territorial aggrandizement, not even the pricking of one of those so-called points of honor which in days gone by have driven nations, as they used to drive individuals, to the duelling ground.

It was the constraining force of conscience and humanity, growing in strength and compulsive authority month by month, with the gradual unfolding of the real character of German aims and methods. It was that force alone which brought home to the great democracy overseas the momentous truth that they were standing at the parting ways. The American nation had to make one of those great decisions which in the lives of men and nations determine for good or ill their whole future.

What was it that our kinsmen in America realized as the issue in this unexampled conflict? The very things which, if we are worthy of our best traditions, we are bound to vindicate-essential conditions of free and honorable development of the nations of the world, humanity, respect for law, consideration for the weak and unprotected, chivalry toward mankind, observance of good faith-these things, which we used to regard as commonplaces of international decency, one after another have been flouted, menaced, trodden under foot, as though they were effete superstitions of a bygone creed.

THE VOICES OF OUR LEADERS

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America sees in this clear issue something of wider import than the vicissitudes of the battlefields, or even of a rearrangement of the map of Europe on the basis of nationality.

The whole future of civilized government and intercourse, in particular the fortunes and faith of democracy, has been brought into peril. In such a situation aloofness is seen to be not only a blunder, but a crime. To stand aside with stopped ears, with folded arms, with averted gaze, when you have the power to intervene, is to become not a mere spectator, but an accomplice.

There was never in the minds of any of us a fear that the moment the issue became apparent and unmistakable the voice of America would not be heard. She has now dedicated herself without hesitation or reserve, heart and soul and strength, to the greatest of causes, to which, stimulated and fortified by her comradeship, we here renew our fealty and devotion.

THE OLDEST FREE ASSEMBLIES

Right Honorable Arthur James Balfour, Formerly Prime Minister of Great Britain, Head of the British Mission to the United States.

Delivered in the United States House of Representatives, May 5th, 1917.