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 THE WAR 
 
 AS VIEWED BY A LIBERAL ENGLISHMAN 
 
 (With some special words to 
 German-Americans" and "Pacifists") 
 
 BY 
 
 H, S. PERRIS, M. A. 
 
 Author of "Pax Britannica " 
 
 Secretary of the British-American Centenary Committee 
 
 and of the Committee of Sulgrave Manor 
 
 Published by 
 
 THE SULGRAVE INSTITUTION (Incorporated) 
 
 Temporary Office ; 
 
 3903 WooLWORTH Building 
 
 New York 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 The following pages were given, in the form 
 of a Lecture, at Cornell University, on October 
 30th, 1917. This may serve to explain the direct 
 method of address frequently adopted. 
 
 H. S. Ferris. 
 New York, November, 1917. 
 
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THE WAR 
 
 As viewed by a Liberal Englishman. 
 
 "DEUM-TAPS" FOR PEACE. 
 
 I have had many years' experience of work 
 for International Peace, — and I do not regret 
 one of them. With voice and pen I have labored 
 and pleaded for many years for a method of 
 adjusting the differences between nations without 
 recourse to the sword. I have attended, spoken 
 at, and helped to organize many peace-meetings, 
 conferences, and congresses; and have assisted in 
 welcoming and entertaining in London delega- 
 tions of German burgomasters, pastors and work- 
 men, when they came there on an errand of 
 conciliation and concord. I regret nothing of all 
 this work, and adhere still to the principles I then 
 held. 
 
 But from the day when Germany, in August 
 1914, violated the neutrality of Belgium and com- 
 menced her assault upon the peace and liberties 
 of Europe and the world, I realized (as did al- 
 most the whole of my countrymen) that "peace- 
 talk" was of no avail at such a moment. — in such 
 an emergency ; and that for the sake of that very 
 Peace we loved and wished to preserve, — a Peace 
 founded in justice and freedom, and buttressed 
 with fair-dealing and honor, — the aggressor must 
 be opposed by the only weapon he could under- 
 stand ; and that for the time being (and by no 
 choice of ours) the force of argument must be 
 supplemented, protected, and vindicated by the 
 argument of force. 
 
 And so, though all my previous interests and 
 occupations had been ahen to war and war- 
 making, I came to recognize that, like Walt 
 Whitman in his "Drum-Taps," I must say : 
 
 In peace I chanted peace ; but now the drum of war is 
 
 mine, 
 War, red war is my Song through your streets, O city ! 
 
 Now I imagine that, in this respect, my point 
 of view is very similar to that of many Ameri- 
 cans. I believe that a complete and final victory 
 
over Germany and her allies in this war is a 
 necessary, however costly, prelude to any further 
 advance along the road of international pacifica- 
 tion. In this sense I accept as valid the famous 
 phrase of Mr. H. G. Wells that this is a "war to 
 end War." This thought is worth a brief ex- 
 amination. 
 
 THE PEACE-RECORD OF THE ENGLISH- 
 SPEAKING PEOPLES. 
 
 I claim that the American and British peoples 
 have well proved their right to use this expres- 
 sion, and to describe the War in these terms. 
 
 From the time when the modern process of 
 international arbitration began, in 1794, until the 
 end of the 19th century, the United States and 
 Great Britain had more frequently taken their 
 various international disputes before an impartial 
 Tribunal of Arbitration than any other of the 
 Great Powers. Senator La Fontaine, in his "His- 
 toire Sommaire des Arbitrages Internationaux," 
 says that they did this 126 times, thus "giving a 
 magnificent example to the world." 
 
