The Washington times., 1917-05-27

b"O french women IN Lille tnAl
saw one day in a winters rain walk,
ing behind a German coal cart and
holding their dripping aprons TOT
Their faces and numberless others
rise in my mind. and 1 get q sens:
Of millions OF people who have come
near to the end OF endurance, with
danger that unless we can soon come
to their aid their grim despair may
force such a truce with the Prussian
militarist ring as will fill this worm
with bitterness and suspicious, plots
and wars, for many dark unhappy
years Here is the greatest surfer
ing and the threat of the greatest
disaster to all free liberal nations
that has ever come In the world we
know.
But 1 think OF other disasters here,
FOR another picture comeS to my MIND.
1t IL of the feet Of some years ago
rushing to the aid of Messina. I'VE
were on our trip around the world,
Captain Bassstt told me, -"and coming
up through the Red Sea, when we got
the news BY wireless. The admiral
Immediately sent some of our fastest
ships ahead, and after them our sup
ply ships with the greater part Of our
AoON- Aho navy nd0 70 30 ASa
while in the matter OF rations. but II
was worth it. For we did good work
at Misunderstanding to keep order
there, feeding starving crowds OF
half-demented refugees, and building
hundreds OF portable houses" And
this II but one case of many. The his
tory OF the American navy Is dotted
with such incidents-help to the Ar
meniAns IN time OF massacre by the
Turks, generous and effective aid
again and again to people oppressed
and to people lighting to be free.
There are hundreds Of men on these
ships today who fought in our war
with Spain. And our record in Cuba
and Porto Rico and in the Philippines
IL not like that OF Germany in Bel
gium, Serbia, Poland. Roumania, and
northern France. And as these ships
Of our navy were used for such mis-
sions in the past. 50 they go on q
greater mission now. For half the
world IL In distress, and many small
nations In danger.
Freedom on the Seas.
I think OF the German submarines
far off to the eastward lying In wait
for merchant ships to blow them
to pieces and cover the waves
with the dead and dying in or
der that the Kultur Of the Kaiser may
be spread wide and change mankind.
And again the big vessels around me
here recall visions OF Yankee ships In
the days Of the clippers. the Bald
Eagle, the Flying Cloud, the Ocean
Monarch. and all the rest, days when
the American flag was seen on all
seven oceans and those wonderful ves-
sells of ours did half the carrying
trade Of the world. For those old
ships loom up like ghosts around these
modern dreadnaughts here, reminders
Of a. tradition OF battling again and
again to preserve the freedom Of the
seas. think OF the Barbary pirates,
and then OF the U-boats across the
Atlantic and Of our destroyers there.
In these years of war America has
learned a bitter lesson-that Europe
Is not so far away, that land and sea
are In one world, and that one cannot
be free so long as the other II op-
pressed. For a Europe with Prussia
dominant might soon mean an ocean
world where ruthless arrogance held
sway. And Sc we made our great de-
cision: THE world must be made safe
for democracy"
VIII America rouse in time to her
slumbering now in the haze about
the setting sun. The strength Of a
million giants lies back there in the
cities, and mills, on the railroads, In
wide, sweeping valleys, upon the
and out on the plains. And
this strength seems just awakening
with long brown freight trains crawl
ing. crawling. heavy laden with food
and war supplies. And the work has
just begun. We have scratched the
land. We must pillow deep.
as the country waking upT" the
men of the feet keep asking me. But
1 can give no clear reply. What is
America to do? America out again on
the ocean to take perhaps the place
she once held upon all the seven seas,
America entering at last into the
great family Of the world, America
once again to live up to her
tradition as the champion OF free peo-
Piles oppressed. Such is the vision
that rises here. Its fulfillment time
alone can tell.
The sun has set and darkness Is
fast settling over the waters. On the
ship they have gone to their drill
with the guns in night torpedo de-
Tense. The big searchlIghts from
overhead send out long streaming
paths of light over black waters to
the East as though signalling to our
new allies. But back there in the
west IL is very dark. with only a few
little twinkling lights along the dis
tant coast line. All seems wrapped
in mystery there. What is America