“The Test of Our Faith.”

But Germany insists that this is an attack by a lower civilization upon a higher one. [Derisive cries.] As a matter of fact, the attack was begun by the civilization which calls itself the higher one.  I am no apologist for Russia; she has perpetrated deeds of which I have no doubt her best sons are ashamed.  What empire has not?  But Germany is the last empire to point the finger of reproach at Russia. ["Hear, hear!”] Russia has made sacrifices for freedom—­great sacrifices.  Do you remember the cry of Bulgaria when she was torn by the most insensate tyranny that Europe has ever seen?  Who listened to that cry?  The only answer of the higher civilization was that the liberty of the Bulgarian peasants was not worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier.  But the “rude barbarians of the North” sent their sons by the thousand to die for Bulgarian freedom.  What about England?  Go to Greece, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France—­in all those lands I could point out places where the sons of Britain have died for the freedom of those peoples. [Loud applause.] France has made sacrifices for the freedom of other lands than her own.  Can you name a single country in the world for the freedom of which modern Prussia has ever sacrificed a single life? ["No!”] By the test of our faith, the highest standard of civilization is the readiness to sacrifice for others. [Applause.]

German “Civilization.”

I will not say a single word in disparagement of the German people.  They are a great people, and have great qualities of head and hand and heart.  I believe, in spite of recent events, that there is as great a store of kindliness in the German peasant as in any peasant in the world; but he has been drilled into a false idea of civilization.  It is efficient, it is capable; but it is a hard civilization; it is a selfish civilization; it is a material civilization.  They cannot comprehend the action of Britain at the present moment; they say so.  They say, “France we can understand; she is out for vengeance; she is out for territory—­Alsace and Lorraine.” [Applause.] They say they can understand Russia; she is fighting for mastery—­she wants Galicia.  They can understand you fighting for vengeance—­they can understand you fighting for mastery—­they can understand you fighting for greed of territory; but they cannot understand a great empire pledging its resources, pledging its might, pledging the lives of its children, pledging its very existence, to protect a little nation that seeks to defend herself. [Applause.] God made man in His own image, high of purpose, in the region of the spirit; German civilization would recreate him in the image of a Diesel machine—­precise, accurate, powerful, but with no room for soul to operate. ["Hear, hear!”]

A Philosophy of Blood and Iron.