Mansfield mirror. (Mansfield, Wright County, Mo.) 1908-1957, 1919-05-22
We STOOD
At CROSS ROADS
ON A HILL TOP
PLAIN TO ALL MEN WHAT COURSE
WE SHOULD PURSUE AT
PARTING OF WAYS.
FREEDOM VS.. SLAVERY
We Have Reached the Final Toll Gate
on the Highway Of World
Freedom.

Just a little while g the world
stood at the parting of the ways--the
way that led TO perpetual peace and
liberty and the way that led to eternal
war and c~easeless seryitude. 1t was
as though the world stood At a cross
roads on a hill top. Ii was plain to
all men.
We have chosen our way now and
we are past the crossroads. All the
talk of arbitration was useless and
senseless. The matter had to be
fought out 10 neal the bitter end.
.Autocracy lost, democracy won.
The decision had to be absolute and
we made il absolute. We forced Ger
many 10 accept the abject terms Of
fered only to beaten nations who have
violated the fundamental rights of free
mankind. The decision was final and
We must keep it so.
Consider that situation for a minute.
The world was lined up on two sides.
One one side stood Germany, "Junker
dom" and 'Kultur,' the menace Of
German domination of "the mailed
fist" and the shining sword"
On the other stood all that human.
ICED civilization has gained in the long,
long centuries OF struggle. The allied
hosts, gathered there with the Ameri-
cans and other free peoples of the
earth.
No wonder that men spoke of AR
mageddon" and prayed the world
round for victory against the menace
There had never been such a meeting.
II was like the gathering of the hosts
for the last great struggle, like that
battle that the gloomy myths Of the
Norsemen picture as the ending Of
the world.
We are past that cross-road of his.
tory. We have chosen the better way
at the cost of untold lives and I'M
counted billions of dollars. But the
free peoples of the earth are tri-
umphant.
But there has never been such a tax
upon the lives and the treasure of the
world. We have paid a greater price
for human rights than the world las
yer paid before. 1t was a greater
price than the world should ever be
forced to pay again.
The actual struggle is over now. The
barbed wire of the west front rusts
~untroubied. Nature is busy smooth
ing the battlefields of Verdun, the
Somme. the Argonne and Chateau
] Thiarrv pt,f the pafinnc fhnf lad the
way face an enormous Indebtedness.
And the task must be finished prop.
erly. For us in America it is an
American task. We have given pledges
to our allies that we will aid to the
end and we will aid.
The full benefits that we fought for,
that We won, that We now hold must
be secured. That is why the wal is
not wholly ended yet, that is why We
must still raise money, still float Lib
erty Bonds and keep up our part of
the work.
Russia must be watched, Germany
must be transquillized and the score
of little new nations, the little old ma
tions of Europe that are reborn and
are coming back into the world must
be stabilized and taught to walk alone
That is one phase of the job that con
fronts the triumphant allies.
OF course it will mean a tremendous
outlay for each of them. America was
behind hand in coming into the bat
tie, but she came in time to turn the
tide. We must now live up to the
very best of our old traditions; we
must step up to the line of duty and
stand there un%fiinchingly until it il
done and worthily done.
We must make good once more In
the Victory Liberty Loan, which is
also called the Thanksgiving Loan
1t is both a Victory Loan" and a
Thanksgiving Loan" The victory
has been won and we are offering a
thanksgiving every day Of our lives
that the fighting is over, that the guns
no longer oar and that there is nc
more shedding Of blood.