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It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus, not in enmity towards a people or with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right and is running amuck. We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early reëstablishment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us, however hard it may be for them, for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from our hearts. We have borne with their present government through all these bitter months because of that friendship,-exercising a patience and 'forbearance which would otherwise have been impossible. We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship in our daily attitude and actions towards the millions of men and women of German birth and native sympathy who live amongst us and share our life, and we shall be proud to prove it towards all who are in fact loyal to their neighbors and to the government in the hour of test. They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had never known any other fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind and purpose. If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression; but, if it lifts its head at all, it will lift it only here and there and without countenance except from a lawless and malignant few.

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible

and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts,-for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.8

Who in America has the power to declare war?

What were the "choices of policy" before Congress at the time this speech was delivered?

Could President Wilson have made a distinction between the German people and the German government if the German government had been truly democratic?

Premier Asquith in The Call to Arms said that England in entering the war was actuated by no narrow or selfish nationalism. Is President Wilson equally altruistic in outlining America's course?

The United States first guarded its own liberty; later it attempted to protect weak American republics; finally it helped to make the world safe for democracy. Was this expansion of its sphere of action the result of a growing moral consciousness, or was it due to other influences?

Did President Wilson advocate a new principle in international law when he maintained that "the same standards of conduct and responsibility for wrong done should be observed among nations and their governments that are observed among the individual citizens of civilized states "?

THE MEANING OF AMERICA'S ENTRANCE

INTO THE WAR

April 12, 1917

THE news that the American Congress had declared war against Germany was received with joy and enthusiasm throughout France and England. The London papers were filled with articles of appreciation and with accounts of the material and moral aid that was about to come to the Allies. It was the general opinion of English statesmen that the entrance of America into the struggle was the most important event of the war. Ex-premier Asquith said that a day had dawned whose "sun shall not set until the two great English-speaking democracies can rejoice together, as fellow-workers and fellow-combatants, over the triumph of freedom and of right."

At the American Luncheon Club, on April 12, 1917, a great company of distinguished Americans and Britons gathered to celebrate America's entrance into the war. It was said that no unofficial social event within a generation had brought together more men of prominence than were present on this occasion. After the cloth had been removed and toasts to President Wilson and King George had been drunk with much enthusiasm, Ambassador Page, who was presiding, spoke of the President's recent message to Congress. From all of the states, from the states of the great Mississippi valley, from the South and from the Pacific they will come-as many millions as you need. We

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come in answer only to the high call of duty and not for any national reward; not for territory, not for indemnity or conquest; not for anything except the high duty to succor democracy when it is desperately assailed."

The reply made by Premier Lloyd-George to the words of Ambassador Page is one of the most important historical documents brought forth by the great struggle for democracy. It is known as LloydGeorge's speech on The Meaning of America's Entrance into the War.

THE MEANING OF AMERICA'S ENTRANCE INTO THE WAR

DAVID LLOYD-GEORGE

I AM in the happy position of being, I think, the first Prime minister of the Crown who, speaking on behalf of the people of this country, can salute the American nation as comrades in arms. I am glad; I am proud. I am glad not merely because of the stupendous resources which this great nation will bring to the succor of the alliance, but I rejoice as a democrat that the advent of the United States into this war gives the final stamp and seal to the character of the conflict as a struggle against military autocracy throughout the world.

This was the note which ran through the great deliverance of President Wilson. It was echoed, Sir, in your resounding words to-day. The United States of America have the noble tradition never broken, of having never engaged in war except for liberty. And this is the greatest struggle for liberty that they have ever embarked upon. I am not at all surprised, when one recalls the

wars of the past, that America took its time to make up its mind about the character of this struggle. In Europe most of the great wars of the past were waged for dynastic aggrandizement and conquest. No wonder when this great war started that there were some elements of suspicion still lurking in the minds of the people of the United States of America. There were those who thought perhaps that Kings were at their old tricks, and although they saw the gallant Republic of France fighting, theysome of them perhaps-regarded it as the poor victim of a conspiracy of monarchical swashbucklers.1 The fact that the United States of America has made up its mind, finally makes it abundantly clear to the world that this is no struggle of that character, but a great fight for human liberty.

They naturally did not know at first what we had endured in Europe for years from this military caste in Prussia. It never has reached the United States of America. Prussia was not a democracy. The Kaiser promises that it will be a democracy after the war. I think he is right. But Prussia not merely was not a democracy. Prussia was not a state; Prussia was army. It had great industries that had been highly developed; a great educational system; it had its universities; it had developed its science.

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All these were subordinate to the one great predominant purpose, the purpose of an all-conquering army which was to intimidate the world. The army was the spear-point of Prussia; the rest was but the gilded haft. That was what we had to deal with in these old countries. It was an army that in recent times had waged three wars, all of conquest, and the unceasing tramp of its legions through the streets of Prussia, on the parade grounds of Prussia, had gone to the Prussian head. The Kaiser, when he witnessed it on a grand scale at his re

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