New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-09-27

suit was that our programmes Of social reform
had to be curtaIed from want Of the money which
could finance them. Let the menace of that Turk
ing feet be withdrawn-the nightmare Of those
thousand hammers working day and night in torg-
ing engines for our destruction, and our estimates
will once again be those of civilized Christian
country while vast capital will be turned
from measures of sef-prOtection to those OF sell
improvement Should our victory be complete
there is little which Germany yield to us
save the removal of that shadow which has dark
cncd US so long But children and our chill
drens children will never, if we do our work we'll
now, look across the North Sea with the sOmbre
thoughts which have so long been ours, while
their lives will be frightened and elevated by
money which We in our darker days, have had to
spend upon our ships and guns.
WHAT GREAT BRITAIN WILL SUFFER If
GERMANY WINS.
Consider. on the other hand, what we should
suffer if we were to lose. All the troubles Of the
last ten years would be with still, but in
greatly exaggerated form. larger and stronger
Germany would dominate Europe and would over
shadow our lives. Her coast line would be ir-
creased her ports would face our own, her coal
ing stations would be in every sea, and her great
y
striking distance of our shores. To avoid sinking
forever into the condition Of dependent, we should
be compelled to have recourse 20 rigid compulsory
service and on, diminished revenues would be all
turned 70 the needs of self-defence. Such would
be the miserable condition in which we should
hand or to our children that free and glorious
empire which We inherited in all the fulness OF
ITS richness and its splendor from those strong
fathers who have built it up. What peace OF
mind. what self-respect, could be left for us III
the remainder Of our lives! The weight Of dis
honor would lie always upon our hearts And yet
this will be surely fate and our future II we
do not nerve our souls and brace our arms for VIC
tory. No regrets will avail, no excuses will help
no after thoughts profit US. 1t is now-now
even in these weeks and months that are pass
ing that the final reckoning is being taken, and
when once the sum is made up no further effort
can change it, What our lives or our labors
ouI fortunes or even our families, when compared
with the life or death of the great mother Of Us
all? We are but the leaves Of the tree. What
matter if we hutter down to-day or tomorrow,
long as the great trunk stands and the burrowing
roots are firm. Happy the who die with
the thought that in this greatest crisis of all he
ma. served his country to the uttermost but who
would bear the thoughts Of him who lives on
with the memory that he had shirked his duty and
failed his country at the moment of her need?
There is . settled and assured future if we win
There is darkness and trouble if We lose. But II
we take n broader sweep and trace the meanings
Of this contest as :hey affect others than
selves then ever greater, more glorious the
issues for which fight For the whole world
stands at a turning point of its history, and one
other of two opposite principles, the rule Of
the soldier or the rule Of the citizen, must
prevail. In this fight for the OF
the German people, some day they will under
stand to free them from that formidable military
caste which has used aud abuscd them spending
their bcdes in unjust war and poisoning their