Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-11-20
ROOT SAYS AMERICA
WILL LEAD NATIONS
From St. Johns Pulpit He Declares We Will Solve the
Wars Problems.
(From Tmes)
(From the New York Times.)

A LII denominations In New York
- made yesterdays service a re-
ligious celebration of victory
and peace. In the Cathedral of st.
John the Divine yesterday after
noon a great audience listened to
an Interpretation of the wars lesson
by Elihu Root, an unfamiliar lay
figure In that pulpit.
Great interest was attached to
Mr.. Roots utterance because of the
widely accepted report that he will
be one of the representatives of the
United States at the peace table.
America can meet and solve all
the great problems that will be hers
as the result of the war and its
sudden ending" Mr.. Root declared.
"a difficult task lies before the
civilized world with the problems
of reconstruction presenting them
selves In multiple places. The pub
lie has no conception of how great
nor of all the duties that will pre-
sent themselves as the world be-
comes once more a world of peace,
nations, old and new, take up
their lives where they left them off
at the beginning of the struggle.
Despite the difficulties and the OBJ
stacles that already appear, and
others that will follow, there is no
All hn
ed upon to prove the wisest of ma
tions' in meeting the demands of
the reconstruction. period"
Mr.. Root alluded to the forth
coming peace conference, and, in
commenting upon the need of wis
dom at the council table and the
gigantic import of the decisions to
be made, asserted: mo man can
frame the timetable 'of the AL
mighty" .- ..-
''It is a tremendous event that
has just occurred" he said in refer
ring to the signing of the armis-
tice. "It is the greatest event of
modern history. 1t was world
struggle for human freedom, and
from it we learned the lesson of
sacrifice. From it will flow conse-
the peoples in them. which we can
not yet begin to understand or with
any certainty to prophesy in their
entirety.
Dawn of n New Era
To-day we commemorate the ush-
ering of the dawn of a new day--a
new era. The dark night of storm
is over, and now that the clouds
which for four years darkened the
earth have rolled away we see
plainly the landmarks to guide our
future course. From all the free
nations of the earth men sprang to
resist the evil that threatened the
earth. Many of the noblest men laid
down their lives, but their sacrifice
brought victory and modern civili-
cation has not failed. .
'"God himself was on our side.
And so to-day, thanks to the Lord,
Christian civilization triumphs. The
old barbarian principle has been
laid in the dust. More than any
thing else, the result of'the war, as
we behold it now. is proof of the
supremacy of moral force which in
the end dowDed the evil forc1 let
loose upon the world. Even Bis
IIldTCk KNEW Ill5 lebSOIl OL' lnS WOTlu
knew that cynical evil could not
forever override the power of
Christian civilization. but william,
the Kaiser, absorbed In his vast
dream of military glory, over
looked what Bismarck In his great
er wisdom had understood. To-day,
with the war ended and the forces
of all those nations whose cause
was one of right and Justice and
protection for the weak ana equal
opportunity for all dominant over
all the battlefronts where autocracy
tried to crush it's way William and
his kind know betteT-they have
learned the law of moral force now.
"Germany's misreading OF Amer
lea was similar to her false estimate
of other nations. To her we were q
nation of naoney-getters. We were
immersed in our own enrichment,
and were Indifferent to the struggle
that occupied all of Europe. Her
cypicism taught her that we were
not to be reckoned with, but to-day