Newspaper Page Text
Friday Morning, April 13th, 1917
President Wilson’s Great
~ War Speech To Congress
Continued From Pags Six.
upon tne principle of universal lia
bility to service, and also’ the au
thorization of subsequent additional
increments of equal ‘force so soon as
they may be needed and can be
nandled in training. It will involve
also, of course, the granting of ade
quate credits to the Qngrnment.
sustained, I hope, so far as they can
equitably be sustained by the pres:-
ent generation, by well conceived
taxation.
1 say sustained so far as may be
equitable’ by taxation because it
seems to me thut it would be most
unwise to base the credits whica
will now be necessary entirely on
money borrowed. It is our duty, I
most respectfully urge, to protect
our people so far as we may against
the very serious hardships and evils
whicq would be likely to rise out
of the inflation wnich would be pro
duced by vast loans.
In carrying out tue measure by
which these things are to be ac
complished we should keep con
stantly in mind tne wisdom of in
terfering as little as possible in our
own preparation and in the equip
ment of our own military forces
with the duty,—for it will be ‘a
very practical duty,—of supplying
the nations already at war with
Germany with the materials whicn
they can obtain only from us or by
our assistance. They are in the
field and we should help taem in
every way to be effective there.
I shall take tine iiverty of sug
gesting, through the several execu
tive departments of tne Govern
ment, for the consideration of your
committees, measures for the ac
complishment of the several ob
jects 1 have mentioned. 1 hope that
it will be your pleasure to deal
with them as having been framed
after very careful thought by the
branch of the Government upon
which tne responsibility of conduect
ing the war and safeguarding the}
nation will most directly fall. ‘
While we do these things, these!
deeply momentous things, let us
be very clear, and make very clear
to all the world what our motives
and objects are. My own thought
has not been driven from its habi
tual and normal course by tne un
@
—————==Marietta Has———— ,
A Million Dollar Bank
The officers gnd Directors of The First National Bank desire to call the attention of its depositors and friends and the
Citizens of Cobb County to the statement below. For the first time in its history, the total resources of this bank are now over
ONE MILLION DOLLARS. The management of the Bank feels that this showing reflects the conservative and progressive
methods employed in this financial institution. |
We desire to thank our friends and customers for their patronage and loyalty, and solicit new business with the assurance
that you will receive every facility offered by a strong Bank. '
' STATEMENT
| MARIETTA, GEORGIA. '
o At Close of Business April 7, 1917
RESOURCES | LIABILITIES
Loans and Discounts ;.: ; . $470,342.30 Capital R:; . . : : $100,000.00
Overdrafts : . . . . ; . . 94.73 | Surplus and Profits ¢ : : ; : 79,971.18
gtoc]ksE and Bonds :;. : . 1%183680 Circulation . .:) ; : ; 75,000.00
ea state. . . : . 4 : : 24,000.00 < Gl
Furniture and Fixtures : . i . 2,215.00 ~ DEPOSITS ; - - ~ . . . 795,391.78
Banking Premises ; . : ; : 7,250.00 |
CASH;: |
In Vault ! : - $ 12,941.50
With Banks : . 414,781.93 |
U. S. Treas. ; \ 3,750.00 Total Cfasuh»}}l_{}:}*‘l} |
. $1,050,362.96 $1,050,362.96
OFFICERS DIRECTORS
J. E. Massey, President . Jos. M. Brown, Vice-Pres, Jos. M. Brown, A.V, Cortelyou, R.E. Butler,
G. P. Reyno'ds, Cashier 2. R Tgtile Asst. Gashler | Thas O Erwin, G. P. Reynolds, J.E. Massey.
| happy events of the last two months
jand Ido not believe that the
; thought of the nation nas been al-
Jtered or clouded by them. [ have
exactly the same things in mind
now taat I*had in mind when I ad
dressed the Senate on the twenty
second of January last; the same
that T had in mind when I addreszed
the Congress on the tnird of Febru-‘
ary and on the twenty-sixth of Feb
ruary. Our object now, as then, is‘
to vindicate the principles of peace
and justice in the life of the world
as against selfisa and autocratic
power and to set up amongst the
really freer and self-governed peop
ples of the world such a concert of
purpose amd action as will hence
forth insure the observance of
those principles. Neutrality is no
longer feasible or desirable where
tne peace of the world is involved
and the freedom of its peoples, and
the menace to that peace and free
dom lies in the existence of auto-
!oratic governments backed by or
ganized force which is controlled
wholly by their will, not by the will
of their people. We have seen the
last of neutrality in such cireum
stances. We are at the beginning
of an age in ‘which it will be insist
ed that the same standards of con
duct and of responsibility for
wrong done shall be observed among
nations and their governments that
are observed among the individual
citizens of civilized states.
