AMERICA, A BEACON LIGHT OF PEACE

GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO

For the soul of Italy to-day the capitol at Washington has become a beacon light. A Roman garland wreathes the bust dedicated to the hero whom free men call the glorious knight of humanity.

It is a garland pure as the branch of lilac offered by a poet on the bier of Lincoln. It is sacred as the ever flowering bough "with heart-shaped leaves of rich green." It seems as though in this April of passion and tempest there reëchoes the cry of that April, tense with joy and anguish, "O, captain! My captain, rise up! Hear the bells. Rise up, for your flag is flung."

Now the group of stars on the banner of the great republic has become a constellation of the spring, like Pleiades; a propitious sign to sailors, armed and unarmed alike; a spiritual token for all nations fighting a righteous war. I give the salute of Italy, of the Roman capitol, to the capitol at Washington; a salute to the people of the union, who now confirm and seal the pledge that liberty shall be preserved.

This Italian poet, who is now serving his country in the aviation corps, was "overcome with joy" on hearing of the entrance of the United States into the world war. This is his message cabled to America on Sunday morning, April 8, 1917.

Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet, novelist, and dramatist, was born in Pescara in 1864. He was educated at the College of Prato in Tuscany and at the University of Rome. He became a Member of the Italian Chamber in 1898.

To Italy alone of the allied nations the possibility was open of avoiding war and remaining a passive spectator. Italy took up arms gladly, less for the reconquest of her heritage than for the salvation of all the things which symbolize the grandeur of freedom. She armed herself, as to-day the American nation is arming herself, for the sake of an ideal. The spontaneous act consummated by the fellow-countrymen of Washington is a glorious sacrifice on behalf of the hopes of all mankind.

America has achieved a new birth. She has molded for herself a new heart. This is the miracle wrought by a righteous war, the miracle that unexpectedly to-day we of Italy see performed beyond an ocean dishonored by assassins and thieves.

Our war is not destructive. It is creative. With all manner of atrocities, all manner of shameful acts, the barbarian has striven to destroy the ideal which, until this struggle began, man had of man. The barbarian heaped upon the innocent, infamous outrages inspired by hate, alternating senile imprudence and brutal stupidity. The barbarian ground heroism to earth, cast down the airy cathedrals where congregated the aspirations of the eternal soul, burned the seats of wisdom decked with the flowers of all the arts; distorted the lineaments of Christ, tore off the garments of the Virgin.

Now once again we begin to have hope of the nobility of man. Love's face is radiant, though its eyes are moist with tears, for never was love so much beloved. Love overflows on all the world like a brook in May. Our hearts are not large enough to gather it and to hold it.

The people of Lincoln, springing to their feet to defend the eternal spirit of man, to-day increase immeasurably this sum of love opposed to fury, the fury of the barbarian. "Ah! Liberty. Let others despair of thee. I will

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never despair of thee," once cried your rugged poet. In this hope your nation arises to-day, in the north, south, east, west, to offer your strength, proclaiming our cause to be the noblest cause for which men have ever fought. You were an enormous and obtuse mass of riches and power; now you are transfigured into ardent, active spirituality. The roll of your drums drowns out the last wail of doubt.

April 15th is the anniversary of Lincoln's death. From his sepulcher there issue again the noble words which fell from his lips at Gettysburg, on soil sanctified by the blood of brave men. All your states, north, south, east, west, hear them. I say to you that "this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom."

AMERICA ENTERS THE WAR

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE

I AM the last man in the world, knowing for three years what our difficulties have been, what our anxieties have been, and what our fears have been I am the last man in the world to say that the succor which is given from America is not in itself something to rejoice at, and to rejoice at greatly. But I also say that I value more the knowledge that America is going to win a right to be at the conference table when the terms of peace are discussed.

That conference will settle the destiny of nations and the course of human life for God knows how many years. It would have been a tragedy, a tragedy for mankind, if America had not been there, and there with all her influence and her power.

I can see peace, not a peace to be a beginning of war, not a peace which will be an endless preparation for strife and bloodshed, but a real peace. The world is an old world. You have never had the racking wars that have rolled like an ocean over Europe.

Europe has always lived under the menace of the sword. When this war began, two thirds of Europe was under autocratic rule. Now it is the other way about,

Before the American Luncheon Club of London, on April 12, 1917, Great Britain's Prime Minister spoke on the entrance of the United States into war with Germany.

Ambassador Page was present and responded for the Club. His speech follows this one.

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and democracy means peace. The democracy of France hesitated; the democracy of Italy hesitated long before it entered; the democracy of this country sprang back with a shudder and would never have entered that caldron had it not been for the invasion of Belgium; and if Prussia had been a democracy, there would have been

no war.

Many strange things have happened in this war, aye, and stranger things will come, and they are coming rapidly. There are times in history when this world spins so leisurely along its destined course that it seems for centuries to be at a standstill. There are awful times when it rushes along at giddying pace, covering the track of centuries in a year. Those are the times we are living in now. Six weeks ago Russia was an autocracy. She now is one of the most advanced democracies in the world.

To-day we are waging one of the most devastating wars that the world has ever seen. To-morrow, to-morrow, not perhaps distant to-morrows, war may be abolished forever from the category of human crimes. This may be something like that fierce outburst of winter which we now are witnessing before we complete the time for the summer.

It is written of those gallant men who won that victory on Monday, from Canada, from Australia, and from this old country — it has proved that in spite of its age it is not decrepit - it is written of those gallant men that they attacked at dawn. Fitting work for the dawn — to drive out of forty miles of French soil those miscreants who had defiled her freedom. They attacked with the dawn. It is a significant phrase.

The great nations represented in the struggle for freedom - they are the heralds of dawn. They attacked