Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1917-06-08
Why are We fighting Germany?

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to fight Germany. She made the at
tack upon us; not on our shores. but
on our ships, our lives, our rights,
our future.
For two years and more we held
to a neutrality that made us apollo
gists for things which outraged mans
common sense of fair play and hui
mainly.
At each new offense-the invasion
of Belgium, the killing of civilian
Belgians, the attacks on Scarborough
and other defenseless towns, the lay
ing of mines in neutral waters, the
fencing off of the seas-and on and
on through the months it said:
This is war-archaic, uncivilized
war, but war. All rules have been
thrown away; all nobility; man has
come down to the primitive brute.
And while We can not justify we will
not intervene. 1t is not our war;"
Then why are we in? Because we
could not keep out. The invasion of
Belgium, which opened the war, led
to the invasion of the United States
by slow, steady, logical steps. Our
sympathies evolved into a conviction
of self-interest. Our love of fair play
ripened into alarm at our own peril.
Talk Construed as COwar1ice.
We talked in the language and in
the spirit of good faith and sincerity,
as honest men should talk, until we
discovered our talk was construed as
cowardice. And Mexico was called
upon to COW us.
We talked as men would talk who
cared alone for peace and the ad-
vancement of their own material in
terests, until we discovered that we
were thought to be nation of mere
money-makers, devoid of all char
acter-until indeed We were told that
we could not walk the highways OF
the world without permission OF a
Prussian soldier, that our ships might
not sail without wearing striped
uniform of humiliation, narrow
path of national subservience.
We talked as men talk who hope
for honest agreement, not for war,
until we found that the treaty torn
to pieces at Liege was but the SYM
Dol of a policy that made agreements
worthless against purpose that
knew no word but success.
War to Save America.
And SO we came into this war for
ourselves.
It is a war to save America, to
preserve self-respect, to justify our
right to live as we have lived, not as
some one else wishes us to live
In the name of freedom we chall-
enge with ships and men. money and
an undaunted spirit that word "ver-
boten" which Germany has written
upon the land and upon the sea.
For America is not the name of so
much territory. 1t is a living spirit,
born in travail, grown in the rough
school of bitter experiences, a living
spirit which has purpose and pride
knows why 1t wishes to live and to
what end, knows how it comes to be
respected OF the world, and hopes to
retain that respect by living on with
the light of Lincoln's love of man as
It's old and new testament.
1t is more precious that this
America should live than we
Americans should live. And this
America, as we now see, has been
challenged from the first of this
war by the strong arm Of power
that has no sympathy with our
purpose, and will not hesitate to
destroy US II the law that we
respect, the rights that are to us
sacred, or the spirit that we have,
stand across her set will to make
this world bow before her pol
icies, backed by her organized
and scientific military system.
The world of Christ-a neglected
but not a rejected Christ-has
come again face to face with the
world of Mahomet who willed to
win by force.
Reasons for Warfare.
With this background of history
and in this sense, then, we fight Ger
many.
Because of Belgium-invaded, out
ragged, enslaved, impoverished Bel
GUM. We can not forget Liege. Lou
vain and Cardinal MERCER. Tran
slated into terms of America history
these names stand for Bunker Hill.
Lexington and Patrick Henry.
Because of France-invaded, desc
Grated France, a million of whose
heroic sons have died to save the land
of Lafayette. Glorious, golden France,
the preserver of the arts the land OF
noble spirit. The first land to follow
our lead into republican liberty.
Because of England-from whom
came the laws, traditions, standards