The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-11-02

one of the things which Germany has
had in mind, in addition to Ger
many's hope, in addition to the fleets
to claim Canada as indemnity.
Germany thought that it had the
world beneath its feet; that it could
set its own terms, and that by de-
stroying the power of England and
France it could plant its feet upon
this continent and do to the United
States exactly what it has done to
the overrun parts of France and
Belgium.
We shut our eyes to these facts,
though from the day Belgium was
invaded we should have been able to
see them, for a study of Germany's
military and philosophical teachings
for the last quarter of a century
should have. given u a glimpse into
the determination which had been
ruling in Germany for more than a
third of a century to Germanize the
world.
And Germany came desperately
near succeeding.
The Battle of the Marine was the
fateful hour in human civilization.
Had the French failed then, all
France would have BEEN" doomed,
England would have been conquered,
and then straight for this country
Germany would have carried out
plans for its invasion which it had
already made.
We stood by and saw France with
the most tremendous heroic work
stem the onrush of barbarism, but
we made no move to help her.
At the User we saw the soldiers
of England and her colonies, literally
moved down by machine guns, with
which they were not equipped, stay
the onrush of the Huns to the coast
of France, and thus to England. But
we lifted no hand in their defense.
We saw Belgioum-heroic, superb
offer up it's life rather than sell
it's honor, and we uttered no word
of portest against the rapists, >indi-
vidual and national. We gave no
help to that little nation in9the hour
when it looked as though all civil
z~+ion of all the world'hung in the
balance. Belgium held the barbar-
ians in check until England and
France could gather enough soldiers
to meet the men who were the pro-
duct of a military machine which
for years and decades had been
building for the purpose of crushing
the world and Germanizing it.
And America raised no national
voice in behalf of Belgium.
And yet some people talk as though
we had entered this war to ave
the Allies from barbarism! Let US
be decently honest with ourselves.
Duty and self-preservation demanded
that we should have entered the war
in its early stages and fought by the
side of those whose fight was saving
US from ruin; but lack of foresight,
lack of world patriotism, lack of hu-
mainly kept US quiet, and we went
on living in peace, selling foodstuffs
and munitions to the Allies at ex-
orbitant prices. Their lifeblood was
being poured out to save us, but we
were pocketing with eager, greedy
hands the profit on what we were
selling them.
Here and there were heroic souls
who could not be tied down by this
false neutrality. They went to Eu-
rope and offered their lives to France
to Belgium and to England. Many
of them died, and to their everlast-
ing honor and to that of those who
gave them birth their names should
be forever enrolled upon the pages
of history as the men who loved hu-
mainly, not simply for themselves,
but for others, more than they loved
life.
We are now in this war to save
our country from being overrun by
barbarism.
We are trying to save the women
o fthis land from what the women
of France and Belgium have endured.
We are trying to save the infant
from being dangled on the bayonet,
as was done in Belgium.
We are trying to save the wealth
of the nation. But what is its wealth
of money worth by the side of its
manhood and its womanhood and
what it has stood for through it's his
tory of human liberty, civil and re-
ligious?