Winning a Cause | Page 6

for all time on this day? The past and the future were listening what
he would say-- Only this, from the white-flaming heart of a passion
austere, Only this--ah, but France understood! "Lafayette, we are here."
AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR.
[Illustration: "Lafayette, We Are Here!" The immortal tribute of
General John J. Pershing at the grave of the great Frenchman. Notice
the difference between the American and French salutes.]

AMERICA ENTERS THE WAR
SPEECH BY LLOYD GEORGE, BRITISH PREMIER,
APRIL 12, 1917
I am in the happy position of being, I think, the first British Minister of
the Crown who, speaking on behalf of the people of this country, can
salute the American Nation as comrades in arms. I am glad; I am proud.
I am glad not merely because of the stupendous resources which this
great nation will bring to the succor of the alliance, but I rejoice as a
democrat that the advent of the United States into this war gives the
final stamp and seal to the character of the conflict as a struggle against

military autocracy throughout the world.
That was the note that ran through the great deliverance of President
Wilson. The United States of America have the noble tradition, never
broken, of having never engaged in war except for liberty. And this is
the greatest struggle for liberty that they have ever embarked upon. I
am not at all surprised, when one recalls the wars of the past, that
America took its time to make up its mind about the character of this
struggle. In Europe most of the great wars of the past were waged for
dynastic aggrandizement and conquest. No wonder when this great war
started that there were some elements of suspicion still lurking in the
minds of the people of the United States of America. There were those
who thought perhaps that kings were at their old tricks--and although
they saw the gallant Republic of France fighting, they some of them
perhaps regarded it as the poor victim of a conspiracy of monarchical
swash-bucklers. The fact that the United States of America has made
up its mind finally makes it abundantly clear to the world that this is no
struggle of that character, but a great fight for human liberty.
They naturally did not know at first what we had endured in Europe for
years from this military caste in Prussia. It never has reached the United
States of America. Prussia was not a democracy. The Kaiser promises
that it will be a democracy after the war. I think he is right. But Prussia
not merely was not a democracy. Prussia was not a state; Prussia was
an army. It had great industries that had been highly developed; a great
educational system; it had its universities; it had developed its science.
All these were subordinate to the one great predominant purpose of
all--a conquering army which was to intimidate the world. The army
was the spearpoint of Prussia; the rest was merely the haft. That was
what we had to deal with in these old countries. It got on the nerves of
Europe. They knew what it all meant. It was an army that in recent
times had waged three wars, all of conquest, and the unceasing tramp
of its legions through the streets of Prussia, on the parade grounds of
Prussia, had got into the Prussian head. The Kaiser, when he witnessed
on a grand scale his reviews, got drunk with the sound of it. He
delivered the law to the world as if Potsdam was another Sinai, and he

was uttering the law from the thunder clouds.
But make no mistake. Europe was uneasy. Europe was half intimidated.
Europe was anxious. Europe was apprehensive. We knew the whole
time what it meant. What we did not know was the moment it would
come.
This is the menace, this is the apprehension from which Europe has
suffered for over fifty years. It paralyzed the beneficent activity of all
states, which ought to be devoted to concentrating on the well-being of
their peoples. They had to think about this menace, which was there
constantly as a cloud ready to burst over the land. No one can tell
except Frenchmen what they endured from this tyranny, patiently,
gallantly, with dignity, till the hour of deliverance came. The best
energies of military science had been devoted to defending itself
against the impending blow. France was like a nation which put up its
right arm to ward off a blow, and could not give the whole of her
strength to the great things which she was capable of. That great, bold,
imaginative, fertile mind, which would otherwise have been clearing
new paths for progress, was paralyzed.
That is the state of things we had to