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Show VICTORY OR NO MORE H FREE DEMOCRACIES. B With one-half of the military power of the world sup- H I porting the pernicious doctrine that the "state can do no H wrong," and that it can take what it desires through the B strong arm of force, it is up to the other half to dedicate H their fortunes to the end that it shall not be, and that the H allied interests must be victorious, or there will be no more H free democracies. Senator Elihu Root of New York re- B cently expressed the situation in a nutshell. He said: B v We come not to find fault or to criticise. We B come to turn our faces toward the government of B our choice, the government, the president and the B' congress on whom weigh the terrible burdens of B decision and action and the issue of peace or war B and in the terrible pursuit of that freedom which B can be maintained, it seems now, only by war. In R j this government by the people it must be the people B I themselves who act through the president and the B congress. L We did think a few years ago that the reign of H S law had come into the world; we did think that the Bf j. rules of law that all civilized nations had agreed to V be bound by were a protection to the peaceful, to m the weak; we did think that the faith of treaties B, was a protection, but we have had a sad awakening. B Neither the rules of law nor the teachings of civil- B ization, nor the requirements of religion, stand in B ' the way of those powers that are now seeking in rK the world, with fire and sword, what they call the rB liberty of national evolution, the liberty to send B their increasing population out and seize the terri- B tory and subjugate the inhabitants of other lands. B No more the protection of treaty or of law B girds the people of America round about. The doc- rH ' trines that a state can do no wrong, the doctrine B that a state is entitled to take what its interest re- B quires with the strong arm in hand, has been de- B clared, and is supported by one-half the military H s- power of the world, and if the present war in B Europe ends without a victory over the nations B '' which are declaring and acting upon that hateful fl doctrine there will be no peace and safety for free rH democracies in this world except all free countries B ,' be turned into armed camps. B o |