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Show Text of President Wilsons Plea for League of Nations in Address at Sioux Falls SIOUX FALLS, Sept. 8. Following is the text of President' Wilson's address at the Coliseum in this city tonight: off. and Germany did not dare to cooi on for nine hours (applause). If Germany had dreamed that enj thing like the greater part of the world wou d combine against her, she never would have begun the war. and she did not dare to let the opinions of mankind crystallize against her by discussion of the purpose which she had In mind. So what I want to point out to you Is, that we are making mak-ing a fundamental choice of government. You must adopt a government In which Germany is pictured as a perfect flower or you must have a new system, lou can not have a new system unless you supply a substitute; an adequate substitute for the old; and I want to say that when certain cer-tain of our fellow citizens take the position posi-tion that we do not want to go Into it alone, but want to take care of them ourselves, our-selves, I say that is the German position. Germany, through the mouth of her emperor, em-peror, through her writers and through every action, said "Here we stand ready to take care of ourselves. We will not enter Into any combination. We are armed for self-defense and we know that no nation can compete with us." Governor Norbeck and My Fellow Citizens Citi-zens I must almit that every time I face a great audience of my fellow countrymen country-men on this trip I am filled with a feeling of peculiar solemnity, because I believe, my fellow countrymen, that we have come to one of the turning points In the history" his-tory" of the world. And what I, as an American, covet for this great country, 1h that on every great occasion when mankind's man-kind's fortunes are hung in the balance, that America may have the distinction of leading the way. I want to remind you. my fellow countrymen, that that war was not an accident. That war did not Just happen. There was not some sudden cause which brought on the conflagration. On the contrary, Germany had been preparing pre-paring for that war for generations. Germany Ger-many had been preparing every resource and perfecting every skill, developing every invention which would enable her to master the European world and to dominate domi-nate the rest of the world. Everybody had been looking on. Everybody had known. Imminence of War Pro-Germanism Has Reared Head Again. That appears to be the American program pro-gram In the eyes of some gentlemen, and I want to tell you that ln the last two weeks the pro-Germanism element has lifted its head again. It says I see a chance for Germany and America to stay out and take care of themselves. Not as partners or allies, but we Americans will play the same role as the Germans under the order that brought us through that agony and bloody sweat. That agony where the world seemed to be caught in the throes of a curse that we did not know whether civilization would survive or not, and we do not believe too easily that It Is safe now. There were passions left loose on the field of the world at war which have not-grown quiet, and which will not for a long time. And every element ele-ment of disorder Is hoping that there would be no staying hand from the council coun-cil of nations to hold the order of the world steady until we can make the final arrangements of Justice and peace. I sometimes think when I wake up in the night of the wakeful nights that anxious fathers, mothers and friends spent during the weary years of the awful war, and I hear the cry of mothers of the children, millions on the other side and thousands on this side, in God's name give us security and peace right. Known to Statesmen. For example, it was known in every war office In Europe, and ln the war department de-partment in Washington, that the Germans Ger-mans not only had a vast supply of great field guns, but that they had ammunition enough for every one of those guns to exhaust ex-haust the gun. And yet we were living ln a fool's paradise. We thought Germany meant what she said that she was armed for defense, and that she never would use that great store of guns against her fellow-men. fellow-men. Why, my friends, It was foreordained fore-ordained the minute Germany conceived these purposes, that she should do the thing which she did in 1914. Now, I have brought back from Europe with me, my fellow citizens, a treaty In which Germany is disarmed and in which all the other nations of the world agree never to go to war (applause). That is all. I have done one or the other of two things. Either I have submitted the question ques-tion in dispute to arbitration, ln which case they will abide by the verdict, or I have submitted it to discussion by the league of nations. They will allow six months for discussion which w-ill put all the . facts before the world, and not until three months after the expiration of the six will they go to war. There is a period of nine months cooling |