The Carlisle independent., 1918-06-06
Why We Fight
 No. $ Because Germany Menaoes the Freedom of the World and Russia Can no Longer Resist
By CLARENCE L. SPEED Secretary of the War Committee of the Union League Club of Chicago.

Secretary Of the War Committee of the
 Union League Club of Chicago.
 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 a 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 if the victor is autocracy, freedom per ishes.
 The land where freedom is most i'm minently menaced by the legions of 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. If we do not, freedom will die in Russia; Prussian autocracy will rule and ex- ploit the country for it's own benefit; and the very forces which overthrow the czar will be turned against the freedom not only of themselves, but of other lands.
 In years gone by, when the forces of revolution were showing themselves here and there in Russia, they had the sympathy of America in spite of the methods of terrorism of which we did not approve. When the czar and the kaiser, leaders of autocracy, were locked in a death grapple, Russia still had our sympathy, because she was fighting on the side of those who were SCchiHS tO tAC "OAiu AA AoAAs Prussian militarism.
 When the czar was deposed over night American feelings were mixed. 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 haps 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 war of democ- racy against autocracy. No pro-Ger- man could longer point to the czar, whenever an argument arose.
 Finally came the bolsheviki 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, ana Russia appeared to be about tc 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 represent ed the extreme idea of liberty. To them freedom meant not the right of the majority to choose their form Of government, but the right of the indi- 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 the workers, and have no masters hence forth.
 Even in Russia, however, there were dissenters. Some took up arms; and the bolsheviki, who fought the Ger mans not at all, fought their brothers most ferociously. The result was an- archy, lawlessness, massacre, the dis organization of the railways and the failure of the food supply. The mill 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 side with her former allies. So in- siduous has been the German propa- ganda that. in many instances. Russian hatred of the allies seems to be deep or than hatred of Germany