The Unpopular History of the United States by Uncle Sam Himself/Chapter 25
XXV
TO OUR MISTAUGHT MILLIONS
Now, let's put the Civil War behind us—except for its lesson. We've got a mighty uncivil war ahead of us which demands attention.
I want all the mistaught and misled millions of this nation to know at least part of the reasons why we chucked that old volunteer system into the junk heap. Every mother and father in this country, when their son goes off to war, has got a right to know. I believe in explaining things. Folks might think that we are sending their boys across the ocean to fight some other fellow's war. That's not so. This is our war. It was our war from the very beginning, but we didn't see it, not then.
Five hundred years ago the English people bluffed and bulldozed their Magna Charta out of King John, which laid the foundation of British liberty, and the foundation of American responsibility in the present struggle. Five hundred years is a long distance to travel backwards. It's true, just the same. But a great Big Idea started then, and has been traveling forward ever since. Afterwards the English secured the Habeas Corpus Act, the Bill of Rights, and other guarantees of personal liberty. We brought those same rights with us to America, and we think a heap of 'em. They're what built our government. I've been finding some faults with our Government — but you can bet your bottom dollar I love it. Pretty soon that Big Idea spread over the entire western hemisphere, and became firmly imbedded in most of the older countries. It means that every fellow must have an equal show — a fair shake, a square deal, a chance for his white alley. Do I put it plain? We Americans are powerful sot in our notion of sticking to that Big Idea. We won't give it up, not without a fight.
About the time our forefathers were signing the Declaration of Independence, and defending it, Frederick the Great, of Prussia, was lifting his obscure kingdom to the position of a world power, based upon a totally different idea, the Divine Right of Kings, the right of a solitary man to rule other men whether they want him to or not. Sometimes it was more fun for Frederick when they didn't want him. The Divine Right of Kings likes to boss the plain folks, keep 'em down, beat 'em down — and then make 'em love it.
Frederick built, Bismarck perfected, and the present Emperor William II said at Frankfort that his "grandfather had by his own right placed upon his head the crown of the kings of Prussia," and that he was responsible to no man, to no legislative body, to no gathering of the people, and he didn't care a rap whether folks liked it or not. That was his way of doing, and he had the army behind him.
That's all right, if a man gets away with it, and holds his job; he will build the strongest possible government, for a despot centers in his own hand all the legislative and executive powers. At his nod war is declared, the army is launched, and the cannons roar. It is a marvelously, terribly, brutally efficient scheme of running a government. It can do things — do them right now.
We Americans are mighty proud of the fact that our Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution have become a pattern for nearly all the world — all that part of the world which is not controlled by the Prussian Idea. New republics, springing up in every quarter of the globe, have followed our lead. We stand for that Big Idea, and we have to stand by it — that common folks have some rights, which even emperors must respect.
"My will is the supreme law!" so proclaimeth the German Kaiser.
"All power is derived from the people!" which the republics of this earth are pledged to maintain — or they die. Don't you see that the Prussian Idea and the American Idea can never march down the big road together, side by side, and at peace? Both of us are now in the big road. One or the other has to get out. That's all there is about it.
Once upon a time old Abe Lincoln said: "This nation cannot endure half-slave, half-free" — nor can the world. Some folks say we ought to stand aside and let Europe fight it out. Stand aside? Where! There's no place for us to stand without stepping off the earth.
Before we are done with it, I look for a grand alliance, a brotherhood of all the republics of the world, marching magnificently, shoulder to shoulder, with clear eye and steady tread, moving forward, forward, forward, to the final triumph of mankind.
Did you ever hear this piece of poetry by a country editor in Mississippi?
"Onward, upward, press the peoples
To that pure, exalted plane,
Where no throne shall cast a shadow
And no slave shall wear a chain.
"They are lighting fires of freedom
On a million altar stones,
With the torches they have kindled
At the blaze of burning thrones."
We couldn't keep our hands off this war. This war would not keep hands off us. I'm perfectly willing to hoe my own row, and let the other fellow hoe his. But Divine Right wants to cultivate the whole field, and makes no bones about it. I'm nothing but a hard-headed, striped-pants Yankee, but some facts are so plain that you can't shut your eyes to 'em. If we sit down, with both hands in our pockets, and let Divine Right organize all Europe, 'twon't be long before Europe gets too small for their Welt Politik or World Kultur—whatever they call it. They say it's better for us—like Belgium—to have Divine Right straddling our necks—then we can tote a heap bigger skillet-load of Efficiency. Of course, it cuts no ice with Divine Right, whether that suits us or not.
So, you see, the Prussian military idea must be destroyed by democracy, or it will destroy all democracy. Now, as we've got to fight, we'd better go in strong while we have allies, rather than wait and fight it out alone. Doesn't that sound to you like boss sense?
And, mind you, I say this in the most profound conviction, we are bound to win that war on the soil of Europe, or we may expect to lose it on the soil of America. There's no way of sidestepping. We've got to roll up our sleeves and make the world so free that a couple of emperors can't whisper to each other and touch the button for a war that has already slaughtered forty-five millions of human beings — folks like you and me and wives and babies.
We are too deep in this war, and are going to make a business of it. It takes soldiers to fight battles, preachers to preach sermons, and jawsmiths to wrangle before justices of the peace.
We've got to turn out soldiers. I want my boy in khaki to be just a little better than any boy that our allies can send — better trained, better equipped, a better shot and better paid. I can't bear the idea of sending a single brave lad over there into a deadly peril that he knows nothing about. That's rank murder, as old Light Horse Harry said.
I have been trying to make you understand the difference between soldiers and raw recruits. A raw recruit is of no more use in the trenches of France than a left-handed blacksmith in a watchmaker's shop — strong and willing, but liable to smash things.