Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-03-05
DISPLAY MARKS INAUGURAL CEREMO
NATION CANNOT
ABANDON RIGHTS
[Continued From First Page.l

war inevitably set its mark from the
first alike upon our minds, our indus
tries, our commerce, our politics and
our social action. To be indifferent
to it or independent of it was out of
the question.
:, And yet all the while we have
been conscious that we were not part
or It, In that consciousness despite
many divisions we have drawn closer
together. We have been deeply
wronged upon the seas, but we have
not wished to wrong or injure iii re-
turn; have retained throughout the
consciousness of standing in some sort
transcends the immediate issues of the
war itself. AS some or the injuries
done us have become intolerable we
nave still been clear that we wished
nothing for ourselves that we were not
ready to demand for all mankind =
Ialr dealing, justice, the freedom to
hVe and be at ease against organized
wrong.
Obliged to Arm
1t is in this spirit and with this
tnought 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
! 1t seems that in no other way we can
demonstrate what it is we insist upon
and cannot forego. We may even be
drawn on, by circumstances, not by
our own purpose or desire, to a more
actlNe assertion of our rights as we
see them and a more immediate as
sociation with the great struggle itself.
/ But nothing will alter our thought or
q too ,aIa TO Ea
obscured. They are too deeply rooted
! in the principles of our national life
to be altered. We desire neither con-
quest nor advantage. We wish moth
ing that can be had only at the cost
of another people. We have always
professed unselfish purposes and we
covet the opportunity to prove that
our professions are sincere.
There are many things still to do
| at home, to clarity our own politics
and give new vitality to the industrial
| processes of our own life, and we
shall do them as time and opportunity
serve; but we realize that the greatest
| things that remain to be done must
! be done with the whole world for
stage and in cooperation with The
wide and universal forces of mankind,
and we are making our spirits ready
for those things They will follow in
the immediate wake of the war itself
and will set civilization up again. We
are provincials no longer. The tragi-
cal events of the thirty months of vital
turmoil through which we have Just
passed have made us citizens of the
world. There can be no turning oack.
Our own fortunes as a nation are in
| Volved, whether we would have it so
or not.
And yet we are not the less Ameri-
cans on that account. We shall be
the more American if we but remain
/ t,sn n 10 rfsi mi. q
have been bred. They are not the princi-
pies OF a province or o. II single con-
tinent. We have known and boosted
all along that they were the principles
Of a liberated mankind. These. there
fore, are the Things we snail stand
for, whether in war or in peace:
That all notions ara e'Iualy in
terested in the pence of tho world and
in the political stability of free peo-
p'es, and equally respo lsi5le fnr their
maintenance;
Peace Must he Secure
"That peace cannot securely or justly
rest upon an armed balance of power,
that governments derive all their just
powers from the consent of the govern
ed and that no other powers should
be supported by the common thought,
purpose or power of the f6 nlly Of ! a.
tions
THAT the seas should be equally
peoples,
under rules set up by common agree
ment and consent, and that, so far
as practicable, they should be accessi-
Bile to all upon equal terms;
THAT national ornaments should be
limited to the necessities of national
order and domestic safety:
That the community of interest and
of power upon which peace must hence
forth depend imposes upon each nation
the duty of seeing to il that all in
fluences proceeding from it's own citi-
zens, meant to encourage or assist
revolution in other states, should be
sternly and effectually suppressed and
prevented.
Nations Principles
'I need not argue these principles
to you, my fellow countrymen; they
are your own, part and parcel of your
own thinking and your own motive
in affairs. They spring up native
among us. Upon this as a platform of
purpose and of action we can stand to-
gether.
And it is imperative that we should
stand together. We are being forged
into new unity amidst the fires that
now blaze throughout the world. In
their ardent heat we shall, in Gods
providence, let us hope, be purged of
faction and division, purified of the
errant humors of party and of private
interest and shall stand forth in the
days to come with a new dignity of
national pride and spirit. Let each man
see to it that the dedication is in his
own heart, the high purpose of the na-i
tion in his own mind, ruler of his own
will and desire.
II stand here and have taken the
high and solemn oath to which you
have been audience because the poo-
pie of the United States have chosen
me for this august delegation of
power and have by their gracious
judgment named me their leader in
affairs. 1 know now what the task
means. | realize to the full the re-
sponsibility which it involves / pray
God | may be given the wisdom and
the prudence to do my duty in the
true spirit of this great people. | am
their servant and can succeed only as
they sustain and guide me by their
confidence and their counsel. The
thing l shall count upon, the thing
without which neither counsel nor ac-
ton will avail. is the unity of Am
erica-an America united in feeling,
in purpose and in it's vision of duty, of
opportunity and of service. We are to
beware of all men who would turn
the tasks and the necessities of the
nation to their own private profit or
use them for the building up of private
power; beware that no faction or dis
loyal intrigue break the harmony or
embarrass the spirit of our people;