Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-06-23
Why We Fight
 No. 5 Because Germany Menaces 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.

because 1t 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 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 if the victor is autocracy, freedom per- ishes.
 The land where freedom is most im- 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 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. plOit the country for it's own benefit; and the very forces which overthfew 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 seeking to safeguard the world from 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 Al S~, {r1, ho o organized freedom, prepared to fight for it's rights, and all America hailed 1 the Russian revolution as blessing. | It had become absolutely correct to l 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' l 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 a
 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 represent
 ed the extreme idea of liberty. Tc
 them freedom meant not the right o1
 the majority to choose their form o1 government, but the right of. the indi
 vidual to be free from all forms o1
 governmental restraint. They WOuN
 tear down the old order completely
 at one stroke, and set up the, mil
 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 mil
 lenium refused to come at the mere decree of the bolsheviki. It was shOwr
 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
 CT than hatred of Germany.
 Therefore the United States cannot
 render direct aid to the struggling peo.
 pie of Russia. She cannot send them