Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-07-02
Why We Fight
 No. 5 Because Germany Menaoes the Freedom of the World and Russis Can no Longer Resist
,., By CLARENCE l.. SPEED Secretary of the War Committee of the
 Union League Club of Chicago.

Union League CluD or CnlcdSo.
 We are in this war with Germany because it is a war for freedom more truly than ever before was a war fought for the liberty of man. In times past, it is true, men have fought for freedom from oppressors. Sometimes they have won and sometimes they have lost. But always there has been a place in this big world where those who had lost in the struggle at home might go and find country where they might enjoy the liberty they loved.
 Now all is different. If the forces which are fighting for freedom in this war are defeated, there will be no place in the whole world to which they may go to find a refuge from Prus- sian domination. Every land under the sun will be directly or indirectly under control of the victor; and ii the victor is autocracy, freedom per- ishes.
 The land where freedom is most im- minently menaced by the legions or Prussian autocracy, at this moment, is the land where unwonted freedom temporarily has run riot and has lost the power to fight for itself-Russia. We are fighting for the freedom Of Russia. and must continue to fight for it until Russia learns what freedom means, and is again able to fight. 1T, we do not, freedom will die in Russia < Prussian autocracy will rule and 'exs ploit the country for it's own beneAEi and the very forces which overffffIeWhe' the czar will be turned against: the freedom not only of themselves, but aEll other lands. -s:- %,,.' tnl
 In years gone by, when the tondsA. of revolution were showing themssiaes! here and there in Russia, they had the sympathy of America in spite ofwthEii hi methods of terrorism of which sHEaaSS El.aS did not approve. When the czaf hail1 ha the kaiser, leaders of autocracy, MerFyR2, locked in a death grapple, Russia sff!Af; 9k!; had our sympathy, because sshA Hqs86s fighting on the side of those WAp y9efA; seeking to safeguard the wOrldI EZRA Prussian militarism. ,.f;rh fFs ff'
 When the czar was depose4 gyeEj night American feelings were There was joy at the downfall of an old, and sometimes cruel autocracy, but there was fear that Russia would become too disorganized to fight fur ther, coupled with the thought that per- hans the revolution had come too soon to be effective.
 Then followed the brief regime of Kerensky, when it began to look as though freedom in Russia might be an organized freedom, prepared to fight for it's rights, and all America hailed the Russian revolution as blessing. It had become absolutely correct to say that the war was a war of democ. racy against autocracy. No pro-Ger' man could longer point to the czar, whenever an argument arose.
 Finally came the bolshevikf revolu' tion, in which Kerensky was over thrown. Russian industry and Rus. sian society were disorganized, and Russian armies ceased to fight. The kaiser's armies pressed on unopposed, took what they desired in spite of signed peace, and Russia appeared to be about to pass completely under con. trol of Germany. America stood aghast at the prank freedom had played, and American opinion turned largely against Russia, but thinking men refused to give up hope. Rus sia was and still is incapable of offer ing resistance, but Russia is not re- signed to autocracy. It devolves upon others to fight for the freedom Rus sia must have.
 The experience of other nations has been that men who loved freedom were willing to fight for it, and to die for it if necessary. The Russian at titude of nonresistance was something new in the world, and is hard to un. derstand. The bolsheviki repfesent' ed the extreme idea of liberty. To them freedom meant not the right o1 the majority to choose their form o1 government, but the right of the ind1' vidual to be free from all forms of governmental restraint. They would tear down the old order completely, at one stroke, and set up the mill lenium. They would divide the land. the factories and the tools among tho workers, and have no masters hences forth.
 Even in Russia, however, there were dissenters. Some took up armss and the bolsheviki, who fought the Go1. mans not at all, fought their brothers most ferociously. The result wes an archy, lawlessness, massacre, the dis organization of the railways and tho failure of the food supply. Th9 mil lenium refused to come at the mere decree of the bolsheviki It was shown that there must be organization and government of some sort.
 Russia will not longer fight side by