We have no quarrel with the
German people. We nave no feel
ing towards them but one of sym
pathy and friendship. It was not
upon their impulse that their gov
ernment acted in entering this war.
It was not with thoeir previous
knowledge or approval. It was' a
war determined upon as wars used
to be determined upon in the old
unhappy days when peoples were
nowhere consulted by their rulers
and wars were provoked and waged
in the interest of dynasties or of lit
tle groups of ambitious men who
were accustomed to use tneir fel
low-men as pawns and tools. Self
governed nations do not fill their
neighbour states with spies or set
the course of intrigue to bring
some critical posture of affairs
THE MARIETTA JOURNAL AND COURIER
which will give them an opportuni
ty to strike and make conquest,
Sucp designs can be successfully
worked out only under cover and
wlhere no one has the right to ask
(uestions. Cunningly contrived
plans of reception or aggression car
ried, it may be, from generation to
generation, can be worked out and
kept from the light only within tae
’ privacy of courts or behind the care
fully guarded confidences of a nasp
row and privileged class. They are
happily impossible wanere public
opinion commands and insists upon
full information concerning all the
nation’s affairs.
A s.erdfast concert for peace can
rever be maintained except by a
partnership of democratic nations,
No autocratic government could be
trusted to keep faith within it or
observe its’covenants. It must be
a league of honour, a partnership
of opinion. Intrigue would eat its
vitals away; the plottings of inner
circles who could: plan what they
would and render account to no one
would be a corruption seated at its
very heart. Only free peoples can‘
hold their purpose and their nonour
steady to a common end and prefer
the interests of mankind to any nar
row interest of their own.
Does not every American feel
that assurance has been added to
our pope for the future peace of
the world by the wonderful and
heartening things that have been
nappening within the last few weeks
in Russia? Russia was known by
those who knew it best to nave
been always in fac‘t, democratic at
heart, in all the vital habits of her
thought, in all tne intimate rela
tionships of her people that spoke
their natural instinet, their habi
tual attitude towards life. The
autocracy that crowned the summit
of her political structure, long as
it had stood and terrible as was the
reality of its power, was not in fact
Russia in origin, character, or pur
pose; and now it has been shaken
off and the great, generous Russian
people have been added in all their
naive majesty and might to be
.forces that are fighting for free
dom in the world, for justice, and
for peace. Here is a fit partner, for
a League of honour.
One of the things that has served
to convince us that the Prussian au
tocracy was not and could never
be our friend is that from the very
outset of the present war ‘it - has
filled our unsuspecting communities
and even our offices of government
with spies and set eriminal intrigues
everywhere afoot against our na
tional unity of counsel, our peace
within and without, our industries
and our commerce. Indeed it is
now evident that its spies were here
even before the war began; and it
is unhappily not a matter of econ
jecture but a fact proved in our
courts of justice that the intrigues
which have more than once come
perilous near to disturbimg the
peace and dislocating the industries
of the country have been carried on
at the instigation, withy the support,
and éven under the personal direc
tion of official agents of the Imperi
‘al Government accredited to the Gov
mment of the United States. Even
in checking these things and try
ing to extirpate them we havei
sought to put the most generous
interpretation possible upon them
because we knew that their source
lay, not in any hostile feeling or
purpose of the German people to
wards us (who were, no doubt as
"ignorant of them as we ourselves
were), but only in the selfish de
signs of a Government that did
what it pleased and told its people
nothing. But they have played
their part in serving to convince us
at last that that Government en
‘tertains no real friendship for us
and means to act against our peace
and security at its convenience.
That it means to stir up enemies
against us at our very door the
intercepted note to the German
Minister at Mexico City is eloquent
evidence.
