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Show EX-PRESIDENT SAYS COUNTRY FAGESGRSSIS William Howard Taft, in Patriotic Address, Declares De-clares Rights of U. S. Have Been Invaded. URGES SUPPORT OF PRESIDENT WILSON v Believes if Shadow of War Falls Across Our Path All Classes of Citizens Will Be Loyal to Flag. MORRISTOvVN, N. J., Feb. 22. The United States is threatened with a serious i Invasion or its rights as a neutral by the warring nations of Europe and in prescrv- ins its commerce with those nations Is face to face with, a crisis, in the opinion i of former President "William H. Taft. In the solution of the crisis, should it artse, no Jingo spirit must be allowed to prevail, Mr. Taft advised, neither pride ior mo- j mentary passion should influence our judgment. "And when the president shall act," Mr. Taft declared, "we must stand by him to the end. 3n this determination we may I be sure that all will join, no matter what j their previous views, no matter what their : European origin. All will forget their dif- ; ferences in self-sacrificing loyalty to our,' common flag and our common country." Mr. Taft's reference to the situation ; confronting the United States was made. at the conclusion of an address delivered , here today before the "Washington Asso- ciation of New Jersey. Our Present Duty. Quoting from a reservation in the treaty of Algeciras, proclaimed in 1907 and entered en-tered into by the United States and eleven European nations, including most of those now at war, Mr. Taft said: f "Our interest in the present war, there-! there-! fore, under the conditions that exist, should be limited as set forth in this reservation, res-ervation, to wit, to: "Preserving and increasing the com- nierce of the United States with the bel--"-Ilgerents; to the protection as to life, lib-y lib-y erty and prosperity of our citizens reaid-t reaid-t ing or traveling in their countries, and to the aiding by our friendly offices and efforts in bringing those countries to ; peace. I "Our efforts for peace," he continued, "have been made as complete as possible, possi-ble, for the president has already tendered ten-dered his good offices by way of media-l media-l tion between the powers, and tney have ' not bean accepted. Facing a Crisis. ; "Tn preserving the commerce of the United states with the belligerents, however, how-ever, we are face to face with a crisis. We are threatened with a serious invasion of our rights as neutrals in trading with the belligerents. What certainly is an innovation in-novation upon previous rules in respect to neutral commerce and contraband of war ; has been initiated by belhgerents of both sides. The planting of mines in the open sea and the use oi submarines to send i neutral vessels to the bottom without in- 1 quiry as to their neutrality when found In a. so-called war zone of the open sea, are. all of them a variation from the rules of international law governing the action of bellieerents toward neutral trade. "When their violation res',s In the destruction of the lives of American citi- zens. or of American property, r grave issue will arise as to what the dutv of this government is. Responsibility of the president and congress in meeting the critical issue thus presented in maintaining maintain-ing our national rights and our national honor, with due regard to the awful consequences con-sequences to our f'0.000.000 people of engaging en-gaging in this horrible world war will be very great. It involves on their part a judgment so momentous in its consequence conse-quence that we should earnestly pray that the necessity for it may bo averted. Stands by Wilson. "If, however, the occasion arises, we can be confident that those in authority will be actuated by the highest patriotic motives and by the deepest concern for our national, welfare. We must not allow our pride' or momentary passion to influence in-fluence our judgment. We must exercise the deliberation that the fateful consequences conse-quences in the los3 of our best blood and enormous waste of treasure would necessarily nec-essarily impose upon us. We must allow no jingo spirit to prevail. We must abide by the judgment of those in whom we have intrusted the authority and. when the president shall act. we must stand by him to the end. In this determination we may be sure that all will join, no matter what their previous views, no matter what their European origin. All will forget for-get their differences in self-sacrificing loyalty loy-alty to our common flag and our common country. Washington's Advice. "This one hundred and eighty-third anniversary an-niversary of Washington's birth, in view of the present critical condition in our International relations, should bring to our minds the third great achievements our minds the third great achievement of a policy of neutrality through a general gen-eral European war. He insisted upon it as necessary before he became president; he maintained it throughout his life as president against mightv odds and under conditions that tried his soul, and in his farewell address he restated it and reinforced rein-forced it as a legacy to the American people. peo-ple. "On the