The Carlisle independent., 1917-06-21
SCORES TIE KAISER
PRESIDENT SAYS MILITARY MAS TIERS DENIED U. s. RIGHT
 TO BE NEUTRAL.
FILLED COUNTRY WITH SPIES
Failed is Attempt to Spread Sedition German People in Grip of Same Sinister Power That Has
 Drawn Blood From Us.

Wissua. in a Flag day address deliv- cred hese en Thursday declared that We w~re forced into the worldwide War By sse extraordinary insults and aggressaosss of the military masters of Gernsa@s
 The presidents address in part is as fosows:
 My Fellow Citizens: We meet to ceieesssse Flag Day because this flag which we honor and under which we serve ss tke emblem of our unity, our powex, sssr thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than thaN which we give it from generation 10 generation. The choices are ours. It floats ia majestic silence above the hosts that execute those choices whether in peace or in war And yet. though silent. it speaks to us-speaks to us os the past, of the men and wom- en who went before us and of the rec ords tkey wrote upon it. We celebrate the day of it's birth; and from it's birth until now 1t has witnessed q great his tory, has fioated on high the symbol of great events. of great plan of life
 
 about to carry it into battle. to lift it where k will draw the fire of our en- emieS. We are about to bid thousands, hundreds f thousands. it may be mil lions of our men, the young, the strong, the capable men of the nation, tp go forth and die beneath 1t on fields of blood far away-for what? For some unaeeRStomed thing? For something for which it has never sought the fire before7 American armies were never before sent across the seas. Why are they sent NOW? For some new pur- pose, for which this great flag has nev- CT been carried before, or for some old. familiar, heroic purpose for which it has seen men, its own men, die on ev- cry battlefield upon which Americans have borne arms since the Revolution?
 These are questions which must be answered. We are Americans. We in OUT turn serve America, and can serve her with no private purpose. We must use hex flag as she has always used it. We are accountable at the bar of his tory and must plead in utter frankness what purpose 1t is we seek to serve.
 5nited States Forced Into War.
 It is plain enough how We were forced into the war. The extraordi- nary insults and aggressions of the i'm peT1i German government left us no seH- respecting choice but to take up arms in defense of our rights as a free people and Of our honor as a sovereign government. The military masters of | Germany denied us the right to be neu- trad. They filled our unsuspecting com ntmities with vicious spies and con- spfratsrs and sought to corrupt the l opinion of our people in their own be- | half. When they found that they could | Rot dD that. their agents diligently | spread sedidon amongst us and sought | to draw our own citizens from their | allegiance and some of those agents | were men connected with the official | embassy of the German government it. | self here in our own capital They | sought by violence to destroy our in- | dustYieS and arrest our commerce. They tried to incite Mexico to take up arms against us and to draw Japan in- | 10 a hostile alliance with her-and | that, not by indirection, but by direct | suggestion from the foreign office in | Berfip. They impudently denied us the use of the high seas and repeated | y executed their threat that they | woaE stfd to their death any of our people who ventured to approach the :. coasss of Europe. And many of our own people were corrupted Men be- |
  wifh suspicion and to wonder in their | hot resentment and surprise whether thare was any community in which l hostile intrigue did not turk What great nation in such circumstances would not have taken up arms? Much as we had desired peace, it was denied ss, and not of our own choice. This flag under which we serve would have been ash0nored had we withheld our hand No Emnity Toward German People.
 HUk that is only part of the story. We know now as clearly as we knew before we were ourselves engaged that we are net enemies of the German peo- pie and that they are not our enemies. They did not originate or desire this hideSs war or wish that we should be drawn into 1t: and we are vaguely con- sciOAs that we are fighting their cause, as they will some day see it, as we'll as eur Swn. They are themselves in the l grip sf the same sinister power that | has BOW at last stretched its ugly tal- l ons sut and drawn blood from us. The | whole world is in the grip of that pow CT and Is trying out the great battle | which shall determine whether it is to | be brought under it's mastery or fling | itself free. The war was begun by the military | masters of Germany. who proved to be | also the masters of Austria Hungary. l These men have never regarded na- tons aS peoples, men. women, and |