Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-04-16
WILSON ACCEPTS
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Presidents Stirring Address in
Opening Liberty Loan Drive
at Baltimore.
CITES COST OF OUR DEFEAT
ReIterates Cause; Leading to War and
Fairness America Guarantees in
Considering Peace Terms
With Germany.


Baltimore.-President Woodrow Will
son opened the Liberty Loan drive
mere before an audience of 1000 peo-
pie. The occasion also was in obsery-
ance OF the first anniversary of Amer
lca's entrance into the war. The presi
dent said:
Fellow Citizens: This is the ami
yersary of our acceptance of Ger
many's challenge to fight for our right
TO live and be free and for the sacred
rights of free men everywhere
The natl On is awake. There is no
need to call to it. We know what the
war must cost-our utmost sacrifice,
the lives of our fittest men, and. if
need be, all that we possess.
The loan we are met to discuss is
one of the least parts of what we are
called upon to give aud to do, though
in itself imperative.
'The people of the whole country
are alive to the necessity of it and are
ready to lend to the utmost. even
where it involves a sharp skimping and
daily sacrifice to lend out of meager
earnings.
They will look with reprobation and
contempt upon those who can and will
not, upon those who demand a higher
rate OF interest, upon those who think
of it as mere commercial transac-
ton.
Il have not come, therefore, to urge
the loan. have come only to give you,
II | can, a more vivid conception of
what it is for.
The reasons for this great war, the
reason why it had to come, and the
need to fight it through and the issues
that hang upon its outcome, are more
clearly disclosed now than ever be-
fore
1T is easy to see just what this par
ticular loan means because the cause
we are fighting for stands more sharp
" revealed than at any previous crisis
of the momentous struggle.
Tie man who knows least can now
see plainly how the cause of justice
stands and what the imperishable
thing is he is asked to invest in.
The Cost Of Defeat.
Men in America may be more sure
than they ever were before that the
cause is their own, and that, If it
should be lost, their own great nations
place and mission in the world would
be lost with it.
Il call you to witness, my fellow
countrymen, that at no stage Of this
terrible business have I judged the
purposes of Germany Unexpectedly.
Il should be ashamed in the pres
ence of affairs so grave, so fraught
with the destinies of mankind through
out all the world to speak with trucu-
lence, to use the weak language of
hatred or vindictive purpose. We must
judge as we would be judged.
Il have sought to learn the objects
Germany has in this war from the
mouths of her own spokesman and to
deal as frankly with them as l wished
them to deal with me.
81 have laid bare our own ideals. our
own purposes without reserve or doubt
full phrase and have asked them to say
as plainly what it is they seek.
Being Just to Germany.
I'VE have ourselves proposed no in
justice, no aggression. We are ready,
whenever the final reckoning is made.
TO be just to the German people. deal
fairly with the German power. as with
all others.
There can be no differences in peO-
pies in the final judgment if it Is in
deed to be righteous Judgment. To
propose anything but justice, even
handed and dispassionate justice. to
Germany at any time, whatever the
outcome of the war, would be to re-
nounce and dishOnor our own cause.
For we ask nothing that we are not
willing to accord.
1T has been with this thought that
| have sought to learn from those who
spoke for Germany whether it was JUS
tice or dominion or the execution of
their own will upon the other nations
of the world that the German leaders
were seeking.
They have answered. answered in
unmistakable terms. They have avow-
ed that it was not justice but domin-
ion and the unhindered execution of
their own will.
What Peace Should Be Based On.
Her present chancellor has said
in indefinite and uncertain terms, in
deed, and in phrases that often seem to
deny their own meaning. but with such
plainness as he thought prudent-that
he believed that peace should be based
upon the principles which we had de-
clared would be our own in the final
settlement
AT Brest-I4itovsk her civilian dele
gates spoke in similar terms pro-
fesSed their desire to conclude a fair
peace and accord to the peoples with
whose fortunes they were dealing the
right TO choose their own allegiances
"But action accompanied and fol-
lowed the profession. Their military
masters, the men who act for Ger
many and exhibit her purpose in exc
cutiOn proclaimed very different
conclusi IN.
eve cannot mistake what they have