The Nenana daily news., 1918-05-27

Not long ago I had the pleasure to outline for you the debt of grat- itude we owe to France, but we must not forget that we are also under obligations of friendship to England, and with your indulgence, I should like to review the adventures in freedom we have undertaken, and carried through with the help of England.
 Most American boys are taught to belive that the English people ,, are our traditional and inveterate enemies. Yet when we study our state documents and make careful in quiry into our diplomatic history, we are astonished to find that such ! conclusion is by no means true. i I have no doubt that we all desire to be impartial students of history, and to regard our relations with the Mother country from the viewpoint of absolute fairplay, that is my wish at least, and I am prepared to state tonight, without fear of contradic- tion, that for the past one hundred 1 years, England has been one of our most staunch and loyal friends, and every statesman of ability, both in America and on the European con- i tinent, recognizes the fact, that dur ing the past century, in hours of national changes, she has stood ready, not only to defend and sup l port our ideals of free government, but also at critical times to say to other European powers: "I may quarrel and fight with my American brothers across the sea, but you keep your hands off."-It is true that we have had our little spats with the Mother country, but the idea of peoples government-a government based on the consent and voice of those who are governed, has been growing in the minds of the English people for seven hundred years; ever since King John was compelled by his British subjects to deliver to them the great Magma charta, and it was an English Quaker, Thomas Paine, who first brought to our shores the highest concept of rep resentative government that we now stand for. And he it was who ad- vocated our complete separation from monarchy and tyranny.
 There has been times during the past century, when the diplomatic relations between England and America have been subjected to very dangerous strain; in 1912 they were broken off entirely, and she landed military force on our shores and captured and burned our capitol at Washington. We offset that dis aster, however, by giving her forces under Pakenham, a severe drubbing at New Orleans, and also at Balti- more, and after a rather inglorious war for both sides, peace was finally patched up, and England's part in that peace compact was so excep- tionally fine-it was so just and fair, when it really might have been very exacting and overbearing, that it is we'll worth while recalling to your memory. ... .."=...=.-
 You will remember that the peace terms covering the war of 1872 was not signed until the latter part of 1874. Now just at that time the Duke of Wellington, with the aid of other European powers had com pleted the overthrow of Napoleon Bonaparte, and relegated that tyrant to the Isle of Elba, to brood over {, his fallen greatness, while Yelling ton had returned to England with two hundred thousand of veteran /! troops and a naval force more than l one hundred times as large as that | of the United States.
 Now these are very significant, and pertinent facts for us to con- sider, for here is just precisely what happened: The representatives of monarchy in England-those reac- tionaries who belive in the divine right of kings-and who are ever ready to obey the commands of some