New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 2, May, 1915: April-September, 1915Various
History
New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 2, May, 1915: April-September, 1915
Various
World War, 1914-1918
I will give you first of all my reasons for coming to the conclusion
that after this struggle victory must wait on our banners if we properly
utilize our resources and opportunities. The natural resources of the
allied countries are overwhelmingly greater than those of their enemies.
In the man capable of bearing arms, in the financial and economic
resources of these countries, in their accessibility to the markets of
the world through the command of the sea for the purpose of obtaining
material and munitions--all these are preponderatingly in favor of the
allied countries. But there is a greater reason than all these. Beyond
all is the moral strength of our cause, and that counts in a struggle
which involves sacrifices, suffering, and privation for all those
engaged in it. A nation cannot endure to the end that has on its soul
the crimes of Belgium. [Loud cheers.] The allied powers have at their
disposal more than twice the number of men which their enemies can
command. You may ask me why are not those overwhelming forces put into
the field at once and this terrible war brought to a triumphant
conclusion at the earliest possible moment. In the answer to that
question lies the cause of the war. The reason why Germany declared war
is in the answer to that question.
In the old days when a nation's liberty was menaced by an aggressor a
man took from the chimney corner his bow and arrow or his spear, or a
sword which had been left to him by an ancestry of warriors, went to the
gathering ground of his tribe, and the nation was fully equipped for
war. That is not the case now. Now you fight with complicated, highly
finished weapons, apart altogether from the huge artillery. Every rifle
which a man handles is a complicated and ingenious piece of mechanism,
and it takes time. The German arsenals were full of the machinery of
horror and destruction. The Russian arsenals were not, and that is the
reason for the war. Had Russia projected war, she also would have filled
her arsenals, but she desired above everything peace. ["Hear, hear!"] I
am not sure that Russia has ever been responsible for a war of
aggression against any of her European neighbors. Certainly this is not
one of them. She wanted peace, she needed peace, she meant peace, and
she would have had peace had she been left alone. She was at the
beginning of a great industrial development, and she wanted peace in
order to bring it to its full fructification. She had repeatedly stood
insolences at the hands of Germany up to the point of humiliation, all
for peace, and anything for peace.
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