TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 263 



offers the most gruesome and most horrible possibilities. I tell you, 

 my friends, this thing must stop ! The armed dragon of Germany 

 has been slain — never must another be permitted to arise in its 

 stead. We must see that the occasion for the use of these destruc- 

 tive agencies must never come again. If these things are not 

 stopped, there is only one alternative. America is too good ! Amer- 

 ica is too great! America must be saved at any cost! And if we 

 are not willing to co-operate with the best forces of the world to 

 render forever impossible the recurrence of these destructive orgies, 

 then America must arm ; America must build for war ; she must 

 prepare for war — not a defensive war but she must prepare to kill 

 and be killed with an intensity hitherto undreamed of. Isolation 

 is no longer our protection ! There isn't any such thing ! We are 

 just as much in the world's currents today as if there were no 

 oceans, and for us to retire in the face of responsibility, simply 

 means that we bury our heads in the sand. The battle of Chateau 

 Thierry and the Argonne were meaningless if those battles have to 

 be fought over again. We may go forward or we may go back, but 

 we cannot temporize and we cannot stand still. But there is a 

 brighter side to all of this ! America is confronted today with the 

 opportunity such as does not come to any nation in a hundred life- 

 times. It is the opportunity to assume the moral leadership of the 

 world and to render service to humanity. But with the opportunity 

 there comes a responsibility. Is America going to meet that re- 

 sponsibility? During the period of the war the American soldier 

 gave the most magnificent picture that the world has ever seen of a 

 helpful, generous, and courageous American. Is it possible that 

 America is now going to reverse the picture and show to the world 

 an America that is selfish? That is hesitating? And that lacks the 

 courage to meet its own manifest destiny? I cannot, I will not, 

 believe it. I believe that yet, without bitterness, and in a spirit of 

 good-will, a way can be found out of this situation. Tonight 50,000 

 lads are sleeping in far-away France. Never let it be said that their 

 sacrifice was made in vain. By their sacrifice the world came to 

 trust us. It looked to America to play square. Is it possible that 

 we are going to draw the cloak of selfishness about us and say to a 

 distracted world, "No, America is going to play safe"? 



Do you know that the ocean has been crossed from the air? Ten 

 years from now America will be no more isolated from Europe than 

 if she were situated in the very heart of Europe. Remember that 

 everything is drifting toward the co-operation of the peoples of the 



