The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1917-03-08

message OF hope for peace.
Standing in the shadows of the Ma
TONS Capitol, with his face turned
toward the Eastern war-seared skies
the President renewed his oath of al
legiance to the Constitution, praying
to Almighty God that he might be
given wisdom and prudence to do his
duty in the true spirit of the Ameri-
can people.
Washington. - President Wilson's
inaugural address was as follows:
my fellow citizens: The four years
which have elapsed since l stood in
this place have been crowded with
counsel and action of the most vital
interest and consequence. Perhaps no
equal period in our history has been
so fruitful of important reforms in our
economic and industrial life or so full
of significant changes in the spirit and
purpose Of our political action. We
have sought very thoughtfully to set
our house in order, correct the gros-
ser errors and abuses of our indus
trial life, iberate and quicken the
processes of our national genius and
energy, and lift our politics to broad
er view of the peoples essential in
terests. It is record of singular
variety and singular distinction. But
shall not attempt to review it. 1t
speaks for itself and will be of increas-
inf1g influence as the years go by
This is not the time for retrospect
time RI L If
and purposes concerning the present
and the immediate future.
ALTHOUGH we have centered counsel
and action with such unusual concen-
tratiOn and success upon the great
problems of domestic legislation to
which we addressed ourselves four
years ago, other matters have more
and more forced themselves upon our
attention, matters lying outside our
own life as a nation and over which
we had no control, but which, de-
spite our wish to keep free of them,
have drawn us more and more irresis-
tibly into their own current and infN-
ence.
cit has been impossible to avoid
them They have affected the life
of the whole world. They have shak-
zen men everywhere with passion and
an apprehension that they never knew
before. 1t has been hard to preserve
calm counsel while the thought of our
own people swayed this way and that
under their influence. We are COM
posite and cosmopolitan people. We
are of the blood of all the nations that
M
thoughts as we'll as the currents of
our trade ran quick at all seasons
back and forth between us and them.
The war inevitably set it's mark from
the first alike upon our minds. our
Industries, our commerce, our policies,
and our social action. To be independ-
ent of it was out of the question.
"And yet all the while we have been
conscious that we were not part of it.
In that consciousness, despite many
divisions, we have drawn closer to-
gether. We have been deeply wronged
on the seas, but we have not wished
to wrong or injure in return; have re-
tanned throughout the consciousness
Of standing in some sort apart, intent
upon an interest that transcribed the
i'm mediate issues of the war itself AS
come of the injuries done us have be-
come intOlerable, we have still been
clear that we wished nothing for our
selves that we were not ready to de-
mand for all mankind-fair dealing,
justice, the freedom to live and to be
at ease against organized wrong.
"It is in this spirit and with this
thought that we have grown more and
more aware, more and more certain
that the part we wished to play was
the part of those who mean to vindi-
cate and fortify peace. We have been
obliged to arm ourselves to make good
our claim to a certain minimum of
right and of freedom of action. We
stand firm in armed neutrality since it
seems that in no other way we can
demonstrate what it is we insist upon
and can not forego. We may even be
drawn on, by circumstances, not by
own purpose or desire, to more
active assertion of our rights as we
see them and more immediate asso-
citation with the great struggle itself.
But nothing will alter our thought or
our purpose. They are too clear to
DE obscured. They are too deeply
rotted in the principles of our ma
tional life to be altered. We desire
neither conquest nor advantage. We
wish nothing that can be had only at
the cost OF another people. We have
always professed unselfish purpose and
we covet the opportunity to prove
that our professions are sincere.