The Fayette falcon. (Somerville, Tenn.) 190?-current, 1918-04-05
Statement to the People of
Tennessee.
ISSUED BY STATE COUNCIL OF NATION
AL DEFENSE.

ISSUED BY STATE COUNCIL OF NATION
AL DEFENSE.
The United States is now involved in
the gravest crisis of its history. The
time has come for the people to know
the facts. The situation must be stat.
ed in the plain, naked truth. There
are millions of essy-going, complacent
Americana, to whom the wal as yet has
no real meaning, who have not realized
what this war means. These must be
reused. They must be made to realize
that their lives, their liberty and hap
piness are at stake, They must be
given to understand that whether this
war is won or lost, depends upon their
realization of their personal response.
bility and whether they are willing or
not to make the necessary sacrifice to
save themselves. This wal Is a life
and death struggle for the safety and
existence of ourselves 10 for the bene-
fit Of free people everywhere. The
situation is critical in the extreme, and
we should know it. 1t is time for fac
ing facts instead of fighting on illusion.
Forced into the wal by Germany,
violated our rights as ruthlessly as she
did those of Belgium, we are fighting a
war of self-defense. We are today in
peril. We are fighting to defend our
wives and children from the deiled
hand Of the German. We are fighting
to protect our homes from the beast
who knows no mercy. We are fgting
to preserve the institutions we love,
the liberty we cherish, the freedom 80
dear to u.s.
We are fighting in France, because
it is there we can strike the enemy, but
if we are defeated in France, we shall
be snitten in America, and if unsuc-
cessful in this struggle, we shall no
longer be free men, but the slaves of
the most merciless and brutal taskmaster
the world has ever known. Our peril
is great and only our courage and de-
termination can avert it. 1t is not ssfrom
glory, honor or rights that We fight. but
for liberty, (which no good man loses,
but with his life"
The magnitude of the task we have
undertaken sis appalling, Never in
history have nations undertaken!so.great
a task. Allied nations are maintaining
millions of soldiers in the field, and
must raise many millions more, Our
our must be poured out; our in
dustries, finances and institutions be
crippled and our homes seared,with sor-
row.
The released. German armies from the
Russian front are travelling by the. hun
dreds Of thousands towards our men on
the west, and the greatest ..stream of
all is gathering. The time for idle and
'seditious talk has passed. The time for
action is at hand, so now as president
Wilson says; I'VE are fighting as truly
for the liberty and self-government of
of the United States as if the war of
our own Revolution had to be fought
over again. and every man in every
business in the United States must
know by this time that his whole fu-
ture lies in the balance" 1t is our
lives, liberty, property and happiness
that are at stake. If any mar has an
idea that We are fighting others battles
not our OVID, the sooner he gets away
from that idea the better it will be for
him and the better it will be for all of
US.
The immediate duty of the United
States is to send men and
to the b~attefelds of Europe to help
France and Great Britain win the wal
before their strength is exhausted and
the war brought to America. 1t is our
plain duty to fight in self-defense, and
for US and with our friends while we
have them, and to the end that there
may be an end to all war forever.
We should get il out of our heads
that the only way in which we can show
-. -
we can save ourselves is to serve as
soldiers. for to save the soldiers all
who are left must serve at home. This
will be a long war, and against the mil
lions of men that Germany is now mas
sing on the western front. our millions
Of men must be opposed. We must pre-