Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918: Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2Various
History
Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918: Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2
Various
World War, 1914-1918
I do not think this debate should finish without repudiating the
suggestion made that Japan is moved by selfish and dishonorable motives
in any course which may have been discussed in Japan, either among her
own statesmen or the Allies. Japan has maintained perfect loyalty. She
has kept all the promises made to the Allies. I hope I have said enough
to indicate the general problems as they present themselves to this
Government, and at the same time also to show that we recognize to the
full how difficult this problem is, how hard it is to help a nation
which is utterly incapable for the moment of helping itself. The House
will feel, I think, that the decisions which the Allies may have to give
are not without difficulty, and the principles upon which those
decisions will be come to are neither ungenerous, unfair, nor hostile to
Russia or the Russian revolution; but on the contrary that our one
object is to see Russia strong, intact, secure, and free. If these
objects can be attained, then, indeed, and then only, will the Russian
revolution bring forth all the fruits which Russia's best friends desire
to see.
President on the Russian Treaties
Declares Germany Has Repudiated Her Peace Avowals and Will Be Met With
"Force to the Utmost"
_President Wilson delivered an address at Baltimore on April 6,
1918, in which he denounced the terms which the Central Powers
had exacted from Russia and Rumania, and defined the attitude of
the United States toward all peace proposals offered on such a
basis. The text of his speech in full is as follows:_
Fellow-citizens: This is the anniversary of our acceptance of Germany's
challenge to fight for our right to live and be free, and for the sacred
rights of freemen everywhere. The nation is awake. There is no need to
call to it. We know what the war must cost, our utmost sacrifice, the
lives of our fittest men, and, if need be, all that we possess.
The loan we are met to discuss is one of the least parts of what we are
called upon to give and to do, though in itself imperative. The people
of the whole country are alive to the necessity of it and are ready to
lend to the utmost, even where it involves a sharp skimping and daily
sacrifice to lend out of meagre earnings. They will look with
reprobation and contempt upon those who can and will not, upon those who
demand a higher rate of interest, upon those who think of it as a mere
commercial transaction. I have not come, therefore, to urge the loan. I
have come only to give you, if I can, a more vivid conception of what it
is for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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