The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-06-14
GERMAN PLAN
OF CONQUEST
Is ACHIEVED
Teutons Now Plot To End
War With Their Ag-
gressions Secure
FLAG DAY SPEECH
AT WASHINGTON
Peace Now Would Justify
Autocracy to the Ger
man People
(By Associated Press.

Washington, June 14.-Befor,
a great audience here today for ;
flag day celebration Presiden
Wilson declared anew the aimi
and purposes of the United States
in entering the world war.
Standing in the shadow Of thu
great monument erected to tht
everlasting memory of George
Washington, the president told
thousands gathered on the grassy
slopes about him, that the United
States had entered the war not
alone to keep the world safe fol
democracy but also because "the
extraordinary insults and aggres-
sions of the imperial German gov,
ernment left us no choice but to
take up arms in defense of our
rights as a free people and of our
honor as sovereign govern
ment. "
tThe Stars and Stripes are go
ing to strange land, /" the presi-
dent said, "for a purpose as old
as American traditions. For us
there is but one choice. We have
made it. Woe be to the man 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 vindicated
and made secure for the salvation
of nations. We are ready to plead
at the bar Of history and our flag
shall wear new lustre. Once
more we shall make good with our
lives and fortunes the great faith
to which we were born and a new
glory shall shine in the face of our
people. I"
President Wilson warned
against permitting Germany to
end the war now by intrigue of
peace" while her aggressions
were secure.
Washington, June 14-President
Wilson warned the American people
in a Flag day address on the Wash
ington monument grounds today that
Germany has carried into effect the
greater part of her immediate plan of
conquest and now is negotiating new
Intrigue of peace" designed to end the
war while her aggressions are secure.
All the central empires, the presi-
dent declared. have been cemented into
one great autocracy- ridden empire,
throwing a broad belt of German
military and political control across
the very center Of Europe and beyond
the Mediterranean into the heart of
Asia. This achieved" he said. sit is
easy to understand why Germany is
fostering propaganda for an early
peace.
Peace, peace, peace has been the
talk of her foreign Office now for a
year or more" said the president "A
little of the talk has been public, but
most Of it has been private. Through
all sorts of channels it has come to me
and in all sorts of guises.
See Their Fate.
'sThe military masters under whom
Germany is bleeding see very clearly
to what point fate has brought them.
If they can secure peace now with the
hands which they have up to this
point apparently gained, they will have
justified themselves before the German
people, they will have gained by force
what they promised to gain by it.
MY fellow citizens. we meet to cele-
brate Flag day. The flag 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
- 4&- s~@h A.
until now 1t has witnessed a great his
tory, has ftoated 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 1t will draw the fire of our
enemies. We are about to bid thou
sands, hundreds of thousands, 1t may
be millions, of our men, the young, the
strong, the capable men of the nation,
to go forth and die beneath 1T on fields
Of blood far away-for what? For
some unaccustomed thing? For some
thing for which it has never sought the
fire before? American armies were
never before sent across the seas. Why
are they sent now2 For some new pur-
pose. for which this great flag has
never been carried before, or for some
old, familiar. heroic purposes for which
1t has seen men, its own men, die on
every battlefield upon which Ameri-
cans have borne arms since the revo-
lutiong
Must Give Purpose.
These are questions which must be
We are Americans We
in our turn serve America, and can
serve her with no private purpose. We
must use her flag as she always used
It. We are accountable at the bar of
history and must plead in utter frank
ness what purpose it is we seek to
serve.
1T Is plain enough how we were
forced into the war The extraordinary
Insults and aggressions OF the imperial
German government left us no self
respecting choice but to take up arms
Ia defense Of our rights as q free peo-
pie and Of our honor as a sovereign
The military masters of
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