and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for.

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I have said nothing of the governments allied with the Imperial Government of Germany because they have not made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and our honor. The Austro-Hungarian Government has, indeed, avowed its unqualified endorsement and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine warfare adopted now without disguise by the Imperial German Government, and it has therefore not been possible for 10 this Government to receive Count Tarnowski, the Ambassador recently accredited to this Government by the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary; but that Government has not actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United States on the seas, and I 15 take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna. We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because there are no other means of defending our rights.

It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as 20 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 25 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, 30 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 oppor-35 tunity 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 5 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, 10 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 15 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 20 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 25 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 30 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.

WHY THIS IS AMERICA'S WAR

By The World's Work. (MAY, 1917)

THIS is America's war. The men who founded this government hoped that some day its principles would encompass the earth, and from that day to this every American who has known his heritage has hoped that every able people would take unto itself its own government. The 5 distrust of kings and all the system of privileges that hangs about them is bred deep in the bone with us. Perhaps in some cases the distrust is unreasonable, but fundamentally it is right. Nearly a hundred years ago President Monroe enunciated his famous doctrine. One of its main tenets 10 was and is that any extension of monarchy on this side of the ocean is a menace to our free institutions. It has become even clearer lately that any spread of the Prussian autocratic power was a menace to free institutions all over the world, ours as well as all others. If the Monroe Doctrine 15 was wise in its day the war for democracy is wise now.

It is true that overt acts which plunged us into war against the Kaiser were the sinking of our ships. Similarly we went to war against George III because of a stamp tax. But the repeal of the stamp duties would never have 20 stopped the Declaration of Independence, nor would a German offer to let our ships pass return us to a painful neutrality between the world's freedom and the doctrine of divine right.

Fundamentally it is a war for human rights, for gov- 25 ernment by the governed. Gradually the peoples of the world are recognizing the true character of the struggle and allying themselves against the Kaiser and the Prussian machine. And the Kaiser on his side has no allies. He has semi-vassal states. Germans direct the Austrian 30 armies, and Austrian diplomacy is but a shadow of the German. Bulgarian policies are fixed in Berlin more than

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in Sofia. And Enver Pasha's ruling clique in Turkey is under the thumb of the German masters. These semi-vassal states might revolt, but except by revolt their freedom as states is largely ended, and while they are dominated by Prussia there is little hope for the political freedom of their subjects. The 160 million who live in the Kaiser's hopedfor place in the sun from Hamburg to Bagdad

were

to be doomed to reaction and to drill until they would spread reaction over the rest of the world.

The peoples of the world have one after another, as the President phrased it," seen the facts with no veil of false pretense about them" and joined the battle line of freedom.

The French, the English, the Italian Liberals, the Greek Liberals, the Russian Liberals, and finally we, have seen the true character of the struggle. And as the veil is lifted we have seen a brighter hope for human freedom than ever appeared before. The dark forces of dynasties and divine right will have few refugees when peace at last comes.

Here, in England, in France, and in Italy there will be 20 a keener realization than ever before of the blessings of political freedom. The Russian people have made good their emancipation. The Poles can again govern themselves. Greece will not longer be used for its king's kinship. China is struggling on to create a democracy. Lib25 eralism has everywhere in the neutral countries of Europe gained an added impetus. And unless the war be a failure, autocracy in Germany, Austria, and Turkey will be ended. The 160 millions of people who were to be trained to enslave the earth will themselves be freed.

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We are fighting for government by the representatives of the governed by majority rule; for the principle of nationalities that no nation need be an unwilling subject of another, that men of one race and language shall not be subservient to men of another, that peoples shall not 35 be transferred from one government to another by sale or

conquest, and that each nation, large and small, shall have a fair chance of economic growth in order not only that its people shall have security for life and liberty but also an opportunity for the pursuit of happiness and well-being.

THE GREAT STRUGGLE°

BY NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER. (1917)

ONE of the oldest and subtlest philosophies in the world 5 teaches that the whole of history consists in the struggle between the principle of good and the principle of evil. It teaches that now one, now the other, is uppermost, but that as the good principle overcomes the evil, or as the evil principle overcomes the good, so mankind marches 10 forward to freedom or so it falls back into serfdom and slavery.

This great struggle between the good and the evil principle has taken, in this twentieth century, the form of a contest between two political and social principles which 15 cannot live together in this world. And that is why this contest must be settled by force of arms. If those two principles had anything in common, an adjustment between them might possibly be reached; but each principle absolutely excludes the other. As Abraham Lincoln said 20 a generation ago, "This nation cannot exist half slave and half free," so it may be said today, "This world cannot exist half despotism and half democracy."

Democracy must in its way dispose of despotism or despotism will in its way overcome democracy. Therefore 25 it is to no ordinary contest that this nation goes forward. It is to no struggle as to which one may be for a moment indifferent. It is to the deepest and most tremendous conflict that all history records.