Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-03-05
RED, WHITE AND Blue, OR-YELLOW
"ALDEN"

| heritage and the opportunities of its
people.
Becoming an American-being nat
uralized, foreswearing allegiance to a
foreign potentate-being accepted into
the political brotherhood of free men,
| is not mere perfunctory formality. 1t
| is most serious change born of con-
viction and highest sentiment cere-
mony in which men mutually pledge
to each other their Lives, their For
tunes and their sacred Honor" Loyal
ty cannot be satisfied with half the
life, half the fortune and half the
honor, it demands, if needs be, the
whole Life, the whole Fortune and the
whole Honor, for with less than that,
American Citizenship would be worth
less and pass into contempt.
| Every right and privilege here en-
joyed was paid for by human lives and
blood or bitter political contest. Even
what is seemingly to many so invalu
able thing as the free exercise to
vote without the imposition or require
ment of any special service, property,
educational or other qualification,
other than that of age or declaration
of intention to become citizen-or as
now, being a citiZen-waS most bitterly
contested, for there were many who
sincerely believed that doing away
with property qualification for suf-
frage would be the ruin of the state
and of private property rights.
Just what is Democracy, for which
we insist the World must be made
safe? Among the Hohenzollerns,
Hapsburgs and other few, who, because
of the accident of birth, believe them
selves the annointed and chosen to
dictate and command others, Democ-
racy is a contagious disease which is
dangerous and should be stamped out
with the iron heal of arrogated author
lily bequeathed from some robbing
Ihighwayman or pirate too powerful to
have been strung up or quartered as
common felon.
Lincoln defined Democracy to be
"the government Of the people, by the
people, for the people" This does not
necessarily mean republic-it may be
La monarchy. The President of the
United States is vested with greater
authority than is the King of England.
A Democracy once established spells
revolution without the initial ''r," and
breaches that it is easier to lift men
up than to hold them down-it is
government by public opinion-in
which every man has a chance for the
full development of all that is best in
him and knows that this chance is his
with every opportunity to realize wor-
thy ambitions-in which the educa-
ton, training, health and development
of the children is of greatest import
ance and without discrimination and
equal opportunity, because of their i'm
portance as future citizens-where the
honest, loyal, capable man and woman
is the Ideal, and not the thing or chat
tel. Liberty and Freedom were first
given conception in the dreams of the
lowly and the oppressed. When Pres
ident Wilson said: "The World must
be made safe for Democracy" he
meant that everywhere on Gods green
earth the inalienable Rights of man
to Life. Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness must be recognized, and
that collectively by countries or ma
tions they must be conceded a voice
in it's government and the determine
ton of it's form-that the autocratic
one-man power, which has turned the
world into bloody slaughter house,
fertile fields and prosperous cities
into wastes, homes into desolation and
the desecration of women, must end
and the governing powers be made
accountable to the people, to the end
| that peace and good will may here
after prevail.
If you are one of those with German
leanings and sympathies ask yourself
a few questions:
Do you believe that if the German
people had had the right of self-gov-
! ernment and a voice and vote-either
individually or through freely chosen
representatives-in a determination of
war or no war, that they would have
created state of war between Ger.
many and the United States? If eyes,
these people are your enemies-why
waste your sympathies.
If you believe that the German
people were not to blame because
they had no voice and vote, but that
this state of war was created by the
will and autocratic power Of one man
backed by his system of Inilitarism
would you not be in favor OF Victory
that must place into the hands anC
control of these German people in the
future such a change III their form o.
government as woaid enforce ac
countability from ruler and choseI
representatives. If "Yes," pray fol
the Defeat of German arms on tht
battle field that there may be Victor!