Lest We Forget Part 29

Great celebrations were held in the Allied countries. It seemed as if the people in the great cities of America had gone wild with joy.

President Wilson appeared in the hall of the national House of Representatives at one o'clock on the afternoon of Monday, November 11, and announced the signing of the armistice and its terms and the conclusion of the war. He asked America to show a spirit of helpfulness rather than one of revenge toward the conquered Germans, concluding his message as follows:

The present and all that it holds belongs to the nations and the peoples who preserve their self-control and the orderly processes of their governments; the future to those who prove themselves the true friends of mankind. To conquer with arms is to make only a temporary conquest. I am confident that the nations that have learned the discipline of freedom and that have settled with self-possession to its ordered practice are now about to make conquest of the world by the sheer power of example and of friendly helpfulness.

The peoples who have but just come out from under the yoke of arbitrary government and who are now coming at last into their freedom, will never find the treasures of liberty they are in search of if they look for them by the light of the torch. They will find that every pathway that is stained with blood of their own brothers leads to the wilderness, not to the seat of their hope. They are now face to face with their initial test. We must hold the light steady until they find themselves. And in the meantime, if it be possible, we must establish a peace that will justly define their place among the nations, remove all fear of their neighbors and of their former masters, and enable them to live in security and contentment when they have set their own affairs in order. I, for one, do not doubt their purpose or their capacity. There are some happy signs that they know and will choose the way of self-control and peaceful accommodation.

If they do, we shall put our aid at their disposal in every way that we can. If they do not, we must await with patience and sympathy the awakening and recovery that will a.s.suredly come at last.

To the people of the United States he sent the following message:

My Fellow Countrymen: The armistice was signed this morning.

Everything for which America fought has been accomplished. It will now be our fortunate duty to a.s.sist, by example, by sober, friendly council, and by material aid, in the establishment of just democracy throughout the world.

WOODROW WILSON.

No one can foretell all that this victory, won through the most terrible suffering and sacrifice the world has ever been called upon to bear, means to mankind; but we know it means a new day and a new opportunity for millions of down-trodden men and women in all parts of the world. It means giving a new world of democracy and equality of opportunity to those who never dreamed this possible, except by leaving their native lands and coming to America. It means bringing all that America means to us to races that for centuries have lived without hope. It means the downfall and the punishment of those who would selfishly rise by the persecution and suffering of others. It means that in the end right must always conquer might.

NATIONS AND THE MORAL LAW

I believe there is no permanent greatness to a nation except it be based upon morality. I do not care for military greatness or military renown. I care for the condition of the people among whom I live.

Crowns, coronets, mitres, military display, the pomp of war, wide colonies, and a huge empire are in my view all trifles, light as air and not worth considering, unless with them you can have a fair share of comfort, contentment, and happiness among the great body of the people. Palaces, baronial castles, great halls, stately mansions, do not make a nation. The nation in every country dwells in the cottage.

I ask you then to believe, as I do most devoutly believe, that the moral law was not written for men alone in their individual character, but that it was written as well for nations.

If nations reject and deride that moral law, there is a penalty which will inevitably follow. It may not come at once, it may not come in our life-time; but rely upon it, the great Italian is not a poet only, but a prophet, when he says:

The sword of heaven is not in haste to smite, Nor yet doth linger.

JOHN BRIGHT.