The Elbert County tribune., 1918-07-12
NO PEACE UNTIL
HUN IS CRUSHED,
SAYS PRESIDENT
Speaks at Washington's Tomb on
Independence Dar.
SETTLEMENT MUST BE FINAL
Says "Blinded Rulers of Prussia Have
Reused Forces They Knew Little
Cf-Forces Which Once Reused
Can Never Be Crushed to
Earth.n

Mount Vernon, Va, July 4.-Presi-
dent Wilson in his Independence day
address at George Washington's tomb
here said that the father of his coun-
try and his associates spoke and act
ed. not for a class, but for a people
and that 1t has been left for us to see
to 1t that 1t shall be understood that
they spoke and acted, not for a single
people only but for all mankind and
were planning that men of every class
should be free and America place to
which men out of every nation might
resort who wished to share with them
the rights and privileges of free men.
The president then referred to the
present world struggle and said that the
peoples of the world find themselves
confronted by selfish group of ma
tons who speak no common purpose
but only selfish ambitions of their own
and by which none can profit but
themselves and whose people are fuel
in their hands. He declared that these
governments are clothed with strange
trappings and the primitive authority
of an age that is altogether alien and
hostile to our own. He said the past
and the present are in deadly grapple
and the peoples of the world are be-
ing done to death between them. The
rulers of the central powers even fear
their own people. said the president.
He declared that there can be but one
issue in this war and the settlement
must be final; that there can be no
compromise and no halfway decision
is conceivable.
The president urged the establishing
of an organization of peace which will
make 1t certain that the combined pow
er of free nations will check every in
vasion of right and serve to make
peace and justice the more secure by
affording n definite tribunal of opinion
TO which all must submit.
The president in closing his address
said: 1.-THE blinded rulers of Prussia
have reused forces which aroused can
never be crushed to earth again-for
they have at their heart an inspiration
and a purpose which are deafness and
of the very stuff of triumph
Text of Address.
The text of the presidents speech
follows:
Gentlemen of the Diplomatic Corps
and My Fellow Citizens: l am happy
to draw apart with you to this quiet
place of old counsel in order to speak
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 us it was in those great days
long ago when General Washington
was here and held leisurely conference
with the men who were to be associ-
ated with him in the creation of ma
ton. From the gentle slopes they
looked out upon the world and saw 1t
whole, saw it with the light of the fu-
ture upon 1t, saw 1t with modern eyes
that turned away from past which
men of liberated spirits could no longer
endure, it is for that reason that we
cannot feel, even here, in the immedi-
ate presence of this sacred tomb, that
this is place of death. 1t was a
place of achievement. A great promise
that was meant for all mankind was
here given plan and reality. The as
sociations by which we are here sur
of that noble death which is only
glorious contamination. From this
green hillside we also ought to be able
to see with comprehending eyes the
world that lies about us and should
conce,Ve anew the purposes that must
set men free.
Planned Universal Freedom.
ut is signifcant-signifca 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. 1t has been left for us to see
to 1t that 1t shall be understood that
they spoke and acted, not for single
people only, but for all mankind. They
were thinking, not of themselves and
of the material interests which cen
tered in the little groups of landhold-
ers 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 author
ity of men whom they had not them
selves chosen to rule over them. They
entertained no private purpose. de-
sired no peculiar privilege.
They were consciously planning
that men of every class should be free
and America 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