
aggressions of the imperial German
government left us no self.respecting
choice but to take up arms in defanse
Of our rights as free people and Of
our honor as sovereign government
The military masters OF Germany de-
MED US the right to be neutral They
filled our unsuspecting communities
with vicious spies and conspiratcrs,
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 citizens from their al.
Slegiance; and some of these ager:s
were men cohnected with tn. t;srf
man government itself here IN our
capitol. They sought by violence to
destroy Cur ir dustries and arrest our
commerce. They tried to incite Mex.
leo to take up arms against us and
to draw Japan into a hostile alliance
with her, and that, not by indirection,
but by direct suggestion from the
foreign Office in Berlin.
"They impudently denied US the
use of the high seas, and repeatedly
executed their threat that they would
send to their death any of our people
who ventured to approach the coasts
Of Europe.
"And many of our own people were
corrupted. Men began to look upon
their own neighbors with suspicion
and to wonder in their hot resentment
and surprise whether there was any
community in which hostile intrigue
did not Turk. What great nation in
such circumstances would not have
taken up arms?
much as we had desired peace, it
was denied us, and not of our own
choice. This flag under which we
serve would have been dishonored
had we withheld our hand"
That is our moral justification for
now being at war with Germany; but,
as the President said, it is only part
of the story.
The other part is concerned with
Germany's ambition for world domi-
nation, the first step toward which
was to be the welding of all the CEN
trail European states into a great en-
pire controlled by German militarism,
which would hang like the sword of
Damocles over the free democracies
of the world.
The President points out in words
what will probably be great shock
to those who are hypnotiziEg them.
selves into the belief that Germany