12 
Land &. Water 
June 20, igi^ 
America at War: By Crawford Vaughan 
The Hon. Crawford Vaughan was formerly Prime 
Minister of South Australia, and is still a Member of its 
Legislative Assembly. In the following article are given 
his experiences in the United States, where he spent a 
considerable time early in the year lecturing and visiting 
various camps and ifidustrial centres. 
ADMIRATION, deep profound admiration, moves 
me when I tliink of America at war. For three 
months I have journeyed up and down this vast 
. repubhc, and Iiave felt the pulse of that mighty 
^ national force which is America. I have addressed 
audiences from San Diego in Southern California to Fore 
River on the Atlantic ; from Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 
the north, to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the south. I have spoken 
in labour temples, in shipyards, in factories, in legislative 
lialls, in chambers of commerce, in churches, before white 
men and dark men, to gatherings of women and of children. 
But whether it be in the far west, or along the Mississippi, 
in tlie democratic south or repubUcan New England, there is 
but one America — true to the ideals of Washington and the 
spirit of the Declaration of Independence. "The world must 
be made safe for democracy" — that slogan was the call to 
arms, which rallied to the colours all those cosmopolitan 
elements tliat go to make up this wonderful people. 
The resolution embodied in the phrase is not born of the 
hour ; it is the heritage of the past. For four years Lincoln 
fought against the sOuth because the nation could not live 
half slave and half free. Had the slave-owning south been 
content to keep slavery within its legally defined borders, 
that struggle might perhaps have been avoided by subse- 
quent settlement. But slavery proved that it could not be 
so confined. It had to expand or perish. 
Autocracy, like slavery, has proved that it cannot be 
confined within any territorial limits. Kaiserism must 
expand or die. It sought to expand, and thereby menaced 
the freedom of the democracies of the world. President 
Wilson's whole policy has been framed on the assumption 
that if Germany wanted autocracy she had a right to so 
govern herself. But the Kaiser's battle-cry has always been 
"Germany over all." She, herself declares that the world 
cannot live half democratic and half autocratic. The issue 
is, then, quite clear. Either democracy or autocracy must 
perish from the earth. 
I have been a privileged visitor to many of the mUitary 
cantonments which have sprung up all over the States, and 
have spoken to the men. The thermometer was twenty 
below zero when T motored across from Boston to Camp 
Devens. The big Y.M.C.A. auditorium quickly filled with 
the younger sons of the Republic who seemed anxious to 
hear the message from Australia. These clean-limbed 
Americans think the world of the Anzacs. The Australians 
come nearer, perhaps, to them than any others. 
These soldiers like to be told that Australia, which has 
linked her destiny with that of America is the only country 
which has adopted the principles of the American Constitu- 
tion, and that pur Hag, with its six stars, representing our 
six States, floats side by side with "Old Glory," with its 
forty-eight stars, representing the forty-eight States of the 
Union, and will so float to the end. 
In the cantonments everything is provided to give needful 
comfort without pampering men who are in training. "Dry " 
canteens on land and on sea are the stern decrees of beer- 
less Washington. Already military training has stiffened the 
backbone of the way-back sons of the soil,; the slouching 
mountaineer of Kentucky and of Tennessee has acquired a 
brisk step and fipright carriage, the loose-jointed cowboy of 
Wyoming has rubbed shoulders with the pampered youth 
from Long Island, and each is better for the experience. 
The psychological, pohtical, and economical effect of this 
comminghng of the east and the west, the north and the 
south, with all the interchange of ideas that it involves, 
together with the impressions of other lands which fighting 
abroad must leave behind, will be far-reaching. 
Though the negro regiments are kept aloof from the white 
men, there is no lack of good fellowship between all soldiers 
— white and black — and perhaps the feehng of the southern 
Jim Crows was well expressed by one of them who proudly 
declaimed that he was " gwine over thar to fight fer de angry 
Saxon race, yes, sar. " 
Industry has been mobilised in America on a war footing. 
