Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1915 — DELAY SENTENCE, BRYAN’S APPEAL [ARTICLE]

DELAY SENTENCE, BRYAN’S APPEAL

Defends Resignation on Ground Wilson Enthrones Force. WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE Wants People to Hear Him Before Passing Judgment—Asks Vindication as the President’s Note Is Published. Washington, June 11.—W. J. Bryan gave out the following statement for publication simultaneously with the president’s note to Germany: The Real Issue. '• • C “To the American People: “You now have before you tho text of the note to Germany—the note which it would have been my official duty to sign had I remained secretary of 6tate. I ask you to sit in judgment ttpon my decision to resign rather than to share responsibility for it. I am sure you will credit me with honorable motives, but that is not enough. Good intentions could not atone for a mistake at such a time, on such a subject and under such circumstances. If your verdict is against me, I ask no mercy; I desire none if I have acted unwisely. But hear me before you pass sentence. Agree Only in Purpose. "The president and I agree in purpose; we desire a peaceful solution of the dispute which has arisen between the United States and Germany. We do not only desire it, but with equal fervor we pray for it, but We differ irreconcilably as to the means of securing it. * If R were merely a personal difference. It would be a matter of little moment, for all the presumptions are on his side —the presumptions that go with power and authority. He is your president; I am a private citizen without office or title—but one of the hundred million of inhabitants. Force Is Antiquated. “Force represents the old system—the system that must pass away ; persuasion represents the new system — the system that has been growing, all too slowly, it is true, but growing for nineteen hundred years. In the old system war Is the chief cornerstone —war which at Its best is little better than war at its worst; the new system contemplates a universal brotherhood established through the uplifting power of example. “If I could correctly interpret the note to Germany, it conforms to the standards of the old system rather than the rules of the new, and I cheerfully admit that it is absolutely supported by precedents precedents written in characters of blood upon almost every page of human history. Austria furnishes the most recent precedent. It was Austria’s firmness that dictated the ultimatum against Serbia, which set the world at war. Every ruler believed that firmness would give the best assurance of the maintenance of peace, and faithfully following precedent, they went so near the fire that they were, one after another, sucked into the contest. System Called Fatal. “Never before have the frightful follies of this fatal Bystem been so clearly revealed as how. The most civilized and enlightened—aye, the most Christian of the nations of Europe are grappling, with each other as If in a death stnlggle. And they are so absorbed in alternate retaliation and in cruelties that they seem, for the time being, blind to the rights of neutrals and deaf to the appeals of humanity. A tree is known by its fruit. The war in Europe is the ripened fruit of the old system.

"This is what firmness, supported by force, has done in the old w'orld; shall we invite it to cross the Atlantic? Already the jingoes of our country have caught the rabies from the dogs of war; shall the opponents of organized slaughter be silent while the disease spreads? More Negotiation Asked. “As an humble follower of the Prince of Peace; as a devoted believer in the prophecy that "they that take the sword shall perish by the sword" I beg to be counted among those who earnestly urge the adoption of a course in this matter which will leave no doubt of our government's willing-i |iess to continue negotiations with Germany until an amicable understanding is reached, or at least until, the stress of war over, we can appeal from Philip drunk with carnage to Philip sobered by the memories of a historic friendship and by recollection of the innumerable ties of friendship that biisd the fatherland to the United States. “Some nation must lead the world out of the black night of war into the light of that day when “swords will be beaten into plowshares.” Why not make that honor ours? Some day—-

why hot now?—the nations will learn that enduring peace cannot be built upon sea good will does not grow upon the stalk of violence. Some day the nations will place their trust In love, the weapon for which there Is no shield; in love, that suffereth long and is kind; in love, that is not easily provoked, that beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things; in love which, though despised as weakness by the worshipers of Mars, abideth when all else fails.

(Signed)

“W. J. BRYAN."