Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1917-07-11

in making the comparison I offer my
apologies to the cruelest savage Of
the ages that heretofore had cursed
the earth.
From the field of the Marine until
this day France has been battling
with energy and bravery to drive the
hound from off her soil She is now
weakening. Her sons have been
butchered for three years; the dead
in countless numbers are buried in
her soil; the pitiably wounded and
diseased are in every town and ham,
let in that beautiful land; the re-
naming sons of the glorious land, to-
gether with her orphans and widows
are bravely continuing the work to
drive the invaders from the land.
France needs friends Her rights are
the rights of every self-respecting
man and woman on earth She stands
for liberty, law, justice and freedom.
These words mean for her her very
life; do they mean anything to us?
We are free, too, unless at this time
of need we sell our souls for a mess
of pottage and bend the fawning knee
to the imperial arrogance of Germany.
We gained our liberty, our right to
think and act for ourselves one hun
dred and forty-one years ago today.
| Did | say that we gained it? No, we
then declared it. 1t had to be fought
for. The tide had turned against us.
We had fought valiantly--our great
fathers had-but death, disease, lack
of numbers, equipment and money
were silently sapping our strength,
and the English autocracy-not it's
people, mind you-aided by their Ger
manic hirelings, were slowly press
ing us to defeat Then there came
to our aid mighty nation, them
selves just on the edge Of mighty
revolution in politics and ideas. They
seemed to feel in their prophetic souls
the triumph of their republicanism,
and gladly came to our aid with en-
couragement, money, men and offic-
ers. We were victorious. The Decla-
ration of independence was a fact;
its principles were made good. Who
were the people who thus came to our
rescue and gave us our boon? The
French people.
They fought for us; they died for
us; they suffered for US; they poured
out their wealth for us and now we
are a mighty people, a nation that
challenges the nations of the earth in
every direction which is good. Three
times as wealthy, fifteen times as
large in area as is France; and will
we forget all that she has done for
us and leave her to perish? Shall
their land be the football of an hate
full autocracy; their glorious culture
the serenest and choicest the world
has ever known-crushed by the
'kulture" of force and fraud and fell
ony, and we sit silently by and see
it perish? Never! While one breath
of loyal life remains to America we
will and should fight to save France.
While penny of our wealth remains
it should be generously given for
the salvation of France. While one
brave man or woman lives in this
prosperous country that man or wo-
man should be ready to work, If needs
be to die, that France may live. And
this shall be. When this barbaric
deluge of hatred, ambition, lust and
deceit shall go down to defeat, as
surely it will go, then we can stand
erect, conscious that we have become
enobled in that we have saved a peo-
pie, redeemed a nation, wrought for
freedom and democracy. America
will have mounted to the skies. To
think of retreat, of desertion, of pitt
able excuses to withdraw from this
conflict, of paltering when duty and
right summons, is to forever become
ignoble. When that time comes, If it
is conceivable that it should come,
may our flag be buried in the depths.
our history blotted from the scroll Of
time.
We are Rightly at War.
Thus imperfectly have I attempted
to show you that upon principles Of
political and social justice we are
rightly in this war; that we are in it
for the purpose of defending our ideas
and ideals, for the upholding of dem
ocratic practices; and this that we
may become nation highly honored
for devotion to righteousness. Thus
are We justified in throwing our bat
tie lines upon the soils of the old
world, and thereby making good the