 Before the outbreak of the war powerful and 
 representative national committees in the United 
 States, England, and Canada had been busily 
 preparing to celebrate the completion, on Christ- 
 mas Eve, 1914, of One Hundred Years of Peace 
 among English-speaking peoples. This hundred 
 years' peace had been one long series of triumphs 
 of the arts of conciliation and constructive paci- 
 fication. One has only to mention the bloodless' 
 settlement of the Maine Boundary dispute in 
 1842, of the Oregon Boundary dispute in 1846, 
 of the "Trent" and "Alabama" affairs arising out 
 of the Civil War, of the Behring Sea quarrel and 
 the Venezuela incident, — and above all, to call as 
 witness the disarmament (ever since the Rush- 
 Bagot Agreement of 1817) of the 3,840 miles of 
 land and water frontier stretching between Cana- 
 da and the United States, — to realize the gov- 
 erning motives and desires for peace of the two 
 great branches of the English-speaking peoples. 
 
 Neither England nor America desired this 
 war, prepared for it, or precipitated it. Having 
 been forced into it by the ruthless aggression and 
 shameless conduct of Germany, they will fight it 
 through to a decisive and victorious conclusion in 
 
the name of treaty-faith and international honor, 
 and for the sake of peace itself. That the na- 
 tions should have to tread the bloody path of this 
 via dolorosa is not the fault of the English-speak- 
 ing peoples, which had proved by acts their 
 desire for a better way to peace. 
 
 A WAR FOR THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY. 
 
 But this war is not only, as Mr. Wells called 
 it, a "war to end War." It is also, as President 
 Wilson has pointed out, a war "to make the 
 world safe for democracy." It is a war against 
 the last strong citadels of feudalism and autocra- 
 cy in old Europe. Since the fall of Czardom in 
 Russia this meaning of the great conflict has be- 
 come increasingly plain. What a debt of just 
 vengeance the world owes to the Kaiser, to 
 "King Fox" of Bulgaria, to Constantine, and to 
 the little clique of Turks who "run" the impotent 
 Sultan ! On Constantine punishment has fallen. 
 Death has taken the Austrian Emperor to be 
 judged by a Higher Court. Does anyone doubt 
 that William of HohenzoUern, and Ferdinand, 
 and the blood-stained gang at Constantinople will 
 meet their due deserts? 
 
 The question remains : Can the democracies 
 "make good" in this vast struggle? 
 
 This much, at least, is certain, that glorious 
 France and chivalrous and indomitable England 
 have already proved that they can stand the test. 
 And it is just these two ancient countries, full of 
 years, achievements, and experience, yet ever 
 young for liberty, that have taught the world the 
 idea and content of democracy. 
 
 Russia has caught the contagion of freedom, 
 but must get through its period of high fever be- 
 fore it can fully take its destined part, and "pull 
 its weight" in the final struggle. 
 
 And now, to the joy of all free peoples the 
 world over, the great American democracy has 
 stepped into the ring. In intervening, you Ameri- 
 cans have broken through all your earlier polit- 
 ical traditions. And of necessity. In the world 
 of to-day a thousand discoveries are helping us to 
 realize that as nations, as well as in our individual 
 capacity, "we are members one of another." 
 
 The "glorious isolation" which was prudent 
 and natural in the past is to-day neither possible 
 
nor desirable. Americans are fulfilling their 
 national destiny by grappling boldly with their 
 international duties and realizing their proper 
 international affiliations. 
 
 Your period as colonies of the Mother Country 
 may be called your period of Dependence. 
 
 From the Revolution until the spring of the 
 present year was your second stage of growth, — 
 the period of Independence. 
 
 From April 2nd, 1917, will be dated your pe- 
 riod of Inter-Dependence. 
 
 Yes ! is it not true of nations, as of individuals, 
 that "all the body is fitly framed and knit to- 
 gether by that which every joint supplieth" and 
 that it is only by "the working together of each 
 several part" that the countries of the world can 
 ever fulfill their mighty destiny of becoming "the 
 kingdoms of our God and of His Christ"? 
 
 And so it is that, just as the Declaration of 
 Independence launched the great American nation 
 upon its separate career, so President Wilson's 
 address to Congress of April 2nd, 191 7, was, in 
 effect, the beginning of an even higher and riper 
 stage of manhood for this nation, — its Declaration 
 of Inter-Dependence, — its hand-clasp to democ- 
 racy and freedom everywhere, — its trumpet-call 
 to a united assault upon the last entrenchments 
 of that Imperialism which dared, even in this 20th 
 century, to threaten the liberties of mankind. 
 
