(_June 9, 1917_)
In view of the approaching visit of the American delegation to Russia
to express the deep friendship of the American people for the people
of Russia and to discuss the best and most practical means of
co-operation between the two peoples in carrying the present struggle
for the freedom of all peoples to a successful consummation, it seems
opportune and appropriate that I should state again, in the light of
this new partnership, the objects the United States has had in mind
in entering the war. Those objects have been very much beclouded
during the past few weeks by mistaken and misleading statements, and
the issues at stake are too momentous, too tremendous, too
significant for the whole human race to permit any misinterpretations
or misunderstandings, however slight, to remain uncorrected for a
moment.
The war has begun to go against Germany, and in their desperate
desire to escape the inevitable ultimate defeat, those who are in
authority in Germany are using every possible instrumentality, are
making use even of the influence of groups and parties among their
own subjects to whom they have never been just or fair, or even
tolerant, to promote a propaganda on both sides of the sea which will
preserve for them their influence at home and their power abroad, to
the undoing of the very men they are using.