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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1916)
fWW W r3VWPr' The Commoner TONE, 1916 H our records are almost immaculate. In the mak ing of no other nation has conquest played so small a part. Stolen wealth does not fill our coffers, or ravished territory swell our domains. Wo have built our greatness on the resources of nature and the peaceful toil of our people. The ring of the anvil, not the rattle of the saber, the song of the reaper, not the shriek of the soldier, the clatter of the shuttle, not the crack of the rifle, have won us the place we occupy to day in the councils of the world. With us war has never been a choice, it has always been a fate. We would like to furl the flags of war and still its throbbing drums; we sigh for the day when men will beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks; but we recognize that the miracle is yet to be performed which perfects human nature and im bues nations with the spirit to do unto others as they would do unto us. Like the old Mohawk chief who loved peace, we would like to throw the tomahawk of war so high in the sky that no man's hand .could ever pull it down. But when some other tribe among the races of men sends us a bundle of arrows wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake, we want, like old Governor Bradford of Massachusetts, to be in a position to send that rattlesnake's skin back stuffed with powder and with ball. We deprecate the compulsion, but we recog nize the need of the policemen on the beat, the safe in the bank and the watch-dog on the farm. We pray for the millennium, but we accept things as they are. As men of common sense we real ize that, for a nation, the policy of turning the other cheek when unjustly smitten means na tional decapitation and a funeral at which our people would be the mourners, our enemies our heirs. We fought one war for existence and one for survival. We fought one war to exclude foreign influence and another to preserve internal peace.' And we would fight four more wars for the same reasons, but the reasons we must have. When necessity demands we stand ready to meet with force the enemies of our liberty, the defamers of our honor and the foes of our integrity. The war across the seas has brought home to us the fear that so long as men are men and nations nations, Wars will continue. We have been aroused from our dreams of the millennium to the knowledge that nothing that men cherish is safe from assault; that the man who would preserve his rights "to life, to liberty and to happiness, must stand ready to defend those rights with the last drop of his blood. We have been carried too close to the rocks of war during the past two years to believe that those rocks do not exist. And, looking into the future, we can perceive that if our sovereignty is not challenged, if our peace is not assailed it will only be because the world knows that we are strong enough to defend ourselves from ev ery foe. '' Tor these reasons'" this administration has done more for our army and our navy than any administration in our history. More than this, it has mobilized the resources of the nation to meet the needs of war. It has place the wealth of the country back of the strength of the country, the toiler back of the soldier and the sailor. And to our opponents we say you can't create an army, can't build a navy in the course of a day; to them we say if our navy is not strong enough, if our army is not big enough, the re publican party is 80 per cent to blame, for the republican party has been in control of this na tion 80 per cent of the timo during the past fifty years. The democratic party advocates and seeks preparedness, but it is preparedness for defense, not preparedness for aggression. It i3 the preparedness which builds the na tion's house upon a rock, so it will not fall when the rains descend and the floods come and the winds blow. SAYS MILITARISM IS AS IMPOSSIBLE AS GHOST'S SHADOW IN MIDDAY SUN We may look upon preparedness with as little favor as we look upon taxes, but we pay the taxes because we want the protection for which the taxes pay. Democracy refuses to be frightened by those who pretend to fear that this great land of free dom will descend into the abyss of militarism. It knows that militarism can no morje thrive in this country than the cockle and the tare can thrive amid the wheat of the husbandman who loves his land. It knows that preparedness, that reasonable preparedness, will not kill democracy in this country any more than it killed democ racy in Switzerland. It knows that reasonable preparedness will Insure us peace Juit as it In sured peace for Switzerland, though war thuii dcred at her doors. Militarism in the United States Is as 'impos sible as the shadow of a ghost in tho midday sun. Wo had a triumphant army In 1776, we had an invincible navy in 1812 and in 1860 we had tho two greatest armies tho world had ever seen. But when tho crisis passed that called these freemen to tho colors tho first to leap forward at their country's call were tho first to return to the farms and factories whence they came. From the ranks of democracy they came as silently as Putnam left his plough In answer to the shot heard around the world; and back to democracy they went as silently as tho southern heroes whoso horses Grant returned that they might plow tho very fields which had been har rowed by their cannons' wheels. These, then, are tho principles that have been asserted and followed by tho President of tho United States during tho past two years that the United States shall not embroil itself in Eu ropean strife, that the United States shall en deavor to maintain friendly and cordial rela tions with every other nation and that the United States shall firmly assert and maintain and be prepared to assert and maintain its neutral rights against every belligerent. Nothing in the assertion of these principles by the President has caused the nation so many anxious hours as the fear that the temper of the American people might bo misundorstood. Efforts have been made and may be made again to create an impression here and abroad that in asserting these principles the President spoke for only a fraction of the American peo ple, that the nation itself was divided, and that the President's solemn words could bo disregard ed because the American people would not stand solidly behind him. This convention must make it plain that all divisions among the American people stop at the ocean's edge. This convention must declare and must give the country the means to declare that when the President of the United States speaks to a foreign