The Devils Lake world and inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1915-1920, 1918-07-17
Why We Fight
Nos

Can 20 Longer Resist
BY CLARENCE L SPEED
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 q war
fought for the liberty of man. In times
past, 1t 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 90 and find, q country where
they might enjoy the liberty they
Now all is different. II. the forces
which are fighting for freedom in this
wal are defeated, there will be no
place in the whole world to which they
may go to find q 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 autooracy. freedom per-
fishes.
The land where freedom is most Inn
Hminently 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-Russfa.
We are fighting for the freedom Of
Russia, and must continue to fight for
1t 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-
plot the country for its own benefit;
and the very forces which overthrow
the car 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 q death grapple, Russia still
had our sympathy, because she was
fighting on the side Of those who were
seeking to safeguard the world from
:Prussian militarism.
When the car was deposed over
night American feelings were mixed.
There; was Joy at the downfall Of an
old, and sometimes cruel aut0cracy,
but there was fear that Russia would
become too disorganized to fight fur
-ther, coupled with the thought that per
Ehaps the revolution had come too soon
to be effective.
Then followed the brief regime OF
-Kerensky, when 1t began to look al
though freedom in Russia might be On
organized freedom, prepared to fight
for its rights, and all America hailed
the Russian revolution as a blessing
It had become absolutely correct ia
say that the war was a war of democ'
racy against autocracy. No pro-Ger
man could longer point to the car
whenever an argument arose.
Finally came the bolsheviki revolu'
ton, in which Kerensky was over
thrown. Russian industry and Rus
sian society were disorganized, ant
Russian armies ceased to fight. The
'kaiser's armies pressed on unopposed
took what they desired In spite of 9
signed peace, and Russia appeared t.
be about to pass completely under con
troll Of Germany. America stood
:.aghast at the prank freedom hat
played, And American opinion turnet
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 upol
Others to fight for the freedom Rus
:aia must have. +
The experience Of other nations ha,
been that men who loved freedom
were willing to fight for It, and to di'
for It If necessary. The Russian at
titude Of nonresistance was something
new in the world, and is hard to IN
derstand. The bolsheviki represent
ed the extreme idea Of liberty. T.
them freedom meant not the right o
the majority to choose their form o
government, but the right Of the indi
%vidual to be free from all forms o
governmental restraint. They woul,
tear down the old order completely
at one stroke, and set up the mil
aeni1m. They would divide the land
the factories and the tools among tn
workers, and have no masters hence
forth.
Even in Russia, however, there wer
~.dissenters. Some took up arms; AM
the bolsheviki, who fought the Ger
mans not at all, fought their brother
most ferociously. The result was an
.archy, lawlessness, massacre, the dig
organization Of the railways and TIL
failure of the food supply. The mil
lenium refused to come at the mer
decree Of the bolsheviki. It was show
that there must be organization ant
government Of some sort.
Russia. will not longer fight side b,
side with her CORNER allies. So in
siduous has been the German propa