WITH FIRMNESS IN THE RIGHT 1

THEODORE ROOSEVELT (1858- )

Abraham Lincoln, with his far-seeing vision and his shrewd, homely common sense, set forth the doctrine which is right both as regards individuals and as regards nations, when he said: "Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong. To desert such ground because of any company is to be less than a man, less than an American." As things actually are at this moment, it is Germany which has offended against civilization and humanity-some of the offenses, of a very grave kind, being at our own expense. It is the Allies who are dedicated to the cause and are fighting for the principles set forth as fundamental in the speech of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg. It is they who have highly resolved that their dead shall not have died in vain, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the face of the earth.

Said Lincoln, "The issue before us is distinct, simple, and inflexible. It is an issue which can only be tried by war and settled by victory. The war will cease on the part of this government whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it. . . . We accepted war rather than let the nation perish. With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish

1 From "Fear God and Take Your Own Part," written in 1914. Copyright, 1915 and 1916, by Metropolitan Magazine Company, New York. Used by permission of the author.

the work we are in, and to do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among all nations."

Surely, with the barest change of a few words, all that Lincoln said applies now to the war the Allies are waging on behalf of orderly liberty and self-government for the peoples of mankind. They have accepted war rather than let the free nations of Europe perish. They must strive on to finish the work they are in, and to achieve a just and lasting peace which shall redress wrong and secure the liberties of the nations which have been assailed. . . .

Let ours be true Americanism, the greater Americanism, and let us tolerate no other. Let us prepare ourselves for justice and efficiency within our own border during peace, for justice in international relations, and for efficiency in war. Only thus shall we have the peace worth

having.

Let this nation fear God and take its own part. Let it scorn to do wrong to great or small. Let it exercise patience and charity toward all other peoples, and yet at whatever cost unflinchingly stand for the right when the right is menaced by the might which backs wrong. Let it furthermore remember that the only way in which successfully to oppose wrong which is backed by might is to put over against it right which is backed by might. Until, as a nation, we learn to put honor and duty above safety, and to encounter any hazard with stern joy rather than fail in our obligations to ourselves and to others, it is mere folly to talk of entering into leagues for world peace or into any other movements of like character.' The only kind of peace worth having is the peace of righteousness and justice.

THE PRUSSIAN MENACE 1

We are face to face with a world crisis. We are in a world struggle which will determine for the immediate future whether principles of democratic freedom or principles of force shall dominate. The decision will determine not only the destiny of nations, but of every community and of every individual. No life will be untouched.

Either the principles of free democracy or of Prussian militaristic autocracy will prevail. There can be no compromises. So there can be no neutrality among nations or individuals; we must stand up and be counted with one cause or the other. For Labor there is but one choice.

The hope of Labor lies in opportunity for freedom. The workers of America will not permit themselves to be deceived or to deceive themselves into thinking that the fate of the war will not vitally change our own lives. A victory for Germany would mean a Pan-German empire dominating Europe and exercising a world balance of power which Germany will seek to extend by force into world control.

Prussian rule means supervision, checks, unfreedom in every relation of life.

Prussianism has its roots in the old ideals under which men sought to rule by suppressing the minds and wills of their fellows; it blights the new ideal of government without force of chains-political or industrial - protected by perfect freedom for all.

1 From Declaration of the American Federation of Labor, issued at Washington, D.C., February 17, 1918. Used by permission of Samuel Gompers.

THE POISON GROWTH OF PRUSSIANISM 1

OTTO H. KAHN (1867

There are some of you, probably, who will still find it hard to believe that the Germany you knew can be guilty of the crimes which have made it an outlaw amongst the nations. But do you know modern Germany? Unless you have been there within the last twenty-five years, not once or twice, but at regular intervals; unless you have looked below the glittering surface of the marvelous material progress and achievement and seen how the soul of Germany was being eaten away by the virulent poison of Prussianism; unless you have watched and followed the appalling transformation of German mentality and morality under the nefarious and puissant influence of the priesthood of power-worship, you do not know the Germany of this day and generation.

It is not the Germany of old, the land of our affectionate remembrance. It is not the Germany which men now of middle age or over knew in their youth. It is not the Germany of the first Emperor William, a modest and God-fearing gentleman. It is not the Germany, even, of Bismarck, man of blood and iron though he was, who had builded a structure which, whilst not founded on liberty, yet was capable and gave promise of going down into history as one of the greatest examples of enlightened and even beneficent autocracy; who, in the contemplative and mellowed wisdom of his old age, often warned the nation against the very spirit which, alas, came to have sway over it, and against the very war which that spirit unchained.

1 From an address delivered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 13, 1918. Published in "Right Above Race." Copyright, 1918, by The Century Company, New York. Used by permission of the author, an American banker of German birth.

The Germany which brought upon the world the immeasurable disaster of this war, and at whose monstrous deeds and doctrines the civilized nations of the earth stand aghast, started into definite being less than thirty years ago. I can almost lay my finger upon the date and circumstances of its ill-omened advent.

Less than thirty years ago, a "new course was flamboyantly proclaimed by those in authority, and the term "new course" became the order of the day. With it and from it there came a truly marvelous quickening of the energies and creative abilities of the nation, a period of material achievement and of social progress, in short, a national forward movement almost unequaled in history. The world looked on in admiration, perhaps not entirely free from a tinge of envy. Germany was conquering the earth by peaceful penetration; and no one stood in its way. It had free access to all the seas and all the lands.

But with that "new course" and from it there also came a new god, a false and evil god. He exacted as sacrifices for his altars the time-honored ideals of the fathers, and other high and noble things. And his commands were obeyed.

There came upon the German people a whole train of new and baneful influences and impulses, formidably stimulating as a powerful drug. There came, amongst other evils, materialism and covetousness and irreligion; overweening arrogance and impatient contempt for the rights of the weak, a mania for world dominion, and a veritable lunacy of power worship. There came also a fixed and irrational distrust of the intentions of other nations, for the evil which had crept into their own souls made them see evil in others, and that distrust was nurtured carefully and deliberately by those in authority.