The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-09-28

enthusiasm the grave significance of
the duty Of supporting the govern
ment by your men and your means
to the utmost point OF sacrifice and
self denial. No man or woman who
has really taken In what this means
can hesitate to give to the very limit
Of what they have; and 1t is my mis-
sion here tonight to try to make 1t
clear once more what the war really
means. You need no other stimula
ton or reminder of your duty.
AT every turn OF the war we gain
a fresh consciousness of what we
mean to accomplish by it. When our
hope and expectations are most ex-
cited we think more definitely than
before OF the issues that hang upon
1t and of the purpose which must be
realized by means OF It,
For it has positive and well de-
fined purposes which we did not de-
termine and which we cannot alter,
No statesman or assembly created
them; no statesman or assembly can
alter them. They have arisen out Of
the very nature and circumstances 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 out
set; but they are clear now. The
war has lasted more than four years
and the whole world has been drawn
into it. The common will Of man
kind has been substituted for the
particular purpose Of individual
states. g.
lie Now Peoples War.
Individual statesmen may have
started the conflict, but neither they
nor their opponents can stop it as
they please. 1t has become a peo-
pies war and peoples of all sorts
and races. Of every degree Of power
and variety of fortune. are involved
in its sweeping processes Of change
and settlement. We came into it
when it's character had become fully
defined and it was plain that no ma
ton could stand apart or be indif-
ferent to it's outcome. It's challenge
drove to the heart of everything we
card for and lived for. Our broth
ers from many lands, as we'll as our
own murdered dead under the sea,
were calling to us, and we respond
ed, fiercely and of course.
THE air was clear about us. We
saw things in their full. convincing
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
These issues are:
shall the military power of any
nation or group Of nations be suf-
fered to determine the fortunes of
right to rule except the right of
force?
"Shall strong nations be free 10
wrong weak nations ord make t!,einI
subject to their purpose and inter
cstF
Shall peoples be rule3 and Joni
mated, even in tleir own internal
by aroIuUrv and irre5pon-
s Bile force or oy their own Will and
choice?
Shall there be 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?
Shall the assertion OF right he
haphazard and by casual alliance on
shall there be a crown concert to
oblige the observanc of rommon
rights? I. -...-....
These Are the Issues.
'No man, no group Of men. chose
these to be the issues of the strug-
giles. They are the issues of it; and
they must be settled-by no ar
or compromise or adjust
ment Of interests. but definitely and
once for all and with a full and un-
equivocal acceptance of the prin-
ciple that the interest of the weakest
is as sacred as the interest of the
.
This is what we mean when we
speak of a permanent peace, If We
speak sincerely, intelligently and
with a real knowledge and compre-
hension 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 |
of the central Empires
because and have dealt with them |
already and have seen them deal
with other governments that were |
parties to the struggle. at Brest-Lit-
ovsk and Bucharest. They have con-
WINGED us that they are without |
honor and do not intend Justice TheV