صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

our honor. The Austro-Hungarian Government has, indeed, avowed its unqualified endorsement and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine warfare adopted now without disguise by the Imperial German Government, and it has therefore not been possible for this Government to receive Count Tarnowski, the Ambassador recently accredited to this Government by the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary; but that Government has not actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United States on the seas, and I take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna. We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because there are no other means of defending our rights.

It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus, not in enmity towards a people or with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right and is running amuck. We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early reestablishment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us, however hard it may be for them, for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from our hearts. We have borne with their present government through all these bitter months because of that friendship,-exercising a patience and forbearance which would otherwise have been impossible. We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship in our daily attitude and actions towards the millions of men and women of German birth and native sympathy who

live amongst us and share our life, and we shall be proud to prove it towards all who are in fact loyal to their neighbors and to the Government in the hour of test. They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had never known any other fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind and purpose. If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression; but, if it lifts its head at all, it will lift it only here and there and without countenance except from a lawless and malignant few.

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts, -for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.

ADDRESS TO SOLDIERS

GOVERNOR JAMES P. GOODRICH AT FORT BENJAMIN
HARRISON, MAY 17, 1917

I do not need to impress upon you the seriousness of the undertaking which you have commenced nor of the necessity of bringing unimpaired to the great service that lies before you, every ounce of physical, moral and spiritual force that you possess. It will call for the best that is in you and I know that the call will not be in vain.

We have already gotten over the idea that this war is to be a summer vacation. The enemy is still strong and resourceful and there will be many a weary march and many long days of fighting before the successful end of the war. We must bring to this conflict every available resource. Nothing must be overlooked-men, munitions, food, cooperation and the spirit of our forefathers shall be needed to their utmost limit if we are to win, and we must and shall win.

I need not remind you that many long days of patient effort are ahead of you. There is nothing romantic about training for war. The days of chivalry are gone and the spirit of romance has faded from the battle-field. War in the twentieth century is grim scientific business, terrible in its intensity, awful in its consequence, something which requires the best efforts in us all those in the fighting lines and those who are discharging their duty back home.

[graphic][merged small]

Heroism there is in plenty-as much, if not more, than in the days when war and romance went hand in hand. There is no greater heroism than that of the man, who, day by day, without blare of trumpets or glare of spotlight, works hard or fights grimly for his country, seeking no further reward than the knowledge he is doing his best, playing full well his part that the country may live and live honestly and well, fulfilling its destiny among the family of nations.

I need not remind you of the justice of the cause in which you have enlisted, nor the high ideals which it has brought forth. No matter how much diplomats may differ as to the exact cause of the war in Europe, there can be no question now that the right of a free people to follow its peaceful pursuits and work out its destiny without foreign interference has been challenged and that we must meet and defeat the challenge or forfeit our right to march in the forefront of the world progress. In waging this war, we must not lose sight of our American ideals, in calculating the principle, as they do, of a free nation's right to grow and develop and work out its own future in its own way, subject to no foreign interference, nor secret compact. Until this principle has been forcefully and convincingly demonstrated to the world, we will never be safe from the encroachments of some military autocracy strong with power and determined to impress its kultur on the rest of the world.

If we are to maintain our position successfully, we must prepare thoroughly and carefully and must fight with all our power. All of us hope that the war may be a short one, ended by the triumph of our cause, but the best way to wage a short war is to prepare for a long one and throw every ounce of energy and efficiency into the scale of combat.

« السابقةمتابعة »