 A WORD TO AMERICANS OF GERMAN BIRTH. 
 
 At this point I would ask leave, as a Liberal 
 Englishman, to oft'er some remarks to any Ameri- 
 cans who may be of Germanic origins or affilia- 
 tion. It is of vast importance, not only for them- 
 selves, but for America and the world, that they 
 should realize clearly the issues involved in the 
 present war. I want them to ask themselves this 
 question: Which Germany is it that you love? 
 
 Is it the Germany of Goethe and Schiller, of 
 Kant and Beethoven? If so. be assured that the 
 world has no quarrel with the Germany of real 
 "culture" ; with the Germany of liberal and hu- 
 man outlook and sympathies, the mother of 
 modern song, the Germany of sweet home-life, of 
 industrious research, of solid scientific and intel- 
 lectual attainment, of commercial enterprise and 
 civic initiative. This Germany commands nothing 
 
but the respect and admiration of thoughtful 
 Englishmen and Americans, — indeed, of Hberal- 
 minded men and women the world over. With 
 this Germany zve are not at zvar, and have no 
 desire or intention of being. 
 
 But in the last half-century a new Germany — • 
 a Germany under Prussian domination, has taken 
 shape; and it is this new and terrible portent of 
 a Prussianized German Empire, acting as the 
 Bully of Europe and the Disturber of the World's 
 Peace, that has ranged against itself and its 
 dependents and adherents almost the whole civi- 
 lized world. 
 
 A brilliant American writer, Mr. Owen Wister, 
 has well described this process of national cor- 
 ruption and degeneration. "Prussia," he says, 
 "put its uniform not only on German bodies but 
 on their brains. Literature and music grew 
 sterilized. Scientific eminence degenerated.... 
 Out of the fumes emerged three colossal shapes : 
 the Super-man, the Super-race, and the Super- 
 state — the new Trinity of German worship." 
 "During forty years," adds Mr. Wister, "Ger- 
 many sat within her wall, learning and repeating 
 Prussian incantations." 
 
 Now it is this Germany — a militarized and 
 anti-democratic machine, with its absurd Kaiser 
 mouthing the words of mediaeval monarchy by 
 divine right, rattling its sabre, bursting with na- 
 tionalist egotism, straddling right across the path 
 of aspiring and constructive internationalist ef- 
 ort, — that was justly feared and distrusted before 
 July, 1914, and that in that fateful month, 
 urged by the relentless logic of its creed and the 
 imperious pride of its military caste, plunged 
 Europe and the world into this most terrible and 
 devastating war. 
 
 And this is not the Germany with which Ameri- 
 cans of Teutonic origins or affiliations can afford 
 to sympathize — if they wish to remain loyal 
 Americans and intelligent citizens of the world. 
 
 At this crisis in the history of civilization it is 
 necessary that the distinction which I have just 
 drawn should be recognized with courage and 
 decision. 
 
 The civilized v/orld has no quarrel with the first 
 Germany of which I have spoken ; but, be as- 
 sured, it will never make peace with the second. 
 
 To which allegiance are you going to pledge 
 yourself? What peace or accommodation can 
 
there be, in the nature of things, between Priis- 
 sianism as we have seen it at work in Belgium, in 
 France, in Russia, in the Balkans, in Armenia, 
 during the present war, — and the principles and 
 ideals, the constitutional habits and liberties, upon 
 which is built this great American commonwealth, 
 ■ — which has given you welcome, sheltered you, 
 and to which your pledged and grateful loyalty 
 are due ? 
 
