New Britain herald., 1916-02-28

l than what they are talking about in l the cloakrooms of Congress. I would | a great deal rather know what the 1 men on the trains and by the way | side and in the shops and on the farms | are thinking about and yearning for | than hear any of the vociferous proc ] lamations of policy which it is so 1 easy to hear, and so easy to read by l picking up any scrap of printed paper. 1 Ihere IS only one way to hear these l things, and that is constantly to go | back to the mountains of merican ac- ton. Those fountains are not to be 1 round in any recently discovered l sources.
 Senator Harding was saying just now that we ought to try when we are 100,000,000 strong to act in the same simplicity of principle that our forefathers acted in when we were 3,OOO,O00 strong. l heard somebody say-I do not know the exact statis- tlcS-that the present population of the United States is 103, 3,00O,OOO. If there are 3,000,0O0 thinking the same things that that original 5000, 900 thought the 100,0OOOOO will be saved for an illustrious future. They were ready to stake everything for an idea, ana that idea was not eXpediency but justice. And the infinite difficulty of public affairs, gentlemen, is not to discover the signs of the heavens and the direction of the wind, but to square the things you do by the not simple but complicated standards of Justlce Justice has nothing to do With eXped1ency. Justice has nothing to do With any temporary standard Whatever. It is rooted and ground cd in the fundamental instincts of hu- manity.
 America ought to keep out of this war. She ought to keep out of this war at the sacrifice of everything ex- cept this single thing upon which her character and history arc founded. her sense of humanity and justice. If she sacrifices that she has ceased to be America; she has ceased to en- certain and to love the traditions which have made Us proud to be Americans; and when we go about seeking safety at the expense of hu- manity, then I for one will believe that I have always been mistaken in what I have conceived to be the spirit of American history.
 
 except by long measurements. You cannot establish a line by two posts you have got to have three at least to know whether they are straight with anything, and the longer your line the more certain your measure ments. There is only ono way in which to determine how the future of the United States is going to be pro- jected and that is by looking back and seeing which way the lines ran which led up to the present moment of pow CT and of opportunity. There is no doubt about that.
 There is no question what the roll of honor in America is. The roll of honor consists of the names of men who have squared their conduct by ideals of duty. There is no one else upon the roster, there is no one else whose name we care to rememb Der when we measure things upon a na- ional scale. And I wish that when- ever an impulse of impatience comes upon us, whenever an impulse to set tie thing some short way tempts us, we might close the door and take down some old stories of what American idealists and statesmen did in the past and sound in the authen- tic voice of American tradition.
 Then we shall be certain what the lines of the future are, because we shall know we are steering by the lines of the past. We shall know that no temporary convenience, no temnor- ary eXpediency will lead us either to be rash or to be cowardIy. I would be just as much ashamed to be rash as I would to be a coward. VaIor is self-respecting. Nalor is circumsDect. Valor strikes only when it is right to strike. Valor withholds itself from all small implications and entangle- ments and waits for the great oppor- tunitY when the sword will fash nc if