second of April, 1793. he issued a proclamation of neutrality. It must be realized, too. that this proclamation of neutrality was very difficult to reconcile with the engagements of the United States in the treaty of France made during the Revolutionary war, and it was possible only to escape them on the plea that they were not binding on the United States in the case of an offensive war such as France was waging against England. Finally, after his course of neutrality had been vindicated and he came to lay his office down, he appealed to the American people not to depart from it." Mr. Taft quoted from Washington's appeal, and said there was a lesson to be drawn from it on this Washington's birthday. birth-day. "Most of the great powers of Europe , are against war," he continued. "We : have among our citizens many who look back to the country of one or the other of the belligerents as their native land. The natural result has followed that the bitterness of the contest Is reflected in the conflicting sympathies of our people. The newspapers of no other country have been as lull of details of the war and of the circumstances leading to ft as our own press. This has stimulated public interest and created partisans who criticise criti-cise .President Wilson. "No better evidence of this can be had than from timo to time first one side and then the other criticises the administration admin-istration for its partiality. Its lame acquiescence ac-quiescence or Its unfair protests. "I am far from saying that an unwise or an unpatriotic course in our foreign relations may not justify criticism of an administration and may not acquiesce its condemnation, but in such a case, the reasons must be found in injury to the interests of the United States and not in the merits of the issues being fought out by European nations in an European arena. "I was asked in Canada whether the war would affect our politics, so as to divide parties on European lines. I answered an-swered unhesitatingly in the negative. I said that to Inject European 'issues into American politics had uniformly meant the defeat of those who attempted it. "Legislation is pressed . to forbid the sale of arms and ammunition by our merchants mer-chants in trade to belligerents. "We do not discriminate between the belligerents in the matter of furnishing war materials. It Is only that the fortune for-tune of war and the circumstances over o,)v, v.e hpve no control prevent one side from purchasing in our markets which ! aie open to the world. "But my chief objection to giving the lawful and ungual course of a nential to yell arms and ammunition to belligerents is based on the highest national Interest. We are a country which Is never likely to be fully prepared for war. We must have the means of preparing as rapidly as possible after war is imminent and Inevitable. In-evitable. We would be most foolish to adopt a policy of refusing to sell arms and ammunition to belligerents, which, if it was pursued against us when we were driven into war, would leave us helpless. help-less. Embargo Useless. "More than this, if we were to place an embargo on the sale of arms and ammunition am-munition to belligerents, we would discourage dis-courage the industry in this country and reduce substantially our possible domestic means of preparing for future wars. "Finally, the general adoption of a course by neutrals not to sell arms to the belligerents in a war, would greatly stimulate the tendency to increase armaments arma-ments in time of peace to be ready for war. Such a stimulus to greater armaments arma-ments we all should deplore, because of their burden upon the peoples of the countries coun-tries affected, and because of the temptation tempta-tion to war involved in their maintenance." mainten-ance." Mr. Taft said the administration had been criticised "because it did not protest pro-test against every violation of international interna-tional law committed bv one set of the belligerents against the others." He upheld up-held the administration s attitude, and ! pointed out that protests like those proposed pro-posed "must Inevitably injure our altitude alti-tude of neutrality without accomplishing any good. Not Sitting in Judgment. "Therefore," he- continued, "while I sympathize with the Belgians in this war, whoso country, without any fault of theirs, has been made its bloody center. 1 approve ap-prove and commend to the full the attitude atti-tude of President Wilson in declining to consider the evidence brought before him in respect to the atrocities in Belgium, and to expr'ess an opinion on the issues present. A similar decision with respect to the application of the German government govern-ment to have him investigate the evidence of the use of dumdum bullets was equally sound. "We are not sitting as judges of issues between countries in TCurope in this great war. We are seeking to maintain strict neutrality, and until our decision is invoked, in-voked, with an agreement to abide by our judgment and recommendation for settlement, settle-ment, we need not embroil ourselves by official expression of criticism or approval of the acts of the participants in the war." |