Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-06-15
Interpreter of Democracy

CURELY. divine agency. at this crisis in
~ human history, has raised up Woodrow
Wilson to be democracy's spokesman and
interpreter. The Presidents Flag Day ad-
dress is an exposition of American ideal and
purpose mastery in grasp and scope The
brain Of the statesman conceived it, and the
voice Of the orator has conveyed its death
less sentences to hushed and waiting world.
Men have talked at times of american
izing" this war-we have ourselves INDUCED
in the pastme-but In the light supplied by
tho Presidents speech, we catch clearer
vision OF the complete unity Of the great
struggle with the fundamentals Of our ma
tional institutions and with our hard-won
liberties. OF this there was never real
doubt in any thinking, loyal mind, but many
OF us have believed 1t to be necessary, for
the purpose of inspiring the masses of the
people with what have been pleased to
regard 1.-The true war spirit" to cease to
emphasize the larger issues and deeper i'm
pications of the conflict and place sharper
accent on our countrys own wrongs
That is not necessary. The President
shows better way American interest is 80
intimate and so vital he teaches us, because
America is the logical and inevitable de-
fender of the principles that the mailed fist
of autocracy now assails WOE be to the
man or group of men," he says, that dares
to stand in our way in this day Of high, reso-
luton, when every principle we hold dearest
is to be vindicated and made secure for the
salvation of the nations. We ready to
plead at the bar Of history, and our flag
shall wear a new luster. Once more we
shall make good with our lives and fortunes
the great faith to which were born, and
new glory shall shine in the face Of our
people"
There stands America, for herself indeed,
but only as one member of the great family
OF nations. Her own wrongs-cruel and
savage as their infliction-she might
have endured, If in truth they had been but
by-product of German policy. But
these wrongs, as the President shows, we're
the very heart and spirit Of German policy
and mere forerunners Of those deeper and
intolerable indignities and humiliations which
Germany holds in store for all that block
her bloody pathway to world dominion.
And while the President thus vindcates
the course of the people whose ruler and
servant he is he strips what British news
paper has called the rags OF righteousness"
from German proposals Of peace. He traces
as The Tlmes-Dspatch often has sought to
trace. the SO far successful contamination of
the Teutonic project Of mid-European en-
pire. stretching from the North Sea and the
Baltic to the Mediterranean and the Persian
Gulf On the war map to-day only the Brit
ish forces in Palestine and Mesopotamia
block the full realization of that dream.
Peace now would give it substance and per-
manencc.
OF course Germany's rulers want peace
II 1t be peace which shall confirm them in
power and provide point Of departure for
new aggressions. IF they succeed" says
the President, America will fall within the
menace" Ave. and fall in another sense
also. Autocracy. and democracy no longer
can dwell in the same world. One must, and
will, be destroyed 1t is for to oppose
unbending will, and muscles Of steel, and
hearts of flame, to this new Frankensten's
monster. into which the mlitarism of
Kultur has breathed the breath of life, and
which threatens to destroy us and our liber-
ties before it shall destroy It's creator.