 In the English "Contemporary Review" for 
 April, 1916, I wrote the following words; and, 
 though torrents of the blood of our brave British 
 lads have been shed since then, in this war against 
 German aggression, I would not, to-day, take 
 back one single word : 
 
 "Would that in Germany some glimmering of 
 the dawn of a new and better day would manifest 
 itself! We cannot if we would, and we would 
 not if we could, blot the German people from the 
 map of Europe. When the last shot has been 
 fired, some fifty or sixty millions of them will 
 remain ; and the world will be better and happier 
 if we can live with them in peace instead of 
 anger. We will fight until we conquer them, be- 
 cause we believe that our cause is just, and that 
 they are the victims of an intolerable oppression 
 which threatens the liberties of Europe and of the 
 whole world, and that this monster can only be 
 overthrown by the destruction of its power and 
 prestige by force of arms. But we will not hate 
 the people. The day is coming when they will be 
 redeemed from the yoke of the militarist, when 
 the creed of Force which they have been taught 
 to repeat will become so loathsome to them that 
 they will not let it pass their lips. 
 
 "Our English historian Green taught us that 
 'for the fatherland of the English race we must 
 look far away from England itself — to the Teu- 
 ton lands and marshes about the mouths of the 
 Weser and Elbe. When this tumult is over, we 
 shall remember that we were intended to be breth- 
 ren, comrades. And this dream will come true, 
 if, pondering with aching hearts the meaning and 
 causation of this present war, we resolve to have 
 done with the errors of the past, and to com- 
 mence the rebuilding of Europe in accordance 
 with the ripest judgment, the soundest deductive 
 faculty, the most courageous constructive states- 
 manship, that society can summon to achieve its 
 redemption." 
 
 8 
 
But the war is not yet won : and it must be 
 won, at whatever cost, and the aggression of 
 Prussian imperialism — the whole godless doctrine 
 of militarism of which the German government 
 and the German army have been and remain the 
 chief expression and champion — must be finally 
 defeated and overthrown. Not only the fate of 
 democracy, but the future of civilization, — the 
 very opportunity of a just and stable pacification 
 of the world — is at stake in this contest ; and 
 there can be no terms of accommodation until the 
 final victory of right has been registered and the 
 German people themselves, as well as the rest of 
 mankind, have been freed for ever from this ac- 
 cursed creed of Moloch to which they have sub- 
 mitted themselves in bondage, and which has 
 plunged the whole world into a hell of carnage, 
 devastation, and misery. 
 
 And so the call comes to all true Americans of 
 German origin to realize clearly in their own 
 mind and conscience the dread summons of duty 
 which has sounded for them, and the solemn 
 alternative from which there can be no escape. 
 
 So far as I know it has never been more clearly 
 stated than by a well-known American — Mr. Otto 
 Kahn, who is himself of German origin and who 
 knows Germany well. His words, — for which I 
 venture, with sincere admiration and respect, to 
 thank him, are as follows : 
 
 "As Washington led Americans of British 
 blood to fight against Great Britain, as Lincoln 
 called upon Americans of the North to fight 
 their very brothers of the South, so Americans 
 of German descent are now summoned to join in 
 our country's righteous struggle against a people 
 of their own blood, which under the evil spell of 
 a dreadful obsession, and, Heaven knows, through 
 no fault of ours, has made itself the enemy of 
 this peace-loving nation, as it is the enemy of 
 peace and right and freedom throughout the 
 world. 
 
 "To gain America's independence, to defeat op- 
 pression and tyranny, was indeed to gain a great 
 cause. 
 
 "To preserve the Union, to eradicate slavery, 
 was perhaps a greater still. 
 
 "To defend the very foundations of liberty and 
 humanity, the very groundwork of fair dealing 
 between nations, the very basis of peaceable living 
 together among the peoples of the earth against 
 
the fierce and brutal onslaught of ruthless, law- 
 less, faithless might; to spend the lives and the 
 fortunes of this generation so that our descend- 
 ants may be freed from the dreadful calamity of 
 war and the fear of war, so that the energies and 
 billions of treasure now devoted to plans and in- 
 struments of destruction may be given hence- 
 forth to fruitful works of peace and progress and 
 to the betterment of the conditions of the people, 
 that is the highest cause for which any people 
 ever unsheathed its sword." 
 
