The daily Alaskan., 1918-07-05
tAs 9nite AtaSkass .stabli.ked 1888 Oldest Daily in Alaska
OFFICIAL CITY PAPER 1. ;. KeIleS, Publisher
EDITORIAL

The following is a message Whlch President Wilson sent to all of the four minute men in the United States and which was read at all Fourth of July ceremonies and in all of the theaters and moving pie ture shows everywhere. On Thurs day night, July Fourth, Dr. L. 5. Keller was the 4 Minute Man and ha read the message to a we'll filled house at the Popular Picture Pal ace:.
 You are met, my fellow citizens, to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which marked the awakening of a new spirit in the lives of nations; since the birth of our republic We have seen the spirit grow. We have heard the demand and watched the struggle for f-government spread triumphs among many people. We have come to regard the right to political liberty as the common right of human kind. Year after year within the security of our bor- ders We have continued to rejoice in the peaceful increase of free dom and democracy throughout the world and yet, now suddenly We are confronted with a menace which endangers everything that We have won and everything the world has won in all it's old insolence. With all its ancient cruelty and injustice military autocracy has again armed itself against the pacific hopes of men. Having suppressed self-goy- ernment among it's own people by organization maintained in part by | ialsehood and treachery, it has set out to impose its will upon neigh bors and upon us. One by one 1t has compelled every civilized na- tion in the world either 10 fOrego its aspirations or to declare war in their defense. We find our selves fighting again for our Ma tional existence. We are face to face with the necessity of asserting anew the fundamental rights of free men to make their own laws and choose their own allegiance or else permit humanity to become the vic tim of a ruthless ambition that is | determined to destroy what it can Rot master. Against its threat the liberty-loving people of the world have arisen and allied them selves. No fear has deterred them and no bribe of material well-being has held them back. They have made sacrifices such as the world has never known before and their resistance in the face of death and suffering has proved that the aim which animated the German effort can never hope to rule the spirit of mankind against the horror Of military conquest, against the empti ness of living in mere bodily con tentment, against the resolution of becoming part of a state that knows neither truth nor honor. The world has so revOlted that even people long dominated and suppressed by force have now begun to stir and arm themselves. Centuries of sub jugation have not destroyed the ra- Cial aspiration of the many distinct peoples of Eastern Europe DOT have they accepted the sordid ideas of their political and military masters. They have survived the slow prosecutions of peace as well as the agonies of war and now demand recognition for their just claims to autonomy and self-government. Rep resentatiYes of these races are with you today, voicing their loyalty to our ideals and offering their services in the common cause, l ask you, fellow citizens, to unite with them in making this our In dependence Day, the first that shall be consecrated to a Declaration of Independence for all the peoples of the world"