Much of this was not known in America when we declared war.  It is with great difficulty we realize it now.  We had seen Germany going from infamy to infamy.  We did know of the violated treaty of Belgium, of the piracy, the murder of women and children, the destruction of the property and lives of our neutral citizens, and finally the plain declaration of the German Imperial Government that it would wantonly and purposely destroy the property and lives of any American citizen who exercised his undoubted legal right to sail certain portions of the sea.  This attempt to declare law for America by an edict from Potsdam we resisted by the sword.  We see at last not only the hideous wickedness which perpetrated the war, we see that it is a world war, that Germany struck not only at Belgium, she struck at us, she struck at our whole system of civilization.  A wicked purpose, which a vain attempt to realize has involved its authors in more and more wickedness.  We hear that even among the civil population of Germany crime is rampant.

Looking now at this condition of Germany and her Allies, it is time to inquire what America and her Allies have to offer as a remedy, and what effect the application of such remedy has had upon ourselves.  We have drawn the sword, but is it only to

     “Be blood for blood, for treason treachery?”

Are we seeking merely to match infamy with infamy, merely to pillage and destroy those who threatened to pillage and destroy us?  No; we have taken more than the sword, lest we perish by the sword; we have summoned the moral power of the Nation.  We have recognized that evil is only to be overcome by good.  We have marshalled the righteousness of America to overwhelm the wickedness of Germany.  A new spirit has come over the nation the like of which was never seen before.  We can see it not only in the new purity of camp life, in the heroism of our soldiers as they fight in the faith and for the faith of the fathers, but we see it in the healing influences which a righteous purpose has had upon the evils which beset us.

We entered the war a people of many nationalities.  We are united now; every one is first an American.  We were beset with jealousies, and envy, and class prejudice.  Service in the camp has taught each soldier to respect the other, whatever his source, and a mutual sympathy at home has brought all into a common citizenship.  The service flag is a great leveller.

Our industrial life has been purified of prejudice.  No one is complaining now that any concern is too large, too strong.  All see that the great organizations of capital in industry are our salvation.  Labor has taken on a new dignity and nobility.  When the idle see the necessity of work, when we begin to recognize industry as essential, the working man begins to have paid him the honor which is his due.

Invention, chemistry, medicine, surgery, have been stimulated and improved.  Even our agriculture has taken on more economical methods and increased production.