Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-10-02
What We Are Fighting For


markablr man Of his day in the bleNltN and clear
ness with which ne has presented the national and
international situation to his fellow cOuntrNmen
EIhu Root has easily taken leadership among
the private citizens in the power with which he mas
presented the individual and collective duty OF the
hour As the head Of tn" commission to Russia ne
nortorIned = GREAT service not only a sister rppub
lie but also to Our own country in giving lis bet
Ter understanding Of what We are fighting for
One of Mr. Roots greatest speeches was that de
Ii,e,rd nj the annual session of the American bar
association Sketches uf il carried III the BRIEF
press reports. but it has remained to few of the
leading loyal papers of the country I" give IL more
complete report that furnishes instructive and in
spirinc reading for every citizen who in this world
struggle stands firmly and unhinrhing!y with the
I nited States of America.
Mr. Root : age and wide experience lend to his
latter day uttcrancPs power that always assures
a wide and interested audience
For this reason special attention OF Star-buIe'h
readers is called TO the closing paragraphs or MI
roots address because they set forth SO forcetuH
what We are fighting for. and why the principles
for which we are fighting worth the utmost mat
We can give;
''Who can think of his personality amid the
tremendous issues that confront us and the terrlole
responsibility that rests upon us? Men are moth
drum life from ease and comfort, the struggle for
place and fortune the common things of every day.
the rising feelings of duties and passions and ideals
and devotion sink all the past and all the per-
sonality.
s'Therp are no persons now; there is only cOun-I
fry There are no countries There is only a
world in which the great conflict has come between
Right and Wrong. between the Angels of Light ana
the Angels of Darkness; and we are each one OF u.s.
hut an indistnguishable particle of the great CON
fiict that is to determine the future OF mankind.
II am glad to have gone to Russia because 1t has
put into my heart sympathy for those struggling
people which makes me better man. This war has
done many things already, know that 1t has dls-
solved for one battered old campaigner, who has
been through the rude Bullets of life for one-half
century it has dissolved that hardness of the heart
which brings Indifference to the dreams of youth.
II has brought sympathy, ennobling sympathy to
us all-sympathy for poor, struggling, pleading
Russia; sympathy for little Belgium, like ravish-
ed child trodden down by brutal and bestial force
sympathy for the noble patriotism and lofty char
acter of beautiful France; sympathy for the patri
otism that leads the Italians to the mountain sum-
mits for the recovery of Italia Irredenta In place
of the mild and complement surface kindness
-hch we once professed for all the world, there has
come deep and real sympathy of the heart with
all these nations that have become our allies.
I'VE are growing real instead of superficial. We
are substituting reality for pretense. But there is
something more than mere sympathy that this war
has already done. We have been talking in this
country of flee lives and liberty and justice of free
dom and opportunity. Of American institutions, of
The mission of democracy, about the ideals of our
fathers and we have been talking from the teeth
nDtward We have not felt it. l won't say we were
Head in trespasseS or sins; but were dead or!
sieapinm I'm wealth and ease and comfort.
ssThe brutal power of Germany, which has repudi-I
ated everything that civilization has accomplished
for the century past, which has repudated the law
of morals and declared the German ftGte to be SUI
perior to all, morality, which has repudiated the
law of humanity. and has without quavering COM
mitted the most dreadful outrages in order that she
might have the benefit OF inspiring terror in the
M0rld-thp brutal power of Germany has revealed
ut last TO our comort-loving people the unreality
of our lives. and has shown, bare and naked, the
dreadful hOr. id auth of human nature unreleyed
by morals on religion or humanity. 1t has shown
10 us as we never realized before what liberty and
Justice, what humanity and compassion. what mo-
rality and right. really
1--WE need not talk about the why's and wherefores
of the war. 1t is here and the issue is drawn so
clearly that a child could see 1t is for the Amer
lean people to determine whether they have the man
ood to maintain the liberty that their fathers gain
I'd for them through sacrifice, the manhood to main
lain thP Justice upon which we have prded our
selves the manhood 10 defend those institutions of
liberty and Justice which would hand dov;r to
our children or whether we shall submit and aban-
don them all
.,The issue is clear and distinct between the main
,anance of the American republic, free and indepen
,lept, American justice to the rich ard poor alike