We are accepting this challenge
of hostile p’pose because we know
that in such a government, follow
ing such methods, we can never
have a friend; and that in the pres
ence of its organized power, always
lying in wait to accomplish we
know not what purpose, there can
be no assured security for the dem
ocratic governments of the world.
We are now about to accept gage
of battle with this natural foe to
liberty and shall, if necessary, spend
the whole force of the nation to
check and nullify its pretensions
and its power. We are glad, now
that we see the facts with no veil
of false pretence about them, to
fight thus for the ultimate peace
of the world and for the liberation
of its peoples, tne German peoples
included: for the rights of nations
great and small and the privilege
of men everywhere to choose their
way of life and of obedience. The
world must be made safe for demo
cracy. Its peace must be planted
upon the tested foundations of poli
tical liberty. We nave no selfish
ends to serve. We desire np con
quest, no dominion. We seek no
indemnities for ourselves, no mate
rial compensation for the sacrifices
we shall freely make. We are
but one of the champions of the
rights of mankind. We shall
be satisfied when those rights-have
been made as secure as the faita
and the freedom of nations , can
make them. .
Just because we fight without
rancour and without selfish object,
seeking nothing for ourselves but
wnat we, shall wish to s_ha:re,with
all free -peoples, we shall, I feel con
fident, conduct our operations as
‘belligerents without passion.: and
ourselves observe with proud punc
tillio the principles of right and of
fair play we profess to be fighting
for.
I have said nothing of the govern
ments allied with the Imperial Gov
ernment of Germany because tney,
have not made war upon us or chal
lenged us to defend our right and
our honour. The Austro-Hungari
an Government pas, indeed, avowed
its unqualified endorsement and
acceptance of the reckless and law-i
less submarine warfare adopted now
without disguise by the Imperial
German Government, and it has
therefore not been possible for this
Government to receive Count Tarn
owski, the Ambassador recently ac
credited to this Government by tae
Imperial and Royal Government of
Austria-Hungary; but that Govern
ment has not actually engaged in
warfare against citizens of the Un
ited States on the seas, and I take
the liberty, for the present at
least, of postponing a discussion of
our relations with tne 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 higa 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 irrespon
sible government whicn has
thrown aside all considerations of
humanity and of right and is run
ning amuck. We are, let me say
again, the sincere friends of the
German people, and snall desire
nothing so much as the early-re-es
tablishment of intimate -eu\ ’
mutual advantage between | e
however hard it may be for ; ;.:
for the time being, to beliey. , ..
this is spoken from our hearts, ~
have borne with their Present o, .
ernment through all taese 4.
months because of that fn‘e‘.m\-i,;
—exercising a patience ang forbear.
ance which would otherwise fave
been impossible. We shall, happi
ly, still have an opportuni, b
prove that friendsaip in our daijy
attitude and actions towarg the
millions of men and women ¢ Con.
man birth and native symu;:z?.-\-
who live amongst us ang share g
life, and we shall be prouqd to Prove
it towards all who are in fact |, val
to taeir neighbors and to the oy
ernment in the hour- of test. They
are, most of them, as true ang loyal
Americans as if they hag Lever
known any other fealty or allegi
ance. Tney will be prompt to standg
with us in rebuking and restraining
the few who may be of a differens
mind and purpose. If there should
be disloyalty, it will be dealt wity
with a firm hand of stern repres
sion; but, if it lifts its nead at all,
it will lift it only here and there
‘and without countenance except
from a lawless and malignant few
j It is a distressing and oppressive
duty, Gentlemen or tne Congress,
which I have performed in taus ad
dressing you. There are, it may
be, many months of fiery trial s,
sacrifice ahead of us. It is a moc
fearful thing to lead this great peace
ful people into war, into tae most
terrible and disastrious of all wars
civilization itself Yeeming to he in
the balance. But the right is mor
precious than peace, and and we
shall fight for the things wnich we
have always cdrried nearest wur
hearts,—for democracy, for the
right of tnose who submit to ay
thority to have a voice in their own
governments, for the rights and li
berties of small nations, for a uni
versal dominion of right by such a
concert of free peoples as snall brine
preace 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, everythine
that we are and everything that
we’ have, with tne pride of those
who know that the day has come
wnen America is privileged to spend
her blood and her might for the
prinicples that gave her birth and
happiness and the peace whicn she
treasured. God helping, her, she can
do no other.
Page Twelve
