Connecticut western news., 1917-08-16
WHY ARE WE FIGHTING?"
An Interview with his Excellency Marcus H. Holcomb, Governor of
 Connecticut.

In the first of series of "Made-in- Connecticut War Interviews" secured l by the Connecticut State Council of Defense and being made public through the newspapers of the state beginning l today, Governor Marcus H. Holcomb, Connecticut's war governor, answers the question ..Why are we fighting?". l When a representative of the COu ncil of Defense asked Governor Holcomb for his answer to this question, the governor made the following state ment:-
 "You ask why the United States is engaged in the present war? For the same reason we engaged in the war of our Revolution-then to establish our , ndependence-now to preserve 1t. It was long time before we fully com. prehended the issues of this world wide war and realized that their deter. imitation would vitally effect us. The animosities between other nations did not interest our people and we were reluctant to become involved in their disputes. We had disturbances on our southern boundary and were occupied I with our own affairs and in attempting l to maintain neutral position.
 It took two years of this war and demonstration of German methods to clear our vision, during which period Germany and her allies have ignored every principle of international law; violated treaties at will, established zones of travel upon the High Seas along which we were told we might travel; sunk our ships with submarines and murdered our citizens, when we finally realized that the results of this war would decide whether the auto cracy of Germany would dominate the world or whether sell. government should prevail and humanity survive.
 For centuries many of the countries of the world have been struggling to establish self. government which we call Democracy. The progress has been slow and frequently at the cost of war, but democracy has been slowly but surely winning it's way. This country is perhaps the most conspicious exam pie of it. but England, France, Italy and some other countries are in line and Russia and China are struggling toward it. Democracy is bound to win l because, notwithstanding it's weak. nesses it tends to give the individual decent chance, it makes the good of the individual the key note and recOg- nizes the rights and capacities of man. hood; it is not perfect but it marks the nearest approach to perfection that anybody has been able to formulate.
 Always in the struggle to make democracy effective. it has been opposed by the idea that large part of the people must be subjected to the will and well being of few who dominate, not hecauJe of their abilities or wisdom or goodness, but because of their in herited position in society; an idea which limits and restricts the activi- ties of the individual and denies to him his fundamental right to "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness Unless curbed by democratic forms, such is the result of an autocratic governn ent; and where in monarchy or empire there exists military cast system to which even the civil authorities are subordinated, and which colors and directs the thoughts of those who rule, as is the case with Germany, the indi. vidual man must necessarily be de- prived of many of his opportunities.
 ''The victory of Germany in this war means that an outworn system of society, which most of the world has been striving to throw off, will be per petuated and extended. It means the victory of autocracy over democracy, and it means this not merely for Europe, but for us; if we should escape the actual domination of Germany, we would still be compelled, in pure self defense, to maintain great armies and navles to change our government into an effective military machine, and to l treat with other countries upon the :. basis of armed dullists. That, to my mind, is the reason why we are fight ] ing. Just as in the Revolutionary War } our forefathers fought England in , order to win the chance to live in free. , dom, just as in the Civil War many of : our fathers died in the belief that
 they were struggling to extend and
 make permanent that freedom, so we
 of today must bend every energy of
 body and mind to perpetuate and make
 safe that same freedom'.
 l Rapair Mirrore