Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-04-10

lions great and small. and the priv
ilege of men everywhere to choose
their way of life and of obedience.
The world must be made safe for
democracy. Its peace must be planted
upon the tested foundations of polit-
ical liberty.
We desire no conquest, no dominion.
We seek no indemnities for ourselves,
no material compensation for the sac
rifice we shall freely make.
We are but one of the champions OF
the rights of mankind. We shall be
satisfied when those rights have been
made as secure as the faith and the
freedom of nations can make them.
Just because we fight, without ran
cour and without selfish object, seek
ing nothing for ourselves but what we
shall wish to share with a,l free peo-
pies, we shall, feel confident, conduct
our operation on belligerents without
passion and ourselves observe with
proud punctilio the principles of right
and of fair play we profess to be fight
ing for.
Defers Austria-Hungary Action.
/ have said nothing of the govern
ments allied with the imperial govern
ment of Germany because they have
not made war upon us or challenged
US to defend our right and our honor.
The Austro-Huhgarian government
has, indeed, avowed it's unqualified in
dOrsement and acceptance of the reck-
less and lawness submarine warfare
adopted now without disguise by the
imperial German Government, and 1t
has therefore rot been possible for
this government to receive Count
Tarnowski, the ambassador recently
accredited to this government by the
imperial and royal government of Aus
tria-Hungary.
But that government has not ac-
tually engaged In warfare against
citizens of the United States on the
high seas, and l take the liberty, for
the present at least, of postponing a
discussion of our relations with the
authorities at VIENNA.
We enter this war only where we
are clearly forced into it, because
there are no other means of defend
ing our rights.
1t will be all the easier for US to
conduct ourselves as belligerents in
high spirit of right and fairness be-
cause we act without animus, not in
enmity toward a people or with the
desire to bring any injury or disad-
vantage upon them, but only in armed
opposition to an irresponsible govern
ment which has thrown aside all con-
siderations of humanity and of right
and is running amuck.
Hopes for Early Peace.
We are, let me say again, the sim
cere friends of the German people, and
shall desire nothing so much as the
early re-establishment of intimate re-
lations of mutual advantage between
us, however hard it may be for them
for the time being to believe that this
is spoken from our hearts. We have
borne with their present government
through all these bitter months be-
cause of that friendship, exercising a
patience and forbearance which would
otherwise have been impossible.
We shall, happily, still have an op-
portunity to prove that friendship in
our daily attitude and actions toward
the millions of men and women of
German birth and native sympathy
who live among us and share our life,
and we shall be proud to prove it to-
ward all who are in fact loyal to their
neighbors and to the government in
the hour of test. They are, most of
them, as true and loyal Americans as
If they had never known any other
fealty or allegiance. They will be
prompt to stand with us in rebuking
and restraining the few who may be of
a different mind and purpose.
If there should be disloyalty it will
be dealt with with a firm hand Of stern
repression, but, if it lifts head at all it
will lift it only here and there and
without countenance except from a
lawless and malignant few.
1t is a distressing and oppressive
duty, gentlemen of the congress, which
l have performed in thus addressing
you. There are, it may be, many
months of fiery trial and sacrifice
ahead of us.
It is a fearful thing to lead this
great, peaceful nation into war. into
the most terrible and disastrous of all
wars, civilization itself seeming to be
in the balance. But the right is more
precious than peace and we shall fight
for the things which we have always
carried nearest our hearts-for democ-
racy, for the right of those who submit
to authority to have voice in their
own governments, for the rights and
liberties of small nations, for a univer-
sal dominion of right by such a concert
free people as shall bring peace and
safety to all nations and make the
world itself at last free.
To such a task we can dedicate our
lives and our fortunes, everything that
we are and everything that we have
with the pride of those who know that
the day has come when America is pro-
vided to spend her blood and her might
for the people that gave her birth and
happiness and the peace whih9 she has
treasured.
God helping her, she can do no other.
REBEL LEADERS CAUGHT