The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-09-28
PRESIDENT SAYS WE CANNOT TAKE WORD OF THOSE WHO FORGED WAR
 UPON US TO NEW YORK AUDIENCE


 cial and limited alliances entangle; and we recognize and accept the duty of a new day in which we are permit ted to hope for general alliance which will avoid entanglements and clear the air of the world for com mon understandings and the main tenance of common rights.
 I have made this analysis of the in ternational situation which the war has created, not, of course, because I doubted whether the leaders of the great nations and people with whom we are associated were of the same mind and entertained a like purpose, but because the air every now and again gets darkened by mists and groundless doubtings and mischieV- ous perversions of counsel and it is necessary once again to sweep all the irresponsible talk about peace in trigues and weakening morale and doubtful purpose on the part of those in authority utterly, and if need be unceremoniously, aside and any things in the plainest words that can be found, even when it is only to say over again what has been said before, quite as plainly if in less unVarnished terms.
 As I have said, neither I nor any other man in governmental authority created or gave form to the issues of this war. I have simply responded to them with such vision as l could com- mand. But I have responded gladly and with a resolution that has grown warmer and more confident as the issues grow clearer and clearer. It is now plain that they are issues which no man can pervert unless it be wilfully. I am bound to fight for them. and happy to fight for them as time and circumstance have revealed i them to me as to all the world. Our | enthusiasm for them grows more and
 more irresistible as they stand out ir more and more vivid and unmistaka-
 ble outline.
 1 And the forces that draw into closer
 and closer array, organize their mill | lions into more and more 'unconquer- able might, as they become more anC more distinct to the thought and pur' pose of the peoples engaged.
 | It is the peculiarity of this grea'
 war that while statesmen have seem 1 ed to cast about for definitions o+
 their purpose and have sometime!
 seemed to shift their ground and theil
 point of view, the thought of the mas:
 of men, whom statesmen are suppos
 ed to instruct and lead, has growr
 more and more unclouded, more anC
 more certain of what it is that the!
 are fighting for National purposes have fallen more
 and more into the background ant | the common purpose of enlightened mankind has taken their place. Th'
 counsels of plain men have become ol all hands more simple and straight forward and more unified than tn 1 counsels of sophisticated men of af
 fairs, who still retain the impression that they are playing game of powe
 and playing for high stakes. That i
 why I have said that this is a peo
 ples' war, not a statements. States
 men must follow the clarified com
 mon thought or be broken.
 Take that to be the significance 0
 the fact that assemblies and associa tions of many kinds made up of plai workaday people have demanded, al most every time they come together and are still demanding, that tn , leaders of their governments declar q to them plainly what it is, eXactl
 what it is, that they are seeking i a this war, and what they think tn q items of the final settlement shoul |, be.
 f They are not yet satisfied with wha {o1I I eli
 to fear that they are getting wha
 they ask for only in statesmen's term
 ---only in the terms of territorial al
 engagements and the divisions ( ' power, and not in terms of broad wis
 ion, justice and mercy and peace an . the satisfaction of those deep-seate :" longings of oppressed and distracte
 men and women and enslave1 people ' that seem to them the only thing e worth fighting war for that engul
 the world.
 y Perhaps statesmen have not alWaI r. recognized this changed aspect of u l. whole world of policy and actio
 Perhaps they not always spoke in d d rect reply to the questions asked b, n cause they did not know how searcl o ing those questions were and wh 10 sort of answers they demanded. a But I, for one. am glad to attem a the answer again and again, in u al hope that I may make it clearer al
 clearer that my one thought is to sa l. isfy those who struggle in the ranl " and are, perhaps, above all other le entitled to a reply whose meaning It one can have any excuse for misu T. derstanding, if he understands u
 language in which it Is spoken or e pr get someone to translate it correct ld into his own. And I believe that t Id leaders of the governments with whi, a. we are associated will speak, as tn
 have occasion. as plainly as I ha y' tried to speak.
 IT. I hope that they will feel free to S le whether they think that I am in al or degree mistaken in my interpretat K of these issues involved or in my pu h. pose with regard to the means US which a satisfactory settlement ne these issues may be obtained. HIS Unity of purpose and of counsel 8
 as imperatively necessary in this W e, as was unity in command in the b; li0 tlefield; and with perfect unity H. purpose and counsel will come asst -, ance of completes victory. It can had in no other way.
 i, Peace drives can be effectiv, iu utilized and silenced only by showi
 that every victory of the nations ; ,.s sociated against Germany brings ~ nations nearer the sort of peace wh
 will bring security and reassurance . all peoples and make the recurre1 ,Ho of another struggle of pitiless fp .o and bloodshed forever impossible, a ,-. that and nothing else can.
 'on Germany is constantly intimatt