Various

“ We must not transmit to future generations the germs of militarism. From the spirit of despotism, which has caused this awful tragedy, this war must free the world. We have suffered enough. The nations must never endure such black days of agony as those in which we are living.
It is the supreme task of civilization to put an end to Prussianism. To listen to proposals for a Prussian peace, to compromise with the butchers of individuals and of nations so that they would by agreement gain a benefit from their crimes would be to compound an international felony, which this Republic will never do. ”

“ America is that she may share the freedom she enjoys, when a great, compelling sympathy wells up in their hearts for men everywhere who suffer and are oppressed, and when they see at last the high uses for which their wealth has been piled up and their mighty power accumulated, and, counting neither blood nor treasure, now that their final day of opportunity has come, rejoice to spend and to be spent through a long night of suffering and terror in order that they and men everywhere may see the dawn of a day of righteousness and justice and peace. ”

“ I am proud that with our blood we can on French soil prove the affection which we cherish for the French people; I am proud that Italy, superb in her determined resistance, is our partner in this conflict, and that the indomitable spirit of the Belgians and Serbs is a living inspiration to gallant deeds and noble sacrifice. I am proud, as I know every American is proud, to be thus united with the nations which hate Prussianism and loathe the evil desires which it engenders in the hearts of men. ”

“ It is no secret that Russia is covered with a net of German organizations, and that the Russians who are wishing for the restoration of the monarchy are working hand in hand with the Germans. It is no secret that many Russians dream of the day on which the Germans will enter Petrograd and German policemen appear in the Nevsky Prospekt. They prefer the devil himself to the Bolsheviki. What have they done with my Russia?
The Bolsheviki are our national misfortune, but Russia must be saved, not by our enemies, not by German bayonets, but by ourselves. We Russians must again be masters of Russia. ”

“ Now, that is the kind of agreement that will have to be the foundation of the future life of the nations of the world, gentlemen. The whole family of nations will have to guarantee to each nation that no nation shall violate its political independence or its territorial integrity. That is the basis—the only conceivable basis—for the future peace of the world, and I must admit that I was anxious to have the States of the two Continents of America show the way to the rest of the world as to how to make a basis of peace. ”

“ The struggle of today is to us Italians the rounding-out of a tremendous cycle of world history, in which, alone of all civilized nations, Italy was in at the beginning and is in at the finish. Since the time when Roman law laid the foundations for the international intercourse of the world, the struggle has gone on against Teutonic brutality. We are in it as a nation with all the traditions and survivals of centuries, with all the memories of the race, with all the influences of obscure ancestral heredities. ”

“ Today, America, youngest of the great powers of the earth, is proud to cross the seas and to stand side by side with the most ancient power of Europe in upholding the standard of democracy, and to unite in proclaiming to the nations tortured by war that peace must be won and will be won by the might of liberty-loving men, a glorious peace which will endure throughout the ages because it is written in the book of destiny that freedom will rise triumphant from the ashes of this desolated world. ”

“ Who can believe the men who destroyed the army and declared that the idea of fatherland is a prejudice? Who can believe that they would defend Russia? They are impotent. Nor do I believe that they are sincere. The Soviet admitted that the declaration of Lenine was right that we Russians ought to put up with the loss of Finland, Esthonia, Livonia, Courland, White Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and part of the Caucasus districts. The rights of Russia exist no longer. There are only separated towns and villages, economically dependent upon foreigners. ”

“ The consideration that dominates every other now, and makes every other seem trivial and negligible, is the winning of the war. We are not only in the midst of the war, we are at the very peak and crisis of it. Hundreds of thousands of our men, carrying our hearts with them and our fortunes, are in the field, and ships are crowding faster and faster to the ports of France and England with regiment after regiment, thousand after thousand, to join them until the enemy shall be beaten and brought to a reckoning with mankind. ”

“ We hear about Ludendorff's hammer blows. Hammer blows crack and crumble poor material. Hammer blows harden and consolidate good metal. There is good metal in British hearts. It has stood the test of centuries. It will stand this. So will that gallant little people, that gallant great people across the Channel who are fighting for their liberties, for the honor of their native land, fighting without flinching. I have seen them. I never saw signs of wavering in any French face. They are full of courage, full of determination to fight through to the end, and it is a united France more than ever. ”

“ I know that Prussian militarism, so much abused by our enemies, which my forefathers and I, in a spirit of dutifulness, loyalty, order, and obedience, have nurtured, has given Germany's sword and the German Nation strength to triumph, and that victory will bring a peace which will guarantee the German life. ”

“ The sort of creaky, shuffling sound their boots made as they trotted into the open road came across the river like the wailing of lost souls, converged toward the bridge and was heard by these young Americans, who strained their eyes across the river to get what machine-gun men call "the target." But it was in pitch darkness, and there was only the sound to tell them there were plenty of "targets." Every little black devil of a machine gun tore loose with hellfire. ”

“ And one of the deepest stains that rests upon the reputation of the German Army is that they have not respected the Red Cross.
That goes to the root of the matter. They have not respected the instrumentality they themselves participated in setting up as the thing which no man was to touch, because it was the expression of common humanity. We are members, by being members of the American Red Cross, of a great fraternity and comradeship which extends all over the world, and this cross which these ladies bore today is an emblem of Christianity itself. ”

