New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-03
We Must Take Our Place

or weeks we are going to war with Ger
many. The time and circumstances OF
the declaration are of minor considera-
ton because the action of Congress in the
matter of armed merchantmen joins the
issue and insures this occasion.
And entrance into the great world war
must infallibly change the direction and
character of American history and Amer
lean policy For two years we have lived
in the mistaken belief that such war
and such a crisis as that which confronted
the world would be without meaning for
us. We have believed that the isolation
which existed in other generations en-
dured. that the warning of Washington
could have present application.
In all this we were wrong. Painfully,
perhaps stupidity, surely pathetically, the
President and millions of his fellow coun-
trymen have chung TO the belief that we
might escape performing our part of the
task laid upon this generation of mankind.
We have, as a nation, held to the idea
that when peace at last came the world
would be as it was in July, 1914; that
what had been interrupted then of work,
Of life. would be resumed at the point at
which it was dropped.
Dimly, yet Enthusiastically, we now begin
In perceive our mistake. It was never
possible to do this. There never was the
smallest chance of returning to 1914. The
forces. the issues, the questions raised by
this war, the very character and progress
Of the war have inexorably destroyed
most of the earlier conception of national
and international relations, as they have
removed the ancient landmarks of civil
ization.
When we enter the war we enter world
politics and world affairs, and we shall
never be able to withdraw into that splen
did and secure isolation which the Allan
tic once gave US and our earlier states
men hailed as the sign and symbol Of
American policy.
We must now take our place in a world
Of great nations-we must take our part
in a world war and we must, on our part,
begin to prepare TO maintain that place
against that aggression and that force
which the greatest struggle of human his
tory has unclaimed.
II is no longer worth while TO waste time
in complaining at the past mistakes Of
our leaders or the weaknesses Of our legis-
lators. They may have been a degree
more blind than their constituents, they
may have been a little more hesitating
than their fellow countrymen, but the
difference is slight at most, and the pur-
suit of past failure by present recrimina-
ton is idle.
II has proven impossible to live in a
world in which violence had been pro-
claimed as the right of one nation and the
rights of all nations subordinated TO the
violence Of a single people. We, who did
not oppose the application Of German
methods 10 Belgium, because Belgium was
far away, are finding in the end that
there is no escape from fighting evil, vio-
Ience, wrong, save by submitting to it..
We have discovered that the German doc
trine is as fatal 20 American rights and
liberties as it was TO the Belgian.
And with the discovery, blindly, halt
ingly, yet ineluctably, We are being
dragged into the world war, from which
we shall emerge, in any event, deprived
Of our isolation, henceforth exposed 70 the
perils Of all other nations and compelled
10 bear the burdens they have borne, the
burdens incident 70 the defence Of liberty
and justice, honor and life
Henceforth there can be no going back
ward. We may still liDger, We may re-
fose now 10 do what We should do, we may
neglect organization and shun prepare
ton, Just az we have shrunk from meet
ing German mensces hitherto-but, like
our other falterings, these will end in the
saroe fashion. Ultimately we must bear
our burden, pay our price for the rights
which we inherited from fathers and