 THE UNITED STATES IN THE WAR. 
 
 But it is time to turn to the actual course of 
 the Great War in Europe. Your country has now 
 reached the stage of action, and we are all watch- 
 ing, with thrilled and painful interest, the critical 
 moments of the great struggle. 
 
 I will not attempt to speak to you of its awful 
 horrors, its incredible sufferings, the unimagi- 
 nable losses in blood and treasure that it has 
 caused. 
 
 I would rather turn your thoughts to its duties, 
 and to its heroisms ; and pay my humble and 
 heartfelt tribute to the gallant soldiers and sailors, 
 the devoted and self-sacrificing home workers, the 
 women-watchers and helpers, who for three long 
 years and more have borne the burden of this 
 cruel and devastating conflict. 
 
 Now you Americans, too, have come to share 
 these sorrows and sacrifices ; to lay your gift, by 
 the side of those of England, France and their 
 allies, on the altar of freedom and justice. 
 
 For many in this country it is a time of sad 
 partings and eager expectancy, as your lads sail 
 across the ocean on their brave and venturous 
 crusade. We, English, too, have passed through 
 this phase, and can feel with you. From what 
 sources will you Americans draw faith and 
 courage for the days of testing that now await 
 you? 
 
 First of all, I think, from a sense of flie justice 
 of your cause. 
 
 I need not again enter into the question of the 
 origin of this war. The case has been fully and 
 freely tried before the court of your public opin- 
 ion, and the verdict has been given. "Secnrus 
 judicat orbis terrarum." The American people, 
 
like the British and French people, are resolved 
 that the Prussianism to which this world-tragedy 
 is due must be finally defeated and overthrown, 
 that freedom and international faith and comity 
 may live again. 
 
 Secondly, from the memory of your ozvn his- 
 tory and traditions. 
 
 This nation was made by a line of brave and 
 free men. Robinson and Brewster ; Raleigh and 
 Captain John Smith ; Miles Standish and Roger 
 Williams ; Winthrop and Endicott and William 
 Penn ; Washington and Lincoln — this is an heroic 
 ancestry ; and it is not to be thought of that a 
 nation bred of such a stock should fail the cause 
 of freedom and civilization at the hour of its 
 direst need. Noblesse oblige ! Those who best 
 know your origins and the quality of the main 
 stream in your blood have no fears that the 
 American people will not play its part worthily 
 and greatly. 
 
 Next, there is the knowledge of your great al- 
 lies in the zvar. 
 
 You will be glad to stand behind and beside of 
 gallant little Belgium. You have already, by your 
 splendid charity, brought comfort and relief to 
 her suffering people. Now, by your arms, you 
 will be able to help to secure that, in the end, 
 Belgium shall receive "beauty for ashes, the oil 
 of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise 
 for the spirit of heaviness"; that "for her shame 
 she shall have double ; and for confusion she shall 
 rejoice in her portion." 
 
 You will be glad to stand beside Italy. Loyal 
 and chivalrous in her time and method of entering 
 the war, she will be purified and strengthened by 
 her losses and sufferings. When Garibaldi ad- 
 dressed his patriot followers, he did not promise 
 them an easy march to victory, but "forced 
 marches, short rations, bloody battles, wounds, 
 imprisonment and death." In such a spirit Italy 
 will again achieve her liberation, and you will be 
 proud to help her in the task. 
 
 To convulsed and stricken Russia you will be 
 glad, if she will let you, to bring good counsel, 
 help, and comradeship. Unless the disease that 
 racks her frame has struck too deep, she will do 
 well to look for light and for disinterested friend- 
 ship to free America, rather than accept the 
 Judas-kiss of Prussia. 
 
Belgium, Serbia, Roumania, are wounded little 
 nations that need your help ; Russia, a Samson 
 Agonistes that your quick and liberal aid may 
 help to rescue from the wily net in which he is 
 enmeshed. 
 
