224 THE FORT SHERIDAN ASSOCIATION
It is not the custom of Americans to adopt a hymn of hate and become depraved in the chanting of it. But to refrain from truth, the proclaiming of which would help to enhance righteous indignation, already kindled, w^ould be an act of omission difficult to pardon. There were many men of our gov- ernment working to bring to the eye of the public the truth about conditions as they w^ere known to exist. Prominent among these was Secretary of State Robert Lansing. In a speech to the student officers at Madison Barracks he said:
The evil character of the German government is laid bare before the w^orld. We know^ that that government is inspired w^ith ambitions which menace human liberty, and that to gains its end does not hesitate to break faith or to perpetrate interminable acts of humanity.
It needed but the w^ords reported to have been uttered by the Ger- man chancellor to complete the picture of the character of his govern- ment when he announced that the only reason w^hy the intensified sub- marine campaign w^as delayed until February last w^as that sufficient submarines could not be built before that time to make the attacks on commerce efficient.
Do you realize that this means that the promises to refrain from brutal submarine warfare which Germany had made to the United States w^ere never intended to be kept, that they w^ere only made in order to gain time to build more submarines and that when the time came to act German promises w^ere Unhesitatingly torn to pieces like other "scraps of paper" ?
Let us understand once for all that this is no war to establish an abstract principle of right. It is a war in which the future of the United States is at stake.
Imagine Germany victorious in Europe because the United States remained neutral. Who, then, think you would be the next victim of those who are seeking to be masters of the whole earth? Would not this country w^ith its enormous w^ealth arouse the cupidity of an impoverished though triumphant Germany?
Would not this democracy be the only obstacle between the auto- cratic rulers of Germany and their supreme ambition? Do you think they would w^ithhold their hand from so rich a prize?
Primarily then every man who crosses the ocean to fight on foreign soil against the armies of the German emperor goes forth to fight for his country and the preservation of those things for w^hich our forefathers were w^illing to die.
To those w^ho thus offer themselves w^e owe the same debt that w^e do to those men who in the past fought on American soil in the cause of liberty. No, not the same debt, but a greater one.
It calls for more patriotism, more self-denial, and a truer vision to w^age w^ar on distant shores than to repel an invader or defend one's home. I, therefore, congratulate you young men in your choice of ser- vice. You have done a splendid thing.
You have earned already the gratitude of your countrymen and of generations of Americans to come.
Your battle flags w^ill become the cherished trophies of a nation which will never forget those who bore them in the cause of liberty.
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