Luxuries are being inexorably displaced by war necessities. 
Breadless days and meatless days involve no great privation, 
it is true ; but the spirit which has released much-needed food 
to the Allies is in keeping with the spirit that sends America's 
noblest sons "over there." 
America's output of rifles is now approximately sufficient 
to equip three army divisions every week. Machine-guns- 
and ordnance are being turned out in ever-increasing quantity. 
Enormous quantities of munitions and clothing are now being 
manufactured, and food-product has been greatly stimulated 
by the organisation of labour for the farms. 
It is impossible to tell in a word or two the inspiring story 
of the co-operation of American women in war activities. 
A few girls are now to be found behind the plough, thousands- 
are in munitions plants, and an increasing number are to be 
found on the tramways, 1 working elevators, etc. Although 
no comparison can yet be made between women's sphere of 
labour in Great Britain and in the United States of America, 
there is no doubt that American women wiU take up their 
cross as heroically as have their British and French sisters. 
Labour's Co-operation 
In my talks throughout twenty-four States of the American 
Union, I enjoyed the co-operation and personal help of Mr. 
Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labour. 
Never in any conflict was the nation so united, so implacably 
resolved to stand steadfast in the faith. Business men 
ever3rwhere have cast business interests aside, and are working 
day and night for a dollar a year in the innumerable agencies 
that have been created out of war conditions. 
Workers are sternly setting their faces against any attempt 
to strike. Mr. Gompers stands behind President Wilson 
and, next to the President, is the most potent figure in American 
public life to-da}'. It is fortunate not for America only, 
but for the world, that the forces of labour in America should 
at this hour be in the hands of this sturdy broad-visioned 
American. Mr. Gompers has been at the labour helm in 
this country for twenty-eight years, and has won the implicit 
confidence, almost the veneration of the American Labour 
world. He is too big in his idealism to allow class interests 
to dominate national interests, and too clear in vision not to^ 
see that the triumph of Prussian militarism means the down- 
fall of democracy the world ' over. Picture him with his 
lion-like head set on massive shoulders and sturdy body, 
with face stem in moments of decision, but genial and full 
of light and humour when the cares of the hour are cast 
aside ; a figure, although only five and a half feet in height, 
full of a dignity which emphasises the weight of the opinion 
which Jie expresses. Gompers is an old man in years, but 
not in outlook. I take my hat off not only to Samuel 
-Gompers, but to.ihe loyal Labour men of America who have 
stood so splendidly by him. 
Through the murk and smoke of conflict the future of 
President Wilson looms powerful and imposing, not simply 
because of Mr. Wilson's undeniable gifts of statesmanship, 
but because the President of the United States, during the 
term of his office, enjoys all the powers of a king and of a 
prime minister combined. The White House has always 
been a centre of political cyclones, and even in times of 
war politics cannot always be excluded. Criticism fierce and 
often partisan, but more often quite honest and patriotic, is 
at times directed against the administration, as is the case in 
every Allied country. The result of this probing into war 
activities has in the main been beneficial. No one man or 
set of men can possibly control a vast organism Hke tliat of 
the United States during war, and not blunder occasionally. 
We five too close to our own times to measure with exactitude 
the greatness or deficiencies of the men into whose keeping is 
placed the tremendous responsibihty of piloting our civilisa- 
tion safely through the fiercest storm mankind has ever ^ 
known. Theirs is the fiery trial. Not as weary Titans 
staggering under the too vast orb of their fate must the issue 
be faced, but as the impassioned champions of freedom 
carrjdng the flaming sword to victorj'. Certainly nothing 
better, nothing more in tune with the aspirations of demo- 
cracy has been said than by President Wilson at Baltimore : 
Force, force to the utmost, force without , stint or limit, 
the righteous and triumphant force which shall make right 
the law of the world, and cast every selfish dominion down, 
in the dust. 
Upon America's interpretation of that message into imme. 
diate and efficient action the fate of the world depends. 
