The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1918-03-07
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THE HlN Is AT THE GATE

THE HUN Is AT THE GATE
The time has come for US to know
the facts. We must put the case in
stark and naked words. The millions
OF easy gonig, complaccnt Americans
TO whom the war as yet has no real
meaning, who have not realized what
this war means, must be aroused
They must be made 10 realize that
their lives, their liberty and happiness
are at stake. They must be given to
understand that whether this war Is
won or lost, depends upon their realiz-
alton Of their personal responsibility
and whether they are willing or not to
make the necessary sacrifices To save
themselves.
Entered into by US in the interest Of
free nation and for the benefit Of free
peoples everywhere, the war has now
resolved itself into life and death
struggle for the safety of ourselves.
The situation Is critical in the extreme,
and we should know II. II is time for
facing facts instead of feeding on
illusions.
Forced into war by Germany who
violated our rights as ruthlessly as
she did those of Belgium, we are
fighting u war Of self defense. We
are today in peril. We are fighting
TO defend our wives and children from
the defling hand of the German. We
are fighting to protect our homes from
beast who knows no mercy; we are
fighting TO preserve the institutions
we love, the liberty we cherish, the
freedom dear to US.
1--WE are fighting in France because
IL is there we can strike the enemy,
but if we are defeated in France we
shall be conquered in America; no
longer shall we be freemen, but the
slaves of the most merciless and brutal
taskmaster the world has ever known.
Our peril is great, and only our cour-
age and determination can avert it.
1t is not for glory, or honor or riches
that we fight, but for liberty, which no
good man loses, but with his life"
We must not underestimate our
danger or overestimate our strength.
We should understand that we are no
nearer victory today than we were in
the first month of hostilities and that
Germany Is today the victor; we must
get it into our heads and hearts as
fact, for such it is, that though with
the help Of our allies we are finally
gong to win this war, at this very
moment only the great white fleet in
the North Sea, and the western line
from Flanders down to Italy save us,
our women and our children, at least
on the Atlantic seaboard, from the
fate of Rumania and Serbia and Bel
GUM, and the devastated region Of
noble France.
I'VE must put away from our minds
all clouds of illusion. The task still is
unfinished and victory is far from
won. The military party in Berlin still
is in complete control of the whole re-
sources not only of Germany, but of
Austria Hungary, Bulgaria and Tur-
key; and they have not yet abandoned
hope Of decisive military victory.
1T is grim fact which had better
be plainly realized, for we are not
afraid of facts and must face the truth
unhinchingly because by that means
alone shall we succeed"
The magnitude of the task we have
is appalling. AS Winston
Spencer Churchill, British Minister of
in recent speech address
ing himself to Americans, has well
said: "Never in history has so great a
nation undertaken so great task. The
Allied nations have suffered severely
and in maintaining ten or twelve mil
ion soldiers in the field have as re-
suit three or four million graves.
"Our resources have been poured
,ut, our homes are scared with sorrow,
md our industries and finances and
have been melted down in
he crucible of the world war. Come
% our aid Come in your thousands,
,ut come at once TO Europe.
"Let the soldiers of France ana
treat Britain have at their side,
month by month in increasing num-
,ers, the sdps and grandsons Of the
men who fought with Grant and Sher
dan and with Jackson and Lee"
"The German armies released from I
he Eastern front by the defeat of ,
Russia, are steadily traversing Germ I,
my as fast as their deteriorated rail- ,
Ways can carry them. They are on 1
heir way to the West, hundreds of |
thousands of men with thousands Of Z
'uns The greatest storm Of all is I
So he sees the situation /
nd describes IT, (