Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1918 — VICTORY WHEN U. S. GETS 5,000,000 MEN ABROAD [ARTICLE]

VICTORY WHEN U. S. GETS 5,000,000 MEN ABROAD

Albany, April 12.—The New York legislature, after listening to a stirring war speech by former President William H. Taft, today unanimously and enthusistically adopted a resolution declaring that the state “favors the entrance of the United States, after the war, into “a league of nations to safeguard the peace that must be won by the joint military forces of the allied nations.” Mr. Taft spoke before a joint session attended by Governor Whitman and by a crowd that filled the assembly chamber. He advocated that the United States, as soon as possible, put into the western battle front an army of 5,000,000 nien. This probably would take two years or more, he said. “When we get our army of 5,000,000 men abroad,” he declared, “the victory is won. We’ll occupy the center of that terrible battle front. And we’ll bear the brunt of the struggle as we should after our allies have been fighting our battles for the last three years. “I have traveled about this country a great deal recently,” Mr. Taft continued, “and this one fact is uppermost in my mind as a result of my observations: The one big thing for which the hearts of our people are yearning, the one factor for which they are willing to sacrifice all is that when this war ends in victory for our cause and the cause of the allies, a repetition of this dastardly effort on the part of William Hohenzollern and the Potsdam gang will be impossible in the lifetime of this generation or of many generations to come.”

The resolution adopted follows: “Whereas, The most important task before the United States is to win the war; and, “Whereas, The war will not be won until the peaceful development of all free peoples is guaranteed by the strength of their own will; therefore, be it “Resolved, By the legislature of the state of New York, both houses concurring, that the state of New York pledges all its resources to the vigorous prosecution of the war until Prussian autocracy has been defeated; and be it further “Resolved, That the state of New York favors the entrance of the United States after the war, into a league of nations to safeguard the peace that must be won by the joint Military forces of the allied nations, and be it further “Resolved, That certified copies of these resolutions be sent by the secretary of state, to the President and to the presiding officers of both branches of congress and each of the senators and representatives from New York.”