Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-09-28

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house here last night said:
My fellow citizens: / am not
here to promote the loan That
will be done-ably and enthusiast
cally done-by the hundreds OF
thousands of loyal and tireless men
and women who have undertaken
to present it to you and to our fell
low citizens throughout the coun-
try, and I have not the least doubt
of their complete success, for l
know their spirit and the spirit OF
the country.
My confidence is confirmed, too.
by the thoughtful and experienced
cooperation of the bankers-here
and eYerywhere-who are lending
their invaluable aid and guidance.
Seeks to Clarity Wars Aim.
At have come rather to seek an
opportunity to present to you some
thoughts which 1 trust will give
you in perhaps fuller measure than
before vivid sense of the great
issues involved, in order that you
may appreciate and accept with
added enthusiasm the grave sig
nitcance of the duty Of supporting
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 clear once
more what the war really means.
You will need no other stimulation
AT every turn of the war we
gain a fresh consciousness of what
we mean to accomplish by it When
cur hope and expectation are most
excited we think more definitely
J tSan before the issues that hang
upon it and of the purposes which
must be realized by means of it
: For it has positive and well defined
purposes which we did not determ-
inc and which we cannot alter. No
statesman or assembly created
them; no statesman or assembly
can alter them. They have arisen
out of the very nature and circum-
stances of the war
1.-The most that statesmen or as
semblies can do is to carry them
out or be false to them. They were
: perhaps not clear at the outset;
but they are clear now. The war
has lasted more than four years and
the whole world has been drawn
into it The common will of man
has been substituted for the par
ticular purposes of individual
states.
Individual statesmen may have
started the conflict, but neither
they nor their opponents can stop
it as they please. 1t has become a
peoples war, and peoples of all
sorts of races, of every degree of
power and variety of fortune, are
involved in its sweeping processes
of change and settlement.
I'VE came into it when its char
acter had become fully defined and
it was plain that no nation could
stand apart or be indifferent to its
outcome. Its challenge drove to
the heart of everything we cared
for or lived for. The voice of the
war has become clear and gripped
our hearts.
Our brothers from many lands,
as well as our own murdered dead
under the sea, were calling to us,
and we responded, fieTcely and of
course.
''The air was clear about US. We
say 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 either here or else
where had defined them, and we can
accept no outcome which does not
squarely meet and settle them
The Wars Issues.
! Those issues are these:
Shall the military power of any
nation or group of nations be suf-
fered 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 people be ruled and dom
mated, even in their own internal
affairs, by arbitrary and irresponsi7
BILE force, or by their own will and
choice?s
Shall there be a common stand
ard 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
! haphaZard and by casual alliance
or shall there be a common concert
/ to Oblige the observance of com
mon rights2<
'NO man, no group Of men, chose
/ these to be the issues Of the strug-
/ gle They ARE the issues OF it, and
I they must be settled by no arrange
ment or compromise or adjustment
/ Of interests. but definitely and once
/ for all and with a full and equiyo-
/ cal acceptance of the principle that
! the interest of the weakest is as sa-
/ cred as the interest Of the strong
I est.
This is what we mean when we
| speak of q permanent peace, If we
! speak sincerely, iltelligently, and
with a real knowledge and compre-
/ hensiCn of the matter we deal with.
! We are all agreed that there can
/ be no peace obtained by any kind
, of bargain or compromise with the
/ governments Of the central powers,
/ because we have dealt with them
already and have seen them deal
with other governments that were
party TO this struggle, at Brest-
| Iitovsk and Bucharest.
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