New Britain herald., 1918-09-28
NO BARGAINEDPEA
PRESIDENT INSISTS
Thrilling Speech in New York at
Hour Of Bulgar Appeal


be done ably and enthusiastically
done--by the hundreds of thousands
of loyal and tireless men and women
who have undertaken to present it to
YOU and to our fellow citizens
through the country; and I have not
the least doubt of their complete sue
cess; 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 everywhere, who
are lending their valuable aid and
guidance. l have come rather, to
seek an opportunity to present to you
some thoughts which J. trust will
serve to give you, in perhaps fuller
measure than before, a, vivid sense of
the great issues involved, in order
that You may appreciate and accept
with added enthusiasm the grave sig
nifcance 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 has really taken in What this
war means can hesitate to ~i--o to the
very limit of what they have and it is
my mission here tonight to try to
make clear once more what the war
really means. You will need no other
stimulation or reminder Of your
duty
At every turn of the war we gain
fresh consciousness of what we
mean to accomplish by it. When our
hope and expectation are most excited
we think more definitely than before
of the issues that hang upon it and of
the purposes which must be realized
by means of it. For it has positive
and we'll defined purposed which
We did not determine and which we
cannot alter. No statesman or as
sembly created them: no statesman or
assembly can alter them. They have
arisen out of the very nature and
of the war. The most
that statesmen or assemblies 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
drawa into it. The common will of
of mankind has been substituted for
the particular purpose of individual
states. Individual statesmen may
have started the conf1icted, but
neither they nor their opponents can
sto it they please. 1t has become
a peoples war, and peoples of all
sorts and races, of every degree of
power and variety of fortune, are
involved in its sweeping process
of change and settlement. We
came into it when it's charac-
ter had become fully defined
and it was plain that no = nation
could stand apart or be Indifferent to
its out come. Its challenge drove to
the heart of everything we cared for
and lived for. The voice of the war
had become clear and gripped our
hearts. Our brothers from many
lands, as we'll as our own murdered
dead under the sea, were calling to
us, and we responded, fiercely and of
course.
The air was clear about us. 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 either here or elsewhere had
defined them, and we can accept no
outcome which does not squarely
meet and settle them. Those issues
are these:
Shall the military power of any
ldtlOl VI group Oh lldLlOlS ne 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 domin-
ated, even in their internal affairs
by arbitrary and irresponsible force
or by their own will and choice?
"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?
"ShaIl the assertion of right be
haphazard and by casual alliance Or
shall there be a common concert to
oblige the observance of common
rights?
mo man, no group of men, chose
these to be the issues of the struggle.
They are the issues of it, and they
must be settled-by no arrangement
or compromise or adjustment of in
terests, but definitely and once for all
and with a full and unequivocaI &C
ceptance of the principle that the in
terest of the weakest is as sacred as
the interest of the strongest.
This is what we mean when we
speak of a permanent peace, if we
speak sincerely, intelligently and with
a real knowledge and comprehension
of the matter we deal with.
1--WE are all agreed that there can
be no peace obtained by any kind Of
bargain or compromise with the gov
ernments of the Central Empires be-
cause we have dealt with them al
ready and have seen them deal with
other governments that were parties
to this struggle, at Brest-Litovsk and
Bucharest. They have convinced us
that they are without honor and do
not intend Justice. They observe no
covenants, accept no principle, but