The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1917-10-12

| less hope is to die.
I'm physical sense Belgium cannot
be restored. Morally she needs no
restoration. We are they who need
moral reconstruction. We are climb
ing now slowly toward the heights
where Belgium stands with glorious
France and mighty England. We are
beginning to understand that we can
not share in the moral regeneration
Of the world unless we unite in its
| sacrifices.
We cannot win a share in Bel
GUMS moral grandeur by restoring
her cities. for the same reason that
Germany could not sully that grand
eur by destroying her cities. If we
rise to Belgiums level, we must pay
the price; that price is primarily
spiritual. 1t calls us now. AS An
tony exhibited to the Romans
Caesars bloody mantle and showed
the ugly slit made by Casca's dagger,
so Conscience and Human Pity show
us the wounds of Belgium, and France
and Poland and Serbia, and wait to
see whether we are that Antony that
Will put tongue in every gaping
wound to stir the world for vengeance
and for justice
Our moral test in one sense was not
quite SO high as that applied to Bel
GUM. She had no time to organize
her soul We had nearly three years.
But in another sense our test was
severer than Belgium's. No savage
was knocking at our doors; we did
not suddenly have to become either
serfs or heroes; our decision was
made deliberately. we had time to
count the cost. When the average
American citizen decided last April to
support President Wilson, that citizen
climbed to heights never before trod
by free men. He showed himself
statesman; he showed himself a
worthy descendant OF the men who
stood at Concord and fired the shot
heard around the world"
And therefore it Is that we are now
modifying our power. In spite of
politicians and their ambitions, in
| spite of slackers and traitors, in spite
OF an espionage which penetrates
even the remote corners of our Gov
eminent, in spite of the yellow streak
I'm many of us, in spite of our horror
of war, in spite of everything, and
without regard to any costs, we are
/ gathering our power. Not alone our
material power but our moral con-
sciousness. We are seeing Belgium
as she is. We are seeing Germany as
she is. We are beginning to under
stand what each stands for.
| The people that hesitate after get
ting clear vision of the issue before
mankind today deserve to perish.
Oceans may protect them for time,
but who or what shall protect them
rom themselves? A correct moral
vision for us at least made all the
rest inevitable. Men who get that
vision no longer count the cost; Meth
err shall we. Women do not weep when
their sons march away; ours will not.
If to assert our moral standards 1t is
necessary that million of our boys
| desc be 1t. Better that they should
| physically die and thereby save the
nations soul than that we should for
season rot in wealth and safety.
The road to Belgium leads through
| Berlin.
The German menace lies in her as
sumption of superiority. Given that
conviction amongst any people and
| the achievement of the ambitions OF
politicians becomes the duty of citi
zenship. There are other institutions
in the world that rest on like assump-
tions. and they will have to be dealt
with in time; but Germany is the
present enemy of humanity, She
must change her attitude, her de-
clared purposes and ideals, or she
must be crushed. There can be no
peace, there can be no mortality in
the world until one or the other is
achieved.
We long for peace, although as yet
we have done little to win II. But
when We decide about the terms of
peace let our decision be as fearless
as Belgium's decision was on August
3, 1914.
Belgium could easily have lost her
soul that day. BY paltering, by COM
promising, we can easily lose our
souls now.
Peace proposals which deal only |
with what is expedient, which do not |
recognize the moral outrage as well |
as the physical ruin of Belgium are |
only another form of the temptation |
which Belgium so gloriously overcame
in the beginning.
Shame be to us, and woe be to us,
if we ever endorse peace which does
not remove this Terror from the
world.
Morally we must go to Belgium; |
there only can we win absolution. To j
do that we must physically go no one /
knows whittier. And we will not
ask
1t Will interest the men rejected for