 In France, — beautiful and indomitable France 
 — you will have an ally by the side of whom you 
 will feel proud and honored to stand. You will 
 do this for the sake of the debt you owe her, — 
 for she was probably the decisive factor in 
 helping you to win your independence. You will 
 do it for the sake of her sufferings. P^or the first 
 two years of the war she had, for all our sakes, 
 to bear its greatest and most terrible burden on 
 the Western front. Never shall we forget her 
 brave word : "They shall not pass !" You will do 
 it, above all, for the sake of her spirit, because 
 France is France, and the world would be in- 
 finitely poorer if the French spirit, the French in- 
 tellect, French style, were lost to it, and France's 
 beautiful and hallowed soil polluted longer by the 
 tread of the jack-boot of the Prussian bully. In 
 her case, too, we must build the old wastes, raise 
 up the old desolations, and repair the waste cities. 
 France must be given the power to rise again, 
 stronger and more beautiful than ever, from this 
 long and bitter day of grief and sacrifice, that she 
 may help to shape and guide and inspire the new 
 world that is to be. 
 
 And, lastly, you Americans will have as your 
 ally old England, the motherland of liberty, the 
 founder of a world-wide commonwealth of free 
 nations, the age-long champion of freedom 
 against tyranny. What joy it is to find Britain 
 and America comrades in arms for a great and 
 unselfish cause ! What promise for the future 
 this sacred reunion contains ! 
 
 In a remarkable book on "England and the 
 War" by a Frenchman, Andre Chevrillon, the 
 author draws a vivid picture of the awakening of 
 the English people to their task and their duty in 
 the early months of the war. "England's 
 awakening," he writes, "to the unexpected and 
 tremendous realities of the war ; her gradual 
 discovery of her enemy's deadly hatred and pur- 
 pose; the rising and spreading of the idea that 
 in time of national peril military service is a duty 
 of every able-bodied Englishman ; the appeal to 
 the individual conscience ; the working of the 
 mind which resulted in millions voluntarily taking 
 
the pledge (to serve) ; the dead-weight of old 
 traditions, habits and prejudices; the cross and 
 counter-currents of class and party ideas ; .... 
 finally, the fusion of all tendencies into one col- 
 lective will and movement . . . . ; such facts be- 
 long to the spiritual order, to that life of the 
 soul from which spring all the material acts and 
 productions of man." 
 
 Speaking of the poster-appeals for volunteers 
 for the Kitchener armies in England, M. Chevril- 
 lon says : "The feeling of imperative duty is the 
 suggestion aimed at by all these pictures, that 
 form a matchless document on the inner nature 
 of the English soul .... The English character 
 is a combination of will and conscience : the in- 
 violable will of the individual who has sole con- 
 trol of himself; the conscience which meditates 
 in silence, stirs to action, and ordains the 
 sacrifice." 
 
 What a part the free peoples of the British 
 Commonwealth of Nations have played and are 
 playing, by sea and by land in this record-break- 
 ing contest ! No honest and observant person 
 can speak of Britain's record with any other 
 feeling than that of amazement at the grandeur 
 of her uprising, admiration of her mighty efforts 
 and sacrifices, and gratitude that once again, as 
 formerly in the struggle against Napoleon, Eng- 
 land has stood in the breach at a critical hour for 
 the world's civilization, has not shrunk from 
 gathering the sharpest spears of the foe into her 
 own breast, and has gained time until the forces 
 of great America shall be gathered which shall 
 help finally to strike down the foe that has 
 threatened and endangered liberty and democ- 
 racy throughout the world. 
 
 In thus once more saving Europe by her ex- 
 ertions and example, England has incurred the 
 bitter hatred of the War Lords. But she has 
 been able the more easily to bear this, knowing 
 that, from the best American hearts, there has 
 been an upsurging of brotherly affection for her, 
 — a strengthening and stimulating memory of 
 kinship, in blood, institutions, and ideals which 
 bridges the separating ocean, and draws the 
 English-speaking peoples together in these days 
 of common suffering and danger. To the Ger- 
 man "Hymn of Hate," such an American (I 
 would like to grasp his hand !) replied as 
 follows : 
 
 13 
 
THE HYMN OF LOVE. 
 (An American Tribute to the Glory of England.) 
 
