Granite City High School - Warrior Yearbook (Granite City, IL)

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4 MYRTLE DRAPER J alutatimf In tho years when this Republic of ours wa struggling for existence, our forefathers, in order to make our country safe for democracy, drew up the Monroe Doctrine. To this day the Monroe Doctrine lias been an Important element In our foreign policy and It has seemed of such Importance to us that wo are at all tlmos ready to go to war In Its defense. In the early days of our national lire our forefathers were seafaring people. Since these days o f daring fame our Department of State has never lost sight of tho compelling Interest that we have at sea and has constantly fought to gain the assent of all the nations to a maritime code, which shall he framed and enforced by Joint responsibility. The law of tho sea must not be founded on might, but on right lentil all who sail upon the seas have had a voice In framing the sou laws, tho seas will never be free. The outbreak or War In 1914 caught us by surprise, but the European peoples had had some forebodings of the coming storm. This contllct seemed to us a purely European dispute and our minds wore not prepared to take sides In this war, but (lermany ' s Invasion of Helgium stirred up public opinion and the sympathy or America for the Belgians manifested Itself In the form of food, money and clothing. In the llrst year or the war, (iermany stirred up among her people resent- ment against us, because we Insisted upon our rights to sell munitions to t ie belligerent powers, but our principal controversy with the Imperial Govern- ' ont arose out or the announcement of a sea zone where submarines would operate in violation or all Internationa ' , law. The sinking of the Lusitania rendered our Indignation passionate Our Government. Inspired by a desire to preserve peace, used every resource to force the German (lovornment to abandon these attacks, but with- out avail. Evidence of bad faith piled upon every hand. In the moantime tho submarine attacks upon lives and property of American citizens had gone on and our protests to Germany were sharp The war spirit was growing, but all our motives for preserving peace held us back Un October Id, 1918, the President said that this contllct was the large great war Involving tho world in which we could not remain neutral. I ' rom the outbreak of the war tho Imperial Government claimed that It was lighting a war or defense, but we know that it sought a peace based on victory and the alms of the Entente were to thwart this ambition of Germany On the last day of January, Count I ' ernstolT announced that his government meant to Intensify the operations of the submarine. This was a direct challenge No other answer could be expected other than to band the German mbass-i ' dor IiIh pttHHportH. mere Du March 12, 1917, our government ordored armed guards placed on bant ships. The evil that Germany has effected has ranged far on. Europe upon the open seas, where tts submarines have blown un neutral vessels and covered the waves with dead and dying men, women and children! our out of 1018 JULY 1918 Sun. Mon. Tile. Med. I ' ll a. Krl. Silt. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31