Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-03-05
fer the German people with whom you

tal1SLS Will permit an uprising OIL Ine
common people so long as tLey can
dominate the men behind the machine
gun pointed at the populaee and COM
mand them to pull the trigger.
The men of 1S4S with all their courage
and self-sacrifce failed, and America
became the gamer in the coming of
those splendid patriots who loved
freedom and liberty better than ties of
blood and native soil-and to voice
desire for self-government and ac-
countability of rulers is as ''verboten"
today in Germany and is suppressed
more harshly than when German
junkerism and militarists felt them
selves even less secure. Nothing but
thorough overwhelming defeat will
give to the people of the Central Pow
ers the opportunity so many have long
prayed for-and that defeat will come
certainly and surely whatever be the
sacrifice demanded of us as a Nation
or individuals. This is a War in
which the United States can gain not
an inch of territory nor a fartning
in money, but in which it has entered
to maintain the principles upon
which this Government was founded
to fail would turn back civilization
for centuries and endow brutal might
with the right of oppression. Better
that every home shall have "a vacant
chair" and every mothers heart be-
come a hero's shrine, than that the
spirit of freedom become the scorn of
the conqueror and human liberty be
trailed in the mire of ruthless aggres-
sion. Loyalty -whole-hearted, undi-
vided Loyalty-is not asked as a
favor from everyone whatever be his
ancestry or ties of blood it is de-
manded as a right and duty for
which nothing can offer an excuse for
evasion. A Loyalty which cannot be
satisfied by doing your bit" but in
which Doing your utmost is the least
expected.
There are those who attempt to
justify their half-heartedness by bark
ing back to the days before we were
in this war, when the red-blooded
American was chafing at the delay,
with the statement that the shutting
down on war profiteering by placing
an embargo ON munitiOn shipments to
the allies would have kept us out of
this war. If you have any reasoning
power at all and are honest with
yourself at all, you don't believe any
thing of the kind and you know better.
No farmer ever declined to sell any Of
his livestock or a pound of his pro-
duce that it should not leave this
country or at any time pass into the
possession of any individual of a war
ring nation. No laboring man or
wage-earner ever declined to work at
any particular job for fear that the
product of mis- toll would reach a COM
batant No merchant or manufacturer
ever sold a single product whether
clothing, food or munitions condi-
toned under any agreement to de-
liver the goods safely across the
ocean. Everyone, farmer, laborer,
wage-earner, merchant and manu-
facturer were interested in Sc
curing the best price the OPP
portunity afforded, and the delivery
of the goods here to the representa-
tives of the purchaser ended the
transaction, whether they ever
reached the other side did not enter
in the consideration so far as the sell
Ter was concerned. During the Span
ish-American war Germany sold all
the munition it could persuade Spain
to buy, and it was our right to prevent
such purchase from reaching Spain
if we could, and Germany would have
been unneutral then only, if as a
friendly nation she had made it her
business to safeguard the delivery of
such purchases to our enemy. 1t was
the business of the purchaser to at
tend to his own deliveries. Don't you
remember how every pro-German' S
face was wreathed in smiles when the
submarine Deutschland reached Bal
timore with cargo of goods and dye
stuffs, and then loaded up with cargo
of the things Germany most needed
Every pro-German thought that was
fine and many of the enthusiasts took
railroad trips to see the submarine
and toast the commander, and jeer
at those who thought the seas could
be blocked to "us Germans" 1t GER
tainly was not our fault that these
submarines did not come again anC
again. When the custodian of alien
property made his collection anC
| took charge he came into possession o1
millions and millions of war goods
materials and food supplies, pur-
chased by Germans and stored at the
coast for shipment, and it was the
| privilege of Germany to load up hel
boats in our harbors and sail away
and evade capture by her enemies, i
she could-those boats were not takeI
possession of and confiscated unit
after a state of war was declared
If it was only money that was wanted
the American farmer, wage-earner
merchant and manufacturer mus
have opposed our entering this wa
most bitterly, for with America in tn
war there must of necessity come re
striction in profits and conscription o
dollars as well as men.
The American government wass pa
itient and forebearing until there wer
many who feared that our love of cas-
and long continued complacency ha
made us soft as Nation and fearfu
of results But that was not true
was but the serious effort by ever
means to save us honorably from a
the horrors of war, and as more an
more the ruthless cloven foot of re
lentless foe of every principle of rec
ognized civilized warfare was expose
and it became daily more apparer
that the very foundations of Demos
racy were to be uprooted to drag +;
the chariot wheels of an arrogaI
victor. then all we had and all we eve
hoped to be as a Nation was at stalk
and we became one of the hosts
battle at Armageddon that huma
rights and liberty and freedom sha
not perish and that men, everywher
shall retain their inalienable Rights
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Hal