Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-03-29

| said Colonel Roosevelt in discussing
! the reasons for America becoming
! involved in the war. I'm common
with all civilized mankind we have
been outraged by Germany's callous
and cynical brutalities against we'll
/ behaved weaker nations. This Is a
war on behalf of treaties as against
, scraps of paper: for the freedom Of
I the sea against world enslavement-
for Germany has been the real foe of
freedom of the seas
After enumerating German bar
barities in Belgium. and the cruel;ies
OF Austria, Bulgaria and Turkey,
Germanys "vassal states" Colonel
Roosevelt said: Unless we war on
Turkey precisely as we war on Ger
many. we show that we are insinoere
when We say that we wish to make
the world safe for democracy. We
are bound as a nation now to remem-
Der that fine phrases, that bold and
lofty declarations OF purposes, are
of worth only as they arc turned into
brave deeds by men who are both
strong and true. We of this nation
must now prove our truth by our en-
deavor."
The speaker attacked German
Americanism saying there can be
no such thing as q fifty fifty al
legiancs' and declared that here
after We must see that the melting
pot really does melt"
Relative to American unprepared-
ness for war Colonel Roosevelt said:
III we had even begun seriously to
fight last September, Russia prob
ably would not have broken down
and victory would now be in sight"
/ Preparations for a three years
war, the training of an army Of
5,ooo,0o0 men. preferably through
adoption Of system of universal
military training and the rushing of
ship construction were urged by the
former President as most vital to
Americas first duty--the winning Of
the war" "All our other activities
in making arms, ammunitions, air
planes and other war machines can
be made to synchronize with this, he
said.
The speaker sounded a warning
against professional pacifists' who
he said. as apostles of weakness and
folly" would renew their activities
when peace is won.
Friends" he said. "it is not only
our duty to be prepared against war
II is. If possible even more our duty
to prepare for peace. And we are al
most as unprepared in one respect as
the other. Moreover, in the affairs
of peace. as in the affairs of war let
us as grown men, as serious citizens
of n great republic. impatiently brush
aside the silly sham trust in rhetoric
as a substitute for action.
We cannot afford any longer to
continue our present industrial and
social system. or rather no. system Of
every man for himself and devil
take the hindmost. 1t is our bust
ness as nation seriously, to face our
industrial conditions. to realize that
we cannot without folly permit them
TO go on unchanged. and Yet that We
are worse than fools if We permit
them TO be changed for evil. There
fore We must shun equally the Bour-
bon reactionaries who invite disaster
by refusing 10 face and grapple with
the needs of the hour. and the SIMS
ter demagogues and loose MINDED
Missionaries who preach a red folly
that would bring us to even worse
disaster.
The great Russian commonwealth
offers a lamentable example of the
effect OF vibrating between the
tyranny Of an autooracy and the
tyranny Of a mob. The autocracy of
the Romanoffs united extreme in.
capacity with complete despotism.
II was overthrown. After seething
tumult the Bolsheviki came to the
fore.
The Bolsheviki have no more to
teach America than the -.Ronianoffs
themselves. II We are wise we shall
not permit ourselves to be withheld
from forward movement by the
Romanorfs Of our own social and in
dustrial system ana neither shall we
permit ourselves to be plunged into
: tho abyss Of fathomless disaster into
which We would be plunged If We fol-
lowed the American Bolsheviki."