Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-03-29
BEAT GERMANY
TO KNEES, SAYS
7. R., IN MAINE
Only Way to Peace Is by Vic
tory He Assures State Re-
publican Convention

Portland, Me-, March 29.-Repub-
licans at their state convention yes
terday took up the task of framing
a party platform and selecting a
state committee. At the session last
night Colonel Theodore Roosevelt
delivered an address outlining the
general plan of the party's Congress
sional campaign. This was the for
mer presidents first public appear
ance since his recent illness.
The Colonel said in part:
This country is now involved in
the greatest war of all time. In
common with the rest of the world
it is passing through one of those
tremendous crises which lie CEN
turies apart in world history. Under
such conditions the question of par
! tisanship sinks into utter insignifl-
| cance compared with the great ques-
ton of patriotism, compared with
the duty of all of us to act with
stern and whole-hearted loyalty to
this mighty republic,> and to serve
the interests of the republic and the
ideals which made the republic the
hope of the future of mankind.
come before you Republicans of
Maine to speak only as an American
to his fellow Americans, as patriot
speaking to patriots.
Must Beat Germany
There is but one way to get
righteous and lasting peace, and
that is to beat Germany to her
knees. Let us refuse to go into a
joint debate on peace with the Pots
dam people. Let us take our stand
on that part of the Presidents
| speech of December in which he
said: This intolerable thing, this
menace of combined intrigue and
| force, which we now see so clearly
as the German power, a thing with
out conscience or honor or capacity
for covenanted peace, must be
crushed; and let us forget the peace
parleyings of February; for these
were inconsistent with the words
just quoted.
1.-The Republicans of Maine and
the Republicans of the nation gen.
orally have in this crisis subordi-
mated all other questions to their
| devotion to the nation. Not in all
our history has any political party
when in opposition shown as fine, as
whole-hearted and as completely dis
interested patriotism as has been
shown by the Republican party,
especially by its representatives in
the Senate and Congress of the
| United States, during the year and
two months now closing.
Pledged to Victory
! I'VE are pledged to the hilt as
nation to put this war through with
out flinching until we win the peace
of overwhelming victory. We owe
this to our own honor and to our
future well-being.
This is the peoples war. 1t is
not the Presidents war. 1t is not
| Congress- war. 1t is the war of the
people of the United States for the
| honor and welfare of America and
of mankind. 1t is the bounden duty
of the Republican party to support
every public servant. from the Pres
ident down, insofar as he does good
and efficient work in waging the
war or helping wage the war, and to
oppose him exactly to the extent of
his failure to do such work; for our
| loyalty is to the people of the United
States, and to every public servant
in exact accordance with the way
in which he serves the public. Il is
the duty of the Republican party
to stand like a rock against ineffi-
cheney, incompetence, hesitation and
delay no less than against any luke
warmness In serving the common
! cause of ourselves and our allies.
Murdered U. S. Citizens
we are in this war because of
special and intolerable grievance
against Germany; because in addi-
tion to many other misdeeds she for
two years followed a course of de-
liberate murder of our unarmed and
unoffending citizens, men, women
and children.
ate duty by both speeding up the
war and making ready the ships and
the men necessary to win, no matter
how long the war takes. Let the
ships be built by working night and
day three shifts in the twenty-four
hours. Let us prepare for a three
years war and begin now to make
ready an army of five million men
(and the best way to begin is to
introduce at once universal military
training for all young men between
nineteen and twenty-one, it being
| understood that they will not go to
war until they are twenty-one). All
our other activities in making arms,
ammunition. airplanes and other war
machines can be made to synchro-
nize with this.
our next duty duty the per-
formance of which should begin at
this moment, is to introduce the
policy of permanent preparedness.
| Never again must be we caught so
utterly unprepared as we have been
caught this time.
1--WE cannot afford any longer to
continue our present industrial and
social system, or rather no-system
of every -man-for-him and devil
he-hindmost. What is needed
is to fix definite ideals and then to
try to realize them by deeds; to en-
deavor practically and cautiously but
resolutely by the actual test.
1T is our business as q nation
seriously to face our industrial con-
ditions, TO realize that we cannot
without folly permit them to go on
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