Imperial Valley press., 1918-09-30

be done-ably and enthusiastically
BY the hundreds of thousands of 10y
al and tireless men and women who
have undertaken to present it to you
and to our fellow citizens throughout
the country; and have not the least
doubt of their success; for | know
their spirit and the spirit of the coun-
try. My confidence is confirmed, too,
by the thoughtful and experienced
cooperation of the bankers here and
everywhere, who are lending their in
valuable aid and guidance. have come
rather to seek an opportunity to pre-
sent to you some thoughts which |
trust will serve to give you, perhaps,
in fuller measure than before vivid
sense of the great issue involved, in
order that you may appreciate and
accept with added enthusiasm the
grave significance of the duty of sup
porting the government by your men
and your means to the utmost point
of sacrifice and self-denial. No man
or woman who has really taken in
what this war means can hesitate to
give to the very limit of what they
have; and it is my mission here to-
night to try to make it clear once
more what the war really means. You
will need no other stimulation or re-
minder of your duty.
At every turn of the war we gain
a fresh consciousness of what we
mean to accomplish by it. When our
hopes and expectations are most eX-
cited we think more definitely than
before of the issues that hang upon
it and of the purposes which must
be realized by means oft. For it has
positive and well defined purposes
which we did not determine and which
we cannot alter. No statesman or
assembly created them; no states
man or assembly can alter them.
They have arisen out of the very ma
tltre and circumstances of the war.
The most the statesman or assem-
'le~ can do is to carry them out or
ne false to them. They were perhaps
go clear at the outset, but they are
S'r4r now. The war has lasted more
ta four years and the whole world
h oeau drawn into it. The COM
~ If mankind has been substi-
or the particular purposes of
...vidual states. Individual states
.nen may have started the conflict,
but neither they nor their opponents
can stop it as they please. 1t has
herpns peoples war, and peoples
" an sorts ana races, of every degree
OF power and variety of fortune, are
involved in it's sweeping processes of
change and settlement. We came into
it when it's character had become full
ly defined and it was plain no ma
tion could stand apart or be indiffer-
ent to it's outcome. Its challenge
drove to the heart of everything we
cared for and lived for. Our broth
ers from many lands, as we'll as our
own murdered dead under the sea,
were calling to us, and we responded,
fiercely.
The air was clear about us and we
saw things in their full, convincing
proportions, as they were; and we
have seen them with steady eyes and
unchanging comprehension ever since.
We accepted the issues of the war as
facts, not as any group of men eth
er here or elsewhere had defined
them, and we can accept no outcome
which does not squarely meet and set
tie them. Those issues are there
Shah the military power of any ma
tion or group of nations be suffered
to determine the fortunes of peoples
over whom they have no right to rule
except the right of force?
, Shall strong nations be free to
wrong weak nations and make them
subject to their purpose and inter
est? Shall peoples be ruled and DOM
mated, even in their own internal af-
fairs, by arbitrary and irresponsible
force or by theier own will and
choice?
Shall there be common standard
of right and privilege for all peoples
and nations, or shall the strong do
as they will and the weak suffer
without redress?
Shall the assertion of right be hap
hazard and by casual alliance'or shall
there be common concert to oblige
the observance of common right?
No man, no group of men, chose
these to be the issues of the strug-
glue. They are the issues Of it; and
they must be settled--by no arrange
ment or compromise or adjustment of
u,ept mr. cnponronnisa or adi,,ctr,a,+