TOPICS OF THE DAY.
FREEDOM'S CAUSE.
" HOW much the greatest event it is that ever happened in the world and how much the best ! " Such were the words used by Charles Fox when he heard the news of the taking of the Bastille. They may well be used in regard to America's entry into the war. To say that we are over- whelmed with delight at such an event is merely to show with what difficulty tongue or pen can express deep human emotion. But here, and before we say anything else as to what is the meaning, moral and political, of the tremendous step taken by Mr. Wilson and the American people who follow and support him, we may claim a line or two to say why our own satisfaction is so deep. We are not so foolish as to pretend that we do not value America's help in the terrible struggle still before us. It is incomparable. We are grateful to her beyond measure for that help, and thoroughly realize what she is doing and can do for us, even though for the moment she cannot assist us in the trenches or add very much to our naval strength.
The greatest, the richest, and the most energetic of all the white communities of the world is now ranged on our side, and is pledged to use all the resources of a vast continent to beat down the pirates of land and sea, and free Europe from the enslaver. - For any Englishman to write or talk as if he did not feel a sense of profound relief at such an event would be to make himself ridiculous. Yet we believe that those Americans, and we are glad to say that they are not a few, who are readers of the Spectator will not misunder- stand us when we say : " Our joy is great because America stands by our side, but it is far greater because America has awakened from her trance, has given her soul its rights, and has taken that place in the battle for the destruction of tyranny and for the reconstruction of the world on that basis of personal liberty, self-government, and international indepen- dence which should be man's inalienable heritage, but of which he has so often been robbed by force and fraud." Thank God ! it can no longer be possible for any one to say of America : " She alone breaks from the van and the freeman, She alone sinks to the rear and the slaves."
That would never have been true or just criticism, but there were some of us who felt the possibility of such things being said, even though only with an appearance of truth, like a blow in the face. Henceforth no man will have an excuse to say or think such things, or to dare to pretend that he thinks them.
We wish we had space to record in these columns the wise and inspiring things said by President Wilson, but that would be to reprint his speech to Congress, a speech which that typical American statesman, Senator Lodge, truthfully declared " expressed in the loftiest manner possible the sentiments of the American people." It did more. It expressed the sentiment of all free-born men as to the war against mankind which is being waged by Germany and her cowering and cowardly allies. President Wilson had perhaps the greatest opportunity that has ever fallen to mortal orator. He was literally speaking to the whole world, which stood hushed to hear him. And nobly did he use his opportunity. He said the right things, and he said them in the right way. He confirmed in their opinion those who have always believed him to be a worthy as well as a cautious representative of his country, and he converted opponents and critics of his acts to the belief that they were mistaken and had judged him too hardly and too harshly. To us and to the vast majority of the people of the British Empire, whether in these islands or in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa, or wherever the British tongue is spoken, the essential thing in President Wilson's speech is its realization that the task before America and those who are now her Allies is the elimination from the world of what we may call without any exaggeration Prussian Diabolism. We are no more enemies of the German people as a people than is President Wilson. We do not desire any more than he does to revenge ourselves upon them. We want to free them, not to change their tyranny. But lest the world shall again fall into the horrors of the past two and a half years, they must be punished lest the world shall lose its lesson—lest mankind, always inclined to laziness and cynicism, should feel that it doesn't matter. " You need not dread the consequences of your acts—especially if they are very had. They will then be too grave for punishment." Say what one may as to punishment and mercy, there can be no escape from the fact that a very grave responsi- bility does rest, and must rest, upon those who have tolerated such rulers as the Hohenzollerns and the crowd of brutal and sinister people who have surrounded them, and not only been their instruments in tyranny but actually inspired and inflamed the hearts of the tyrants.
It is idle to say that the Germans could not help themselves, and that they were born in chains and had to remain slaves. The great truth remains immutable that those who would be free must strike the first blow for themselves. Where would be British freedom, where the freedom America hands down from sire to son, if they and we had not freed ourselves, and above all else had not been watchful to maintain our freedom and to preserve our crowned and uncrowned republics ? We do not want to be hard upon the Germans, but historic truth compels us to say that as a people they have sinned against the light. They have wallowed in a sty of infamy which they have tolerated instead of destroying. They were offered a great bribe. They were told that though they might be slaves at home, abroad they would be made rulers.and controllers of the world, rich beyond the dreams of avarice, and potent beyond anything the world had yet seen. If tyrannized over at home by their soldiers and officials, they would be able in turn to tyrannize over the subjected races of mankind. They took the bribe, though it was stained with blood and shame. That was a crime against humanity which will have to be paid for— however little taste we may have for vengeance on the vanquished. We do not want a Vae Victis peace, but all deeds in this world have their consequences for good or for evil. Such deeds as those which were done in Belgium, and are being done at this moment in Northern France, cannot be washed away by the tears of the victims. " Not even the gods upon the past have power." The blood of the martyred hostages, and of the women outraged and the children mutilated before they died, streams in the firmament.
It cries aloud to be obliterated, but not by a reciprocity of crime. Such a suggestion would be even more criminal than the worst deeds of the evildoer. But though there must be no vengeance and no thought of vengeance in kind, the crime remains. The wail of the women and children who went down with the Lusitania ' and in the hundreds of ships sunk by the Germans, and the agony of Belgium and of Northern France, remain to testify for all time against what the German people allowed to be done because they were too blind, or too cowardly, or too besotted with their bribes to tell their rulers that they would have no part in the infamies of Realpolitik.
This is not the moment to work out the consequences of America's declaration of war, but there is one point on which we cannot speak too early. We most sincerely trust that, in spite of America's tradition in regard to alliances, she will, like the other foes of Germany, agree to make no separate peace, but to continue the war till Germany has been beaten and the prey she has seized has been redeemed from her talons. We say this not because we have any doubts as to the determination with which America has now entered on the struggle and has proclaimed principles so generous and so far-reaching as those set forth by President Wilson and enthusiastically received by Congress. We who know the American people know that their word is as good as their bond. But though we know this, the German people do not, nor do the Austrians, the Bulgarians, or the Turks. We want not merely to win the war, but to win it quickly, lest more precious lives be lost and the agony of Belgium, France, and Russia, and of the wretched inhabitants of the Central Empires and kingdoms, be still further increased. But nothing will tend so greatly to destroy the moral cohesion of the Central Alliance as the knowledge that America is pledged against a separate peace. That knowledge, which could not be concealed from the German people, must fill them with despair. If the American tradition were unhappily to prevent the signing of this pledge—which may God in His mercy avert ! —then without question the German Government will use this fact to hoodwink their people and make them hope against hope. The Hohenzollerns and their slavish advisers will bid the German people note that the Americans have refused to bind themselves not to make a separate peace. They are sure to go on to say that the fickle Americans will very soon be tired of the war, and that civil dissensions in America, especially in the Middle West, will make politics so uncomfortable that after a little trial of war the Americans will fall out of line. Buoyed up by such lying talk, the Government of Berlin may be able to stretch out mankind upon the rack for a month or two longer than they could otherwise contrive to do.
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