That is why America’s entrance into the world war is so much more vitally significant than a mere attack in defense of certain violations of international law. It is a defense of the principle of individual freedom. Were the United States not to oppose a force that threatened the freedom of the world, we would not be worthy of the trust which the peoples of other lands have reposed in us. The Irish, the Germans, the Jews, the Slavs who came to America would eventually have come in vain. For Germany threatens the liberty of all peoples, if she wins to victory in Europe. Germany stands for all those ideas of government from which these peoples fled. Germany stands for the suppression of the individual as a political unit. Germany stands for might. Against all that we have always fought. If we failed to fight now, we would be but deferring the issue. And so to-day the United States sends our soldiers to France and our sailors out on the seas in defense of that right of mankind which is God’s gift, no matter how men have tried to take it from him, the right of the freedom of the individual to live his life as he sees best, according only to the dictates of order, of moral integrity, of justice, and of righteousness. CHAPTER X THE UNITED STATES AND INTERNATIONAL PEACE International, lasting peace is the third great ideal sought by the Republic of the United States of America, and it is for the enforcement of that kind of peace that the United States is fighting. For, unless such peace is assured by a decisive victory, the menace of German imperialism will so overshadow the world that all civilization will be flung back into one long effort to keep armed to repel the invader. Although other nations have struggled toward a standard of international and permanent peace, the United States was one of the first great nations to put the theory into practice. One of the first instances of this practice came at the close of the war between the States, when the question of the _Alabama_ Claims arose. During the war the Confederate States had caused to be built in English ports, with the knowledge of the British Government, cruisers to damage Federal commerce on the high seas. The cruiser _Alabama_ was most active of these, and from its prominence gave name to the claim which the United States brought against Great Britain for the offense against international law, particularly since the independence of the Confederate States had not been recognized. Great Britain had paid no attention to American remonstrance during the war, but at its close requested settlement of the difficulty.