Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1918-08-22
CANDIDATE WILCOX.

1
concert night with ice cream servet
by the Rebekahs for war fund, so {
good crowd was out, but the desire L
see and hear MIR. Wilcox no doubt in
creased the size of the crowd materially
The band boys gracefully yielded then
platform to Mr.. Wilcox, whose inter.
spersion Of forty-mirute talk on pa.
tri5tic Americanism proved the spell
bin1ing feature of the evening.
The Senator is blessed with a good
voice for outdoor talking; tone and
manner winning. He's in the orator
zeal class. Politics were eschewed. A
few extracts from the address follow
"We have been accustomed in this
country to spend a great heal of time
talking about our rights and insisting
upon our rights. and stating that we
would never give up our rights and
that we would fight for our rights and
all that sort of stuff, hut we have
never spent very much time in this
country talking about our duty to the
country, We have certain rights and
privileges in this country, but with
those rights and those privileges there
90 corresponding duty and obligation
of service to the country. So when a
demand is made upon you for service
it will not do for you say, %, let my
neighbor do that, be has more time
than have. That will not do because
you enjoy the same rights and priv
ileges as he and precisely the same
duties and obligations for service.
When you think of the service the
many young men Of this city. this
county, this state who have been called
are rendering, and what sacrifices they
are making, is there anything in the
way of perfectly safe service we have
at home which you and can do, which
at all compares with that service and
sacrifice which they are giving and rem
dering across the water? Nothing,
nothing, whatever to be compared to it.
And you realize, most of you, that a
very large percentage of these young
men will be back home again. and they
will Dc nightly interested in knowing
when they come back who the people
were back here at home who did not
think enough of the sacrifices they
were making, who did not appreciate
the cause they were fighting
for, to be willing to do the little bit of
safe and easy service here at home
and they will know who these people
are, and these people will know that
the boys know who they are, and they
will have to meet them daily on the
street knowing that the boys know who
they are. ! want to feel that when
the time comes there will not be sin
gle man or woman in the city of Min
eral Point will not be able to meet
those boys and look them in the eye and
say. Yes, while you were ever there
ready to give your last measure of de-
gotion to your country, was at home,
read and willing to the full measure of
my ability, and did my poor, miserable
bit back home.
II was shocked to hear the other day
that a prominent Office seeker of this
state made a speech over in certain
county in which he revived a term
which | had not heard for over year,
one which had fallen into more or less
honorable disuse. He said. We are
proud of the German Americans, and
we can't blame them for not wanting
to fight against their kin and go over to
desecrate the graves of their grand
fathers Think of that. You know
what that means. | thought we did
not have any of that kind Of people in
this country any more. though the
only kind of people we had here now
We're just plain Americans without any
prefix or hyphen at all. And | want to
appeal to you men and women with
Teutonic blood in your veins, if there
are such in this audience, do not allow
any man, even for political purposes,
to set you off in class by yourselves.
Tell him that just plain American is
good enough for you, and that you are
nothing else.
"This war is knitting the hearts Of
the American people so that when it is
over we will be more truly the United
States Of America than ever before.
1t has been said that the American peo-
pie have lost their souls. that we were
pleasure mad and money mad and that
we had entirely turned our faces away
from the old ideas of patriotism and
self-sacrifce. This war is calling to
the hearts of the American people for
new endeavors and new sacrifices and il
will not call in vain. Out Of this great
conflict we shall emerge whole and
strong and clean again, more fit thar
ever before to share in and perpesuate
the blessings of pure liberty"
MIR. Wilcox is Republican candi
date for governor, yet only through the