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Show MUST BE ABLE TO BACK UPPROTESTS AMERICA CANNOT BE AN OSTRICH OS-TRICH WITH HEAD IN THE SAND, DECLARES PRESIDENT. Condemns Advocates of War as Well as Peace at Any Price Theorists in Des Moines Address and Declares De-clares Country is for Peace. lies Moines, la. President Wilson, upcaking here Tuesday night, dealt with the futility of messages and words of protest to meet breaches of international law. "Do you want the situation to be such that all the president can do Is to write messages and utter words of protest?" he asked, In advocating preparedness before the largest audience audi-ence of his present trip. "Why. to ask that question is to answer It," he said. "Whenever internal ional law is violated vio-lated by one or the other belligerents." belliger-ents." the president said. "America was called upon to register a 'voice of protest, of insistence'." There are actually men in America who are preaching war, the president declared; men who want the United Slates to have entangling alliances abroad. He said he did' ont think they spoke the voice of America, which he declared to be for peace. He added that others go further than he, in advocating peace: "They preach the doctrine of peace at any price," he said,' while men in the audience called "Never, never." He said these men did not know the circumstances cir-cumstances of the world. "America cannot be an ostrich with its' head in the sand." he said. The president's address was punctuated punctu-ated with thunderous applause. He .spoke slowly and gravely, with etn-.phatic etn-.phatic gestures to enforce his words. His declaration that the United States wanted peace drew a response and his assertion that the self-respect of the nation must be preserved, elicited elic-ited another great demonstration. The president declared he was trying try-ing to weigh carefully every word he said. He reiterated' that he had been dally charged to keep the country out of war and also to uphold its honor. "The difficulty of keeping America 1 at peace," he said, "during this titanic struggle across the sea, cannot be disclosed dis-closed now; perhaps it never can be disclosed. How anxious and how dif-ficutf dif-ficutf this task has been! 'But my heart has been in it. I have not grudged a single burden that has been placed upon me with that end in view. For I know that not only my own heart but the heart of all America was in the cause of peace." New York. President Wilson on Thursday night opened his personal appeal to the country for national defense. de-fense. He gave warning that plans for the readjustment of the army must be formulated and carried out without delay, and solemnly declared he could not predict that the outlook for the United States would be as bright tomorrow as today. Speaking at banquets of the Railway Business association and the Motion Picture Board of Trade, he sounded the keynote key-note of addresses that he will deliver in the middle west. Mr. Wilson was in a fighting mood throughout his address. In a speech delivered early in the day he declared he always accepted an invitation to fight. At night he told the railway men he was an advocate of peace and had struggled to keep the United States at peace, but he considered the liberty and honor of the nation even more important than peace. "Woe to any man who plays marplot mar-plot or who seeks to make party, political po-litical or perconal ambition take ' precedence over candor, honor and unselfish, unpartisan service," said the president, in speaking of his defense, plan before the railroad men. He declared that the country expects action; this is a year of accounting, and the accounting account-ing must be definite on the part of the parties and on the part of every individual who wishes to enjoy the public confidence. "For my part. I hope every man in public life will get what's coming to him," said Mr. Wilson, amid laughter and applause. The president admitted that in a message to the last congress he had said the need for preparedness was not pressing He declared that he had learned differently in the meantime. mean-time. He cited his recent support of a tariff commission as another instance in-stance of a change on his part, but declared de-clared there previously was no need for a commission. Mr. Wilson spoke of men of high character, who were clouding the preparedness pre-paredness issue. He declared they were provincial, and that the United States could no longer cut itself off from the rest of the world. |