Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1918-05-06
Prof. A. E. Kepford, Iowa Director OF
American Red Cross, Delivers
Powerful Address ut
Jefferson.
SPEAKS AT BIG UNION MEETING
Says Early Peace is Impossible and
America Should Prepare for
Long War.

Jefferson, Iowa, May Cdr. A. E
Kepford, Iowa director of the Ameri-
can Red Cross, delivered patriotic
address last night at union service
in which all the churches of this city
united. The occasion was a meeting
arranged by the local chapter of the
American Red Cross, the purpose OF
which was to stir still deeper patriotic
interest in the activities of the great
war. Many we'll meaning citizens
have not yet grasped the certain fact
that if this war is not won within a
reasonable length of time on Euro
pean soil, it will mean that the United
States will have to complete the task
alone. 1t is the expressed belief OF
DR.. Kepford that while the allies will
hold the western front that the great
determinative factor is to be found in
middle Europe. The speaker stated
that the real battle was between DEM
ocracy on the one hand and autocracy
on the other, contest between free
institutions and institutionalism. That
the theory of. the Hun is that the
people exist for the government. The
dictum of Americanism is government
"Of the people, by the people, and for
the people,"
Early Peace Impossible.
DR.. Kepford declared that an early
peace was impossible, and that Amer
lea should prepare for long contest
involving the sacrifice of thousands OF
men and untold financial resources;
that an early peace talk should be sup
pressed as generally it eminates from
pro-German sources, and that this
great question should be determined
throw Of the war lords of Germany
The speaker stated in part: I'm, this
mighty contest of blood and iron, two
great principles are striving for su.
premacy. 1t is the age-long contest
between autocracy on the one hand and
democracy on the other. It is battle
Of human ideas and the victory will
prepondcrating force have been for
ever conquered. The German theory
of government is an atavism. The pol
icy of the Hun, the dictum of the war
lords of Germany, is that the state is
supreme; what the state wills is NOR
al; that the state can do no wrong
that the will of the state is expressed
by one man; that is the kaiser; and
that God Almighty has subordinated
Himself to the kaiser. Forty years ago
Germany began the education of her
people to this doctrine, medieval in its
conception, and identified with reli-
giOn. This idea has taken possession
of the German nation, and created a
barbarous people who have made
murderous assault upon the peace of
mankind. Bismarck, the iron chancel-
lor, had two postulates in his theory
of government: One was, strike your
enemy when he is weakest; the second,
strike your enemy and make it appear
that your enemy struck you first.
Opposed to this doctrine of force is the
doctrine of the great democracies of
the world, which guarantee to every
man an inherent and divine right to
work out his own scheme of life by
which he may be happy, contented and
free. The American public school has
been the great assimilating agency by
which Americanism has transformed
millions upon millions of foreign born
men and women into loyal and devot-
ed citizens. America has become the
melting pot, the result of which is a
great polyglot civilization. Today
America finds herself allied with the
great democracies of the world in a
supreme effort to forever Danish the
menace of Germanism from the world,
but the theatre of this international
drama is Europe and the part which
America is playing has come to be the
principal role. Throughout the hun
dred years and more Of free American
institutions this country has been able
to establish herself in the confidence
of the nations of the world, and today
Europe turns to the mighty giant of
the west, full knowing that we shall
not rest until we have made the world
a decent place in which to live Mighty
battles. the bloodiest and most terrible