discuss at this stage of the proceedings the tonnage allowance of thcse nations, but the United States proposes that this matter be reserved for the later consideration of the conference.

In making the present proposal the United States is most solicitous to deal with the question upon an entirely reasonable and practicable basis to the end that the just interests of all shall be adequately guarded, and the national security and defense shall be maintained. general principles have been applied :

Four

I That all capital shipbuilding programs, either actual or projected, should be abandoned.

2 That further reduction should be made through the scrapping of certain of the older ships.

3 That in general regard should be had to the existing naval strength of the powers concerned.

4 That the capital ship tonnage should be used as the measurement of strength for navies, and a proportionate allowance of auxiliary combatant craft prescribed.

With the acceptance of this plan, the burden of meeting the demands of competition in naval armament will be lifted. Enormous sums will be released to aid the progress of civilization. At the same time the proper demands of national defense will be adequately met, and the nations will have ample opportunity during the naval holiday of ten years to consider their future course. Preparation for future naval war shall stop now. I shall not attempt at this time to take up the other topics which have been listed on the tentative agenda proposed in anticipation of the conference.

Why is it more feasible to limit naval armament than land armament?

If the Hughes plan for scrapping a billion dollars' worth of ships is carried out, what do you think will be the economic results?

In what ways will a decrease of armament lessen the probability of war?

Point out one or more instances in this speech where Secretary Hughes shrewdly anticipated difficulties and attempted to circumvent them.

Compare the oratorical style of this speech with that of the Farewell Address. How far is the difference in style indicative of a difference in social conditions?

As we scan the pages of history we trace in the words of the great thinkers and speakers the evolution of the principles of liberty and democracy that have helped to make the world equitable and safe for us. We read the words of Burke, of Lincoln, and of Wilson, and realize how great men in days that are gone met the crises that confronted them and won the priceless heritage that is ours. But the fight for liberty and democracy was not finished by the great statesmen who have gone before us, nor was it ended with the Great War, nor will it terminate with the making of a League of Nations. It can never end while there is a human race. As long as there are hearts to beat and souls to aspire, men will seek to brighten the flame of liberty.

If we may judge the future by the past, Americans can look forward with confidence to an ever-brightening day. As President McKinley once said:

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Thus far we have done our supreme duty. Shall we now, when the victory won in war is to be written in the treaty of peace and the civilized world applauds and awaits in expectation, turn timidly away from the duties imposed upon the country by its own great deeds? And when the mists fade and we see with clearer vision, may we not go forth rejoicing in a strength which has been employed solely for humanity and always been tempered with justice and mercy, confident of our ability to meet the exigencies that await, because confident that our course is one of duty and our cause that of right?"

LIVES AND NOTES

JAMES OTIS

James Otis was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, February 5, 1725. In 1743 he was graduated from Harvard. He soon became a distinguished lawyer. In February, 1761, as a result of his famous speech on the Writs of Assistance, he was elected to the Colonial Assembly. In 1765 he was a delegate for Massachusetts to the Colonial Congress. Four years later his active life was ended by a ruffianly attack received in a darkened room in a coffee house from a number of men whose anger he had stirred through a controversy in the newspapers. He never recovered from the effects of this brutal assault and was thereafter subject to recurring periods of insanity. May 23, 1783, he was killed by a stroke of lightning.

WRITS OF ASSISTANCE

On

The text is taken from William Tudor's Life of James Otis, Boston, 1823.

1 The whole range of argument. The speech as originally delivered was a learned and exhaustive legal argument that occupied four or five hours. The brief section given here was recorded by John Adams, who was present, and is all that remains.

2 I engaged in it from principle. Note the persuasive influence of his manly and conscientious attitude.

3 One king his head. Charles I had been executed after trial by the Rump Parliament in 1649. As a result of the "Peaceful Revolution of 1688" James II had been forced to flee, and William of Orange was invited to become king.

4 Curse of Canaan. See Genesis 9:25. The curse was visited upon Canaan by Noah because of Canaan's father's sin.

5 14th Charles II refers to a law made in the fourteenth year of the reign of Charles II.

6 Tumult and blood. Is the last part of Otis's speech an exaggeration?

WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was born at Westminster in 1708. He was educated at Eton, and at Trinity College, Oxford. At both schools he gave much attention to rhetoric and elocution. On account of ill health he was not graduated from Oxford, but after leaving the university continued his studies. His favorite pastime was to translate and read aloud the works of Demosthenes, his model. In addition to this, he studied the sermons of Dr. Barrow, and memorized Bailey's Dictionary. With this preparation in rhetoric he coupled arducus study of voice and gesture. To a tall, imposing-almost princely-bearing, Chatham added every kind of power known to orators. Ridicule and taunt vied with pathos and exultation as he moved his hearers to enthusiasm. His language at all times was simple and free from figures of speech. He followed intuition rather than reason. His speeches naturally were not set pieces, for he depended on the occasion for his choice of words.

To this unusual ability in rhetoric and a magnetic personal bearing, Chatham added unquestionable sincerity and a deep sense of national honor and dignity. His passion for liberty made him the friend of the American people. "I rejoice," he said, "that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to let themselves be made slaves would have been fit instruments to make slaves of all the rest. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms-never-never-never!"

While Chatham was in power, Walpole and the other ministers were forced to take second place. The jealousy of his opponents and the autocracy of his manner, nevertheless, did not diminish his popularity. When he died, May 11, 1778, liberty and democracy lost one of their staunchest advocates.

AMERICAN TAXATION

The text is slightly abridged from The World's Famous Orations, vol. III, p. 197, New York, 1906.

1I could have endured to be carried. In what ways does the use of this expression help Chatham to get a hearing?

2 His majesty recommends. Compare this reference to the King with that of Otis.