River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-07-11
To FIGHT UNTIL
WORLD is FREE
President Wilson Pledges the
United States and Allies to
No Compromise
FLAYS MILITARY RULE
Chief Executive Forcibly Outlines Aims
for Which America and Associates
Will Not Sheathe the Sword
Until They Are Accomplished.

Washington, July Sin his Fourth
of July address at Mount Vernon,
President Wilson said:
Washington, July 5.-President Will
son in his Fourth of July address at
Mount Vernon said:
Gentlemen of the diplomatic corps
and my fellow citizens: / am happy
to draw apart with you to this quiet
place Of old counsel in order to speak
a little Of the meaning of this day of
our nations independence. The place
seems very still and remote. 1t is as
serene and untouched by the hurry Of
the world as it was in those great days
long ago when General Washington
was here and held leisurely conference
with the men who were to be asso-
ciated with him in the creation of
nation From these gentle slopes they
looked out upon the world and saw
It whole, saw it with the light of the
future upon it, saw it with modern
eyes that turned away from a past
which men of liberated spirits could
no longer endure. 1t is for that rea-
son that we cannot feel even here,
in the Immediate presence of this
sacred tomb, that this is place OF
death It was a. place Of achievement.
A great promise that was meant for
all mankind was here given plan and
reality The associations by which
we are here surrounded are the in
spiriting associations of that noble
death which is only a glorious con-
summation. From this green hillside
we also ought to be able to- see with
compromising eyes the world that
lies about us and should conceive
anew the purposes that must set men
free.
1t is significant significant of their
own character and purpose and of the
Influences they were setting afoot-
that Washington and his associates,
like the barons at Runnymede, spoke
and acted, not for a class, but for
people. It has been left for us to see
to it that it shall be understood that
they spoke and acted not for a single
people only, but for all mankind. They
were thinking, not of themselves and
of the material interests which CEN
tered in the little group of landowners
and merchants, and men of affairs with
whom they were accustomed to act,
in Virginia and the colonies to the
north and south of her, but of a people
which wished to be done with classes
and special interests and the authority
of men whom they had not themselves
chosen to rule over them.
Lofty Inspiration Found.
They entertained no private pur-
pose, desired no peculiar privilege.
They were consciously. planning that
men of every class should be free, and
America a place to which men out of
every nation might resort who wished
to share with them the rights and
privileges of free men. And we take
our cue from them-do we not? We
intend what they intended. We here
in America believe our participation
in this present war to be only the
fruitage of what they planted. Our
case differs from theirs only in this,
that it is our inestimable privilege to
concert with men out of every nation
what shall make not only the liber-
ties of America secure but the liber-
ties of every other people as well. We
are happy in the thought that we are
permitted to do what they would have
done had they been in our place.
There must now be settled once for
all what was settled for America in
the great age upon whose inspiration
we draw today. This is surely a fit
ting place from which calmly to look
out upon our task, that we may fortify
our spirits for its accomplishment.
And this is the appropriate place from
which to avow, alike to the friends
who look on and to the friends with
whom we have the happiness to be
associated in action, the faith and pur-
pose with which we act
There Can Be Only One End.
This, then, is our conception of the
great struggle in which we are en-
gagged. The plot is written plain upon
every scene and every act of the SUI
preme tragedy. On the one hand
. stand the peoples of the world-not
only the peoples actually engaged, but
many others also who suffer under
mastery but cannot act, peoples of
many races and in every part of the
world-the people of stricken Russia,
still among the rest, though they are
for the moment unorganized and help
less. Opposed to them, masters of
many armies, stand an isolated, friend.
less group of governments who speak
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