 A song of hate is a song of Hell ; 
 Some there be that sing it well. 
 Let them sing it loud and long, 
 We lift our hearts in a loftier song; 
 We lift our hearts to Heaven above, 
 Singing the glory of her we love — 
 Eiiglaiid! 
 
 Glory of thought and glory of deed, 
 Glory of Hampden and Runnymede ; 
 Glory of ships that sought far goals, 
 Glory of swords, and glory of souls ! 
 Glory of songs mounting as birds, 
 Glory immortal of magical words ; 
 Glory of Milton, glory of Nelson, 
 Tragical glory of Gordon and Scott; 
 Glory of Shelley, glory of Sidney, 
 Glory transcendent that perishes not, — 
 Hers is the story, hers be the gloiy — 
 England! 
 
 Shatter her beauteous breast ye may; 
 The spirit of England none can slay. 
 Dash the bomb on the Dome of St. Paul's, — 
 Deem ye the fame of the Admiral falls? 
 Pry the stone from the chancel floor, — 
 Dream ye that Shakespeare shall live no more? 
 Where is the giant shot that kills 
 Wordsworth walking the old green hills? 
 Trample the red rose on the ground, — 
 Keats is beauty while earth spins round ! 
 Bind her, grind her, burn her with fire, 
 Cast her ashes into the sea, — 
 She shall escape, she shall aspire. 
 She shall arise to make men free ; 
 She shall arise in sacred scorn, 
 Lighting the lives that are yet unborn ; 
 Spirit supernal, splendor eternal — 
 England! 
 
 Americans and Englishmen alike, as they go 
 forward with this great conflict, will be stirred 
 and strengthened by memories of these great 
 traditions that they have inherited, and of the 
 sacred fires of freedom of which Providence has 
 made them the chief guardians in this present 
 age. Old differences and misunderstandings will 
 be forgotten as they realize — in the fierce light of 
 this awful struggle — how small were the things 
 that divided, and how great are the things that 
 unite them. And out of this recognition of their 
 essential unity of aim and ideal will come a new 
 hope and courage to face the difficult future. 
 
 Britons and Americans both, we must try to 
 realize that this war is, properly regarded, a 
 
 14 
 
divine judgment day, — a veritable Day of the 
 Lord. In the crucible of this war the future of 
 your children and children's children, — as of ours 
 in old Europe, — is being fashioned. Blood and 
 tears the war will cost you in abundance, and 
 you will not shrink from adding yours to that 
 which has already been shed. The main thing 
 is that we should be assured that God is "tramp- 
 ling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath 
 are stored," and that "His truth is marching on." 
 Certain it is that our cause is so sacred that we 
 must and will endure to the end. Liberty is a 
 costly treasure to purchase and to hold. Old 
 tyrannies are not cheaply to be overthrown. Re- 
 demption means much shedding of precious 
 blood. But there will be no faltering when once 
 the meaning and purpose of it all is undersood. 
 
 He hath sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call 
 
 retreat ; 
 He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment 
 
 seat ; 
 O! be swift, my soul to answer Him! be jubilant my 
 
 feet! 
 Our God is marching on ! 
 
 In the spirit and under the inspiration of those 
 noble words your fathers struck down slavery on 
 this American continent. 
 
 In the same spirit you are coming now to join 
 Great Britain and France in the heavy but sub- 
 lime task of freeing Europe and the world from 
 a form of slavery worse because more insidious, 
 — slavery to the dogmas and practice of a ruth- 
 less militarism and Cassarism. 
 
 Properly understood this great venture of ours 
 is a necessary preliminary to that subsequent 
 Healing of the Nations which is the deep desire 
 of all our hearts. 
 
 And, believing this, I say — lover of peace as 
 I am — "God speed America's arms in this war ! 
 God hasten and complete the victory of our right- 
 eous cause!" 
 
 15 
 
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