Show tl v Vae ae V f By H Herbert Kaufman F is not our ur trad trade We abhor the prospect of killing killingE FIGHTING E and of being killed But rather than have honor and self respect die in in inthe the nation we prefer to die upholding the prides es of the republic Whoever has not sensed grim inexorable purposes in in the heart of America does not oot understand his own country We know how sadly war has worn the strength of pf Europe We realize the gravity of our burden We have aggrandizement aggrandizement aggrandizement of territory and all material indemnity Victory shall not profit us except in the knowledge of sec secure re tomorrows tomorrows' and the end of swashbuckling governments go We are still dazed by the cataclysm across seas We were too confident of our our isolation We thought to remain the one great independent power untrammeled by alliances alliances alli alli- alli- alli 0 ances sure that foresight and caution could accomplish all that steel can gain Tradition and inclination committed us to to peace ease O Our r fathers I c came me here for the express purpose of minding g their own business and those who followed in the wake of the Mayflower generally left home because of protest against some form of interference with personal rights Emigration is the expression of unhappiness Men do not foreswear motherlands lightly Oppression and bigotry crowded i most of our out of their birthplaces Compulsory military military military mili mili- tary service preclusion from higher opportunities pestiferous s officialdom officialdom officialdom restricted franchise unjust land laws and demeaning class regulations steadily furnished us with fr fresh sh population Here we were free to do db as we pleased to rise as we willed to share as we deserved And it is to to defend such liberty t that at armies are are aref now now bein being raised and prodigal enlisted against Germany whose triumph tri trl- would deliver civilization to force and caste We are not upholding England's cause or supporting France or Russia or Italy one whit more th than n the allies are battling for our safety The instant want wanton n outrage and contempt of of American sovereignty nade made their foes our enemy enemy every man in ina a a r British French Italian and Russian trench became a soldier for America and their flags by proxy our own It is t too o late to discuss what might or should have been The gage is thrown We are legitimate legitimate legitimate mate prey for Prussian hate She may properly impose her terms t erm s if victor v No imagination n can exaggerate the arrogant demands of the conquering the billions to to be torn from u us the favored nation clauses invoked against our commerce the markets markets' to which we we would te bee 0 denied and the reprisals visited upon our trade and industries Vae vi Woe to the vanquished I Copyright 1917 by Herbert Kaufman Great Britain and all other rights reserved |