Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-08-28

some of the most beautiful country
that man ever has titled and woman
carpeted with flowers. There were
fields of grain that beat like the waves
of golden sea against green islands
OF trees hung with gems of fruit
There were winding roads of exquisite
smoothness swift ribbons of friend
ship which bind together in neighborly
contentment the homes Of the rich
and the less rich alike. There were
factories throbbing with work. There
were white churches, there were IL
braries. there were Fairgrounds. And,
gentlemen, filling all of these there
were people-men, women, children
happy, thoughtless and carefree. In
all OF my journey l do not remember
having seen a rough incident of life,
nor even a policeman to remind me
that there still remains in the world
the need for force. And I thought
how good is civil life: how precious
or to play. to think or to speak, as
ones own soul dictates. And how
sweet the security of life,-the peace
with which the mother sees her chill
dren go forth for the day, the conf
dence with which she awaits their re-
turn at evening.
Then l thought of the beautiful
plains of Belgium, as l had seen them
last, of the children at play, and the
women and men at work in their fan
cleo security, and the gem like houses
IN Which even the poor resided. Then
the present came over me with hor-
ror; l wondered where now the chill
oren, and the men and women / had
seen, and what of the future of those
VINO are left. Then l thought of the
address which 1 had to prepare, Of the
horrid cause which had made it nee
essary. and of you, gentlemen. who
wear the heavy robes of responsible
lty, and who are charged with the
lives and happiness of thnse wha have
placed themselves in your keeping.
Are We Blind?
l found myself wondering if some
OF US are not yet unaware of the full
meaning of the change which has me
over the world, Of what it portends,
and Of the hideous possibilities for us
which it contains. / wondered if some
might not still be blinded by the few
fragments which remain of our belief
that all controversies may be settled
without war and if they know how
thoroughly that belief, and our over
confidence in the integrity Of the
world, has thrown our means Of de-
tense into decay. and left US open to
the narauder.
These things 1 say to you frankly,
gentlemen, because l am fearful. |
know how devoutly you wish that we
be left at peace, to work out the huge.
| benign problems of a healthier exist
ence, in the solution of which we are
engaged. But l am fearful lest many
of us should misjudge the means by
Which that peace may be secured and
thereby permit our very love for peace
to Imperil the preservation Of it. l
confess to being hater of war a pas
SIonate advocate of the maintenance
OF peace, but l realize that peace to be
had must sometimes be fought for,
that to be preserved it must be pro-
tected, and that to be protected it
must be surrounded by impregnable
barriers. In the names of those whom
barriers, and beg that with all the
weight of your great Office you will la
Dor with us to surround our common
country with such barriers, by sea and
by land. as shall place wholly beyond
the possibility of enactment, upon your
soil and mine. among your people and
my own, the hideous scenes of carnage
and rape, that have made the face of
our clean and .chivalrous American
manhood hot with anger and shame.
Gentlemen, / am no alarmist; l am
merely looking the facts of life, as
they are today, straight in the face.
The things l am pointing out are not
fancies, they are dreadful realities.
They are not remote. they are but a
weeks time away, by transport travel.
They are not isolated they are gen.
eral and widespread, and they are not
accidental occurrences. but have be-
come the established procedure of
modern warfare. There is moral
pestilence abroad, a pestilence we
thought the physicians of diplomacy
had eradicated forever. We now see
that they hadn't; that instead it has
suddenly broken out afresh, to sweep
Europe with such virulence as the
world never has seen. That was one
Of our misconceptions. What shall
we do? Permit this pestilence to flow
over our coasts and devastate our
land, as it has Europe? Or shall we
establish a quarantine, and place our
selves in position to repel it, at our
borders?
Seas Do Not Protect Us.
We were taught that our seas would
insulate US against this pestilence;
that we might rest secure behind their
seeming vast expanse. But we find,
instead. that they are it's swiftest
highway, that over them it may pass
countless forces of destruction, with q
CELEBRITY never before known to the
passage of armies. That was another
of our misconceptions.
But a few days since an associate
informed me that in the archives at
Washington there is document
which sets forth the celebrity with
which these very seas may suddenly
be used for an attack upon us. Ac-
cording to its contents, which gave
the number Of men each of several
nations could land upon our Shores