Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-09-28
FULL TEXT OF PRESIDENT WILSON'S ADDRESS

vision as l could command But
I have responded gladly and with a
| resolution that has grown warmer
and more confident as the issues
have grown clearer and clearer.
Plain Men Unified.
1T is now plain that they are
| issues which no man can pervert
unless it be wilfulIy. l am bound
| to fight for them, and happy to fight
| for them as time and circumstances
| have revealed them to me as to all
| the world. Our enthusiasm for
| them grows more and more ire
sistible as they stand out in more
and more vivid and unmistakable
outline.
And the forces that fight for
them draw into closer and closer
array, organize their millions into
more and more unconquerable
might, as they become more and
more distinct to the thought and
purpose of the peoples engaged.
| 1T is the popularity of this great
war that while statesmen have
| seemed to cast about for definitions
| Of their purpose and have some
! times seemed to shift their ground
! and their point of view, the thought
| of the mass Of men, whom states
men are supposed to instruct and
| lead, has grown more and more IN
| cIouded, more and more certain of
| what it is that they are fighting for.
I is that they are fighting for.
National purposes have fallen
more and more into the back
/ ground and the common purpose
! Of enlightened mankind has taken
their place.
/ THE counseIs of plain men have
| become on all hands more simple
and straightforward and more uni
/ fed than the counsels of sophisti-
Gated men of affairs, who still re-
! tain the impression that they are
! playing a game of power and play
| ing for high stakes. That is why
have said that this is a peoples
/ war, not a statesmen's. Statesmen
must follow the clarified common
| thought or be broken.
81 take that to be the significance
of the fact that assemblies and as
| sociations of many kinds made up
of plain workaday people have de-
manded almost every time they
came together, and are still de-
handing, that the leaders of their
governments declare to them plain
| ly what it is-exactly what it is
| that they were seeking in this war
| and what they think the items of
the final settlement should be.
They are not yet satisfied with
| what they have been told. They
still seem to fear that they are get
| ting what they ask for only in
statements terms-onIy in the
terms Of territorial arrangements
and the divisions Of power, and not
in terms of broad vision, justice
and mercy and peace and the salts
faction of those deep-seated long
ings Of oppressed and distracted
men and women and enslaved peO-
pies that seem to them the only
| things worth fighting a war for
that engulfs the world.
Believes Allies Aims Same.
: Perhaps statesmen have not al
ways recognized this changed
aspect of the whole world of policy
and action. Perhaps they have not
always spoken in direct reply to
/ the questions asked because they
did not know how searching those
questions were and what sort of
answers they demanded.
But /, for one, am glad to at
tempt the answer again, and again
in the hope that l may make It
clearer that my one thought is to
satisfy those who struggle in the
ranks and are, perhaps, above all
| others entitled to a reply whose
meaning no one can have any ex-
cuse for misunderstanding if he I'M
derstands the language in which it
IS spoken or can get some one to
translate it correctly into his own.
And 1 believe that the leaders
of the governments with which we
are associated will speak, as they
have occasion, as plainly as I have
tried to speak
Il hope that they will feel free
to say whether they think that l
am in any degree mistaken in my
Interpretation of these issues in
volved or in my purpose with re-
gard to the means by which a sat
isfactOry settlement of these issues
may be obtained.
Unity Of purpose and Of counsel
are as imperatively necessary in
this war as was unity OF command
IN the battlefield; and with perfect
unity Of purpose and counsel will
come assurance of complete vic
tory. It can be had in no other
way.
Each VictOry Aids Peace.
Peace drives can be effectively
utilized and silenced only by show
ing that every victory of the nations
associated against Germany brings