Germany has no love for the truth. The history of the empire is strewn with broken promises and acts of deceitfulness. America stands for something different. It stands for those ideals which President Wilson saw when he looked at the flag. "And as I look at that flag," he said, "I seem to see many characters upon it which are not visible to the physical eye. There seem to move ghostly visions of devoted men who, looking at that flag, thought only of liberty, of the rights of mankind, of the mission of America to show the way to the world for the realization of the rights of mankind; and every grave of every brave man of the country would seem to have upon it the colors of the flag; if he was a true American, would seem to have on it that stain of red which means the true pulse of blood, and that beauty of pure white which means the peace of the soul. And then there seems to rise over the graves of those men and to hallow their memory, that blue space of the sky in which stars swim, these stars which exemplify for us that glorious galaxy of the States of the Union, bodies of free men banded together to vindicate the rights of mankind." At Mount Vernon, he said, in speaking of the work of George Washington, "A great promise that was meant for all mankind was here given plan and reality." So for the sake of many peoples of Europe who were wronged, America has carried out that promise. When honorable Americans promise, they would rather give up life than fail to keep their word. But when the Germans promise it means only "a slip of the tongue," for this is also the meaning of the German word which is translated "promise." That the United States has to fulfill this special mission of defending the truth is very clear. The great American leader said again in behalf of his people: "I suppose that from the first America has had one particular mission in the world. Other nations have grown rich, other nations have been as powerful as we are in material resources; other nations have built up empires and exercised dominion. We are not alone in any of these things, but we are peculiar in this, that from the first we have dedicated our force to the service of justice and righteousness and peace. "The princes among us are those who forget themselves and serve mankind. America was born into the world to do mankind's service, and no man is an American in whom the desire to do mankind's service is not greater than the desire to serve himself.