“ On the anniversary of the arrival of the first United States men-of-war at Queenstown, I wish to express my deep gratitude to the United States officers and ratings for the skill, energy, and unfailing good nature which they have all consistently shown, and which qualities have so materially assisted the war by enabling the ships of the allied powers to cross the ocean in comparative freedom.
To command you is an honor, to work with you is a pleasure, and to know you is to know the best traits of the Anglo-Saxon race. ”

“ Our adversaries are driven forward by a power that drives us back. They are advancing in the direction of nature, whereas we are swimming against the great current that flows around the globe. Earth has an idea that is no longer ours. She is convinced that man is an animal in all respects like other animals. She has not yet noticed that he has drawn away from the herd. She does not yet know that he has climbed her highest mountains. She has not yet heard of justice, of pity, of loyalty, of honor ”

“ It can be understood only when we remember that the German Government did everything in its power not only to create hatred, but also to stifle every voice that was raised to let the people know the truth. They never have been permitted to know the truth, and the disappointment that fell upon them when their march on Paris was arrested with the help of a British Army and their coasts strictly blockaded by a British fleet added fuel to their anger and has made it ever since an easier matter to keep the truth from them. ”

“ All Russia is suffocating—every day brings new surprises that show that there is but one way out of it—the grave. On the ground of liberty they abolish all laws, Judges, attorneys, and substitute for it "people's courts of justice," with only soldiers, workmen or peasants, often quite illiterate and always without the slightest knowledge of court proceedings, taking the places of the former judiciary. ”

“ Hence, beyond maintaining a strong fleet, the indispensable protection of a country open to sea attack which did not maintain a large army, we had made no preparations for war, and had scarcely bethought ourselves of what action we should have to take on land if we became involved in war. In this belief and attitude there may have been less prudence than was needed. But our absence of suspicion is the best proof of how little we expected aggression. It is an absolute refutation of the calumny that Britain, with her tiny army, was planning an attack on the greatest military power in the world. ”

“ If they were to succeed today, you would fling back human civilization into the dark dungeons of the past.
The crisis is not past, but with a stout heart we shall win through, and then woe to the plague. In the interests of civilization, in the interests of the human race, it must be stamped out. You cannot allow it to come again to darken the lives of millions, and to desolate millions of homes. That is what we are fighting for. ”

“ It is you who can see how Mexico's future must depend upon peace and honor, so that nobody shall exploit her. It must depend upon every nation that has any relation with her and the citizens of any nation that has any relations with her keeping within the bounds of honor and fair dealing and justice, because so soon as you can admit your own capital and the capital of the world to the free use of the resources of Mexico it will be one of the most wonderfully rich and prosperous countries in the world. ”

“ The bloody religion of militarism that Germany has followed for forty years has led its votaries to culminating orgies of destruction.
But the defenders are not appalled by the fury of the struggle, nor by numbers. Each position is held until every foot of ground has been paid for by German blood. Again and again a swift counterattack, delivered at the right moment, has wrested from the assailant the fruits of the success he won so dearly and forced him to pay a toll of lives twice over. ”

“ Our nation longs with all the democracies of the world for a general and lasting peace. But our nation is fully aware that no peace can be permanent except a peace which will abolish old injustice, brutal force, and the predominance of arms, as well as the predominance of States and nations over other nations, and which will assure a free development to all nations, great or small, and which will liberate especially those nations which still are suffering under foreign domination. ”

“ In the last twenty-four hours the violence of the fighting has increased still further. The limit of human endurance has been forced yet another notch higher. Along a front of nearly twenty miles the Germans are driving more than a quarter of a million men forward through a sea of blood. The defenders say that it is as though the whole of the German Army is engaged against them; no sooner is one battalion annihilated than another takes its place, and another and another. ”

“ I have always been proud to be an American, and was never more proud than now, when all that we have said and all that we have foreseen about our people is coming true. The great days have come when the only thing that they ask for or admire is duty, greatly and adequately. ”

“ He has put upon us the burden of making this world a fit dwelling place for civilized men. Let us not shrink from the task or seek to avoid the burden. Convinced of the righteousness of our cause and of our destiny let us make war with all our energy. Let us keep our banners unfurled and our trumpets sounding to battle until victory is achieved. ”

“ SPIRIT OF THE NATION
Have you not felt the spirit of the nation rise and its thought become a single and common thought since these eventful days came in which we have been sending our boys to the other side? I think you must read that thought, as I do, to mean this, that the people of this country are not only united in the resolute purpose to win this war, but are ready and willing to bear any burden and undergo any sacrifice that it may be necessary for them to bear in order to win it. We need not be afraid to tax them, if we lay taxes justly. ”

“ The fourth year of war, which began today, finds you full of pride for the hard trials you have faced, and which, with admirable courage, you have overcome. In face of your firm decision to resist to the utmost the enemy was obliged to call a halt, and in daring and magnificent actions you have many a time shown him the indomitable spirit and resolute will to conquer with which you are animated. ”

“ An intense and pitiless light beats upon every man and every action in this tragic plot of war that is now upon the stage. If lobbyists hurry to Washington to attempt to turn what you do in the matter of taxation to their protection or advantage, the light will beat also upon them. There is abundant fuel for the light in the records of the Treasury with regard to profits of every sort. The profiteering that cannot be got at by the restraints of conscience and love of country can be got at by taxation. ”