The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-06-27

self and live free; that you and
of today might have the unalienabl'
rights of liberty, justice, equality, pur
suit of happiness and worship of Coz
as we see Him.
AS we were dying, SO France Ii
} dying. And France, alone of all the
world, failed US not!
Turn back in your history to one
of the last acts of that king whose
head democracy got. There is a con
ference of Louis XVI and four of his
cabinet members. The question dis
cussed is, Shall France help the Am
erican revolutionists? The decision
is a unanimous, No! Why not? We
will tell why not.
First, it would not be seemly in
autocracy. Secondly, look at the risk!
The Americans have little powder,
few guns, no navy and no factories,
with mighty England against them.
Think of autocracy voting Yes on
such an enterprise for the promotion
of democracy!
And the condition of the enterprise
grew more desperate, steadily. In
all New England there were only
1900 pounds of powder. Those old
Revolutionary heroes melted up the
works of their clocks, the dishes Of
their kitchens to make bullets. They
tore up their Bibles to make cart
ridges. Bunker Hill was fought on
an allowance of one gill Of powder,
Is balls and a flint to the man. Frank
lin suggested bows and arrows. Wash
ington, in his despair, talked of ma
tional migration to the unknown wild
ness west of the Alleghenies.
We were dying, and with us the
hope of all that our God-given mis-.
sion for humanity meant. Liberty was
starving. Justice was holding out her
wrists for the shackles. Equality was
a fugitive.
Then rose the common folk Of
France and reversed the decision Of
their king. From their savings they
sent dying America eight cargoes Of
powder and ball in one six months Of
1875 They hired for us trained Off
GERS. They braved England and sent
us armies of Rochambeau, the battle
ships of De Grasse. They bled and
died with us in the swamps of South
Carolina and on the frozen reaches of
Champlain. They looked on George
Washingtonys perishing armies and
said, Here are our millions of saw.
ings, here our soldiers and ships,
here our La. Fayette, our Pulaski,
Beaumarchais, De Kalb andSVon steu.
ben. Rescue! Live, America!' ~
And now France is dying. Invaded
by brutal, greedy autocracy, she has
given her all. her money, her men,
her boys, her women-her all, but it
is not enough. From now on, she
loses strength which she cannot re-
store. The gaps in her defense she
cannot fill. There are no more francs
in her cupboards. Her gray-haired
men and boys in the trenches are her
last. The wolf growls about her
threshold. Another winter OF agony,
the last, approaches her, and she will
have nothing. 80 9E Nv" 1917 JHA| |
France is dying vac NV
We have money; billions of it. We
have men; millions of them. We
have more power to rescue them than
the Almighty ever before entrusted
to any nation.
Americans, shall France die? With
complete power to save, shall we take
our place in history as the vilest
crowd of ingrates since the Cruel
fixiOn?
Democracy? Yes.
Rights on the seas? Yes.
But we owe France more. We
owe her our national existence, our
possession of rights of liberty, equal
ity and justice When we were dy-
ing, she alone Of all Christendom
came to u.s., raised our despairing
head, strengthened our exhausted
arm, sacrificed for us, dared for us,
saved us.
: She dies. She dies, in the time of
our plenty. Shame to us, eternal
shame, If we fail her by dollar or
drop of blood:
We want something. at once. over
in France to represent our heart, as
we'll as our hand. We want, over in
France, red-blooded American; an
American who'll fill his pipe with red
tape before he'll hesitate to fight; an
American with the courageous i'm
pulsiveness of Frenchman and the
bulldog tenacity of a Yankee; an
American who sits not, but stirs al
ways; an American who typifies cour-