power, he speaks for every citizen of America; that when tho nation's chief execu tive asserts a policy that has been an American policy since the beginning of the nation, his ac tion has behind it the force and strength of a loyal and united people. We, who know and love America, know how false, how vain, how unreal, are tho efforts of those who picture us to the world as divided against ourselves. We know that so far as our international relations are concerned we hold but one faith, acknowledge but one loyalty, follow but one flag. We of this convention, representing every sec tion of the United States, speaking for every racial strain in America, must send forth a mes sage to all the world that will leave no room for doubt. We must enable every real American to stand up and assert his Americanism. We must make the issue so clear that every ballot box in the land may become a monument to the loyalty of American manhood. The citizens of this country will stand behind their President because his policies are right. They will stand behind him because his policies are tho policies which have brought the nation a century of prosperous and honored peace. They will stand behind him because they want these policies continued, that prosperity prolonged, that peace assured. Yet, over and above every other reason that the nation may have for upholding its President, Is the necessity of proving to the world that wo are a united people. So long as the other nations of the earth real ize that the millions under America's flag think as one, believe as one and act as one in the face of foreign war, we shall be free from foreign intrigue, and all that it entails. Once let the notion get abroad that this nation is merely a confederation of diverse and conflicting allegi ances, and we shall never be safe from the ma chinations of foreign powers. A regard for national surety as well as a pride of personal honor will, therefore, bring the American people to the support of their Pres ident. Whether their blood is drawn from the banks of the Rhine, or where the river Shannon flows, whether they hail from Alpine valleys or the meadows of the Pyrenees, whether their de scent be German or French, Irish or English, Austrian or Italian, Russian or Greek, the men who have sworn an oath of fealty to the ideals of America will be true. They may love the lands of their fathers much, but they love the land of their children more They may chorish the memory of the sod from which thoy sprung, but they stand ready to die for tho Boil that thoy havo hallowed with tholf homes. Their loyalty to America Is more than loyalty to a namo; their allcgianco is more than alle giance to a flag. Tho man who serves America serves only tho best in himself. The man who is loyal to America is loyal only to tho noblest of humanity's ideals. Tho man who swears al legiance to America enrolls himself in tho ranks of those who aro pledged to freedom, to oppor tunity, to justice and to human progress. High above every other Issuo that this con vention offers to tho American people wo must thoroforo write a vindication of American loy alty. Securo in our conviction that America comes first with every American, confident that tho great warm heart of tho republic beats true and strong, convinced that tho stars' of the heavens aro not moro firmly fixed than tho stars of America's flag aro shrined In tho hearts of. America's citizens, wo must call upon our coun trymen to show their dovotion and their loyalty not to a democratic president, but to tho Prosi dent of tho United States. It-is more than coincidence that an adminis tration which has steadfastly maintained the peace and tho honor of the nation should have sought with equal energy and eqi. success the internal progress and domestic prbsporlty which Is tho natural product of tranquility and fair dealing. It is not surprising that an administration which has jealously guarded tho national rights of the United States should havo cherished with equal zeal tho individual rights of its citizens. It is natural that an administration which has stoutly asserted the ancient freedom of our com merce on tho seas, should havo labored with equal sincerity ' for the new freedom of oppor tunity on America's soil. Four years ago tho people of this country en trusted their government to a man and to a party who promised that thoy would liberate tho nation from tho chains of industrial tyranny, who pledged themselves to break down tho bar riers bohdnd which special privllego sat en trenched; who engaged themselves to emanci pate business, to throw wide tho gates of lawful enterprise, to restore to tho men and women of America the paths of progress which had been choked and blocked by long years of invisible government. That promise has been kept; that pledge has been redeemed. Today tho prosperity which the nation enjoys bears witness that democracy has kept the faith. Today the gates of opportunity are open; the hosts of special privilege stand, disarmed. Today the forces of government are encouraging, not blocking tho full expression of tho nation's progress. Today the -business man, th'o artisan and farmer find themsolves free to enjoy the fruits of their labors, unhampered by the sinister power of special privilege or the sel fish oppression of "invisible government." TELLS OF LEGISLATION ATTAINED DURING WILSON'S ADMINISTRATION ' To attempt to describe the myriad ways in which this new spirit of government has found expression would necessitate a review of every national activity, a compendium of every de partment of the national government. We must content ourselves here with a brief consideration of the great landmarks which chart the change from government for tho fortunate few to an evenhanded government in the interest of all. The first of these is the federal reserve act which freed the business man and the farmer from the financial domination of the money changers and lifted the menace of panic from our industrial life. Five times during the past thirty years, at periods when industry was flourishing and crops were abundant, the purse strings of the country have tightened without apparent reason and the nation has been devastated by panics. - Business men had seen tho patient work of years swept away in a night. Farmers had watched their homes sold over their heads. The widow and tho orphan, the tire-woman and the mechanic had found themselves defrauded of their pittances as they beat upon the closed doors of insolvent banks. Paralysis had fallen upon the nation's industries. Armies of the un employed had marched from factory to factory begging for work. Bread lines and soap kitck- (Continued on Page 30)