THE OUTSPEAKING OF A GREAT DEMOCRACY 



363 



will mean for us, after so much suffer- 

 ing, heroically borne, so many bereave- 

 ments, so many ruins, a renewal of the 

 sentiments which have animated and sus- 

 tained us during this long trial. The 

 powerful, decisive aid which the United 

 States brings us is not only a material 

 aid ; it will be especially moral aid, a real 

 consolation. {Loud applause.) 



Seeing the conscience of peoples every- 

 where in the world awake and rise in an 

 immense protest against the atrocities of 

 which we are the victims, we feel more 

 keenly that we are fighting not only for 

 ourselves and for our allies, but for some- 

 thing immortal {applause), and that we 

 are laying the foundations of a new or- 

 der. {Loud applause.) Thus our sacri- 

 fices will not have been in vain ; the gen- 

 erous blood poured out by the sons of 

 France will have sowed fertile seeds in 

 the ideas of justice and of liberty funda- 

 mentally necessary to concord between 

 nations. {Applause.) 



In the name of the whole country, the 

 government of the French Republic ad- 

 dresses to the government and people of 

 the United States, with the expression of 

 its gratitude, its warmest good wishes. 

 (Prolonged cheers. All the deputies rise 

 and turn applauding to the diplomatic 

 gallery.) 



THE HARVEST OF JUSTICE 



Many voices : The proclamation ! 



Mr. Paue Dechanel, President of 

 the Chamber: The proclamation of the 

 speech which the Chamber has just ap- 

 plauded is asked. There is no opposi- 

 tion? The proclamation is ordered. 



The French Chamber greets with en- 

 thusiasm the verdict of the President of 

 the Republic of the United States, who 

 has indeed spoken for justice, and the 

 vigorous decision of the Federal Senate 

 accepting the war imposed by Germany. 



iEschylus says in "The Persians" : 

 "When insolence takes root, it grows 

 into crime ; the harvest is suffering." 



And we can say : "The growth of the 

 crime brings vengeance ; after the harvest 

 of suffering comes the harvest of jus- 

 tice !" (Loud applause.) 



The cry of the women and children 

 from the depths of the abyss where hide- 



ous wickedness flung them echoed from 

 one end of the earth to the other. Wash- 

 ington and Lincoln trembled in their 

 graves ; their great spirit has roused 

 America. (Loud applause.) 



And is it a question only of avenging 

 Americans? Is it a question only of 

 punishing the violation of treaties signed 

 by the United States ? No ; the eternal 

 truths proclaimed in the Declaration of 

 1776, the sacred causes which La Fay- 

 ette and Rochambeau defended (ap- 

 plause), the ideal of pure consciences 

 from which the great Republic was 

 born — honor, morality, liberty — these are 

 the supreme values which shine in the 

 folds of the Star - spangled Banner. 

 (Loud applause.) 



ALT, AMERICA ARRAYED AGAINST MAD 

 ARROGANCE 



Descendants of the Puritans of New 

 England, brought up on the precepts of 

 the Gospel, and who under the eyes of 

 God are about to punish the infernal 

 creation of evil, falsehood, perjury, as- 

 sassination, profanation, rape, slavery, 

 martyrdom, and all kinds of disasters ; 

 Catholics, struck to the heart by curses 

 against their religion, by outrages against 

 their cathedrals and statues, reaching a 

 climax in the destruction of Louvain and 

 Rheims ; university professors, trust- 

 worthy guardians of law and learning; 

 industrialists of the East and Middle 

 West, farmers and agriculturists of the 

 West ; workmen and artisans, threatened 

 by the torpedoing of vessels, by the in- 

 terruption of commerce, revolted by the 

 insults to their national colors — all are 

 arrayed against the mad arrogance which 

 would enslave the earth, the sea. the 

 heavens, and the souls of men. (Pro- 

 longed applause and cheers.) 



At a time when, as in the heroic times 

 of the American Revolution, the Amer- 

 icans are to fight with us, let us repeat 

 once more : We wish to prevent no one 

 from. living, working, and trading freely : 

 but the tyranny of Prussia has become a 

 peril for the New World as for the Old, 

 for England as for Russia, for Italy as 

 for Austria, and for Germany itself. 

 (Applause.) To free the world, by a 

 common effort of all democratic peoples, 



