Arizona republican., 1919-09-09
Text of Address
[RepubIlcan A. P. Leased wirel

lRepubIlcan A. P. Leased Wire1
 SIOUX FALLS, Sept. S.-eGovernor Norbeck and my fellow citizens:
 T must admit that every time I face a great audience of my fellow coun trymen on this trip I am filled with a feeling of peculiar solemnity, because l believe, my fellow countrymen, that i we have come to one of the turning points in the history of the world. And what l as an American, covet for this great country, is that on every great occasion when mankinds fortunes are hung in the balance, that America may have the distinction of leading the way. l want to remind you, my fellow countrymen. that that war was not an accident. That war didn't just hap pen. There was not some sudden cause which brought on the eonflagra- tlon On the contrary, Germany had been preparing for that war for gener- atlons Germany had been prepar- Ing every resource and perfecting every skill, developing every invention which would enable her to master the European world and to dominate the rest of the world Everybody had been looking on. Everybody had known For example, it was known in every war office in Europe and in the war department in Washington, that the Germans not only had vast sup ply of great field guns, but that they had ammunition enough for every one Of those guns to exhaust the gun. And yet we were living in fools paradise. we thought Germany meant what she said that she was armed for defense and that she never would use that great store of guns against her fellow men. Why, my friends, 1t was fore l ordained mi ceiyed these purposes that she should do the thing which she did in 1914.
 Now I have brought back from Europe with me, my fellow citizens, treaty in which Germany is dis armed and in which all the other na- tions of the world agree never to go to war (applause) that is all I have done one or the other of two things Either l have submitted the question in dispute to arbitration. in which case they will abide by the verdict, or have submitted it to the league of na- tions. They will allow six months for discussion which will put all the facts before the world and not until three months after the expiration of the six will they go to war. There is a period Of nine months cooling off, eznd Ger | many didn't care to cool off for nine hours (applause).
 If Germany had dreamed that any, thing like the greater part of the world would combine against her, she never would have begun the war. and she didn't dare to let the opinions of man Kind crystalize against her, by the dis cusslon of purposes which she had in mind. So what I want to point out to you is that we are making a funda- l mental choice of a government You must adopt government in which Ger many was the perfect flower or you have to have new system You can not have new system unless you sup ply an adequate substitute for the old. And l want to say that when certain of our fellow citizens take the posi- tion that we do not want to go into 1t alone, but want to take care of them ourselves, say that is the German po- sltlon. Germany, through the mouth of her emperor. through her writers and through every action, said, here we stand ready to take care of our selves We will not enter into any combination. We are armed for self defense and we know that no nation can compete with us." That appears to be the American program in the eyes of some gentlemen. and I want to tell you that in the last two weeks the pro-Germanism element has lifted it's head again. It says I see a chance for Germany and America to stay out and 1 take care of themselves Not as part ners or allies, but we Americans will play the same role as the Germans un- der the order that brought us through that agony and bloody sweat That agony where the world seemed caught in the throes of a curse that we did not know whether civilization would survive or not and we do not believe too easily that it Is safe now. There were passions left loose on the field Of world at war which has not grown quet, and which will not for a long time. And every element of disorder is hop ing that there would be no staying | hand from the council of nations to hold the order of the world steady, un- til we can make the final arrangements of justice and peace.
 T sometimes think when I wake up in the night of the wakeful nights that anxious fathers, mothers and friends spent during the weary years of the awful war and I hear the cry of mothers, of the children, millions on the other side and thousands on this side in Gods name give us security and peace right"