“I can remember when hatred for England was a kind of gospel with Americans.  The Irish fanned that hatred.  Your country had behaved badly toward us, war had left its scar on our memories, we rejoiced that we had thrown off a yoke which we felt to be definitely tyrannous.  What, then, has produced the change in America—­America, whose population is now made up from nearly all the nations of the earth?  Have your people thought why we are on their side in this present war?  Have they asked themselves that question?  If so, and they have answered it with such a phrase as ‘blood is thicker than water,’ I can assure you they give not only a false answer but an answer which betrays amazing ignorance, if you will forgive the word, of this country’s population.  Blood thicker than water!  Why, look at our names; our blood is world’s blood.

“We’re a nation of all the nations.  The English element is only one element.  Our ancestors were French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Norwegian, Russian, Danish, Irish, Greek, and Italian.  The modern American citizen is no more English than the Boers of South Africa are English.  And yet in overwhelming figures the American population is on the side of the Allies, and particularly on the side of England.  Why?”

England Stands for Democracy.

“It is,” he continued, “because England of all the nations on the earth stands for the democratic ideals which are the very breath of life to America.  Modern England is for us the greatest of democracies.  You lead the way to the rest of the world, if not in science and art, at any rate here in the great business of humanity’s social existence.  We see that the old England of privilege and obstinate prerogatives and bull-headed conservatism is dead.  All your best qualities, straight dealing, honesty, fearless justice, and faith in the goodness of human nature are devoted now to the only ideals which can save progress from rot and decay.  Your democracy is master.  It has no overlords.  And, from what we can gather since this war broke out, it would seem that your aristocracy is coming more and more into line with the democracy, making great sacrifices, showing a deeper appreciation of the democracy and shedding the worst of its prejudices in the common love of liberty and right.

“We hope that your aristocracy may render as great a service to the extravagant plutocracy of this country as your democracy has rendered to our democracy.  To make life better, that’s the work of all intelligent people.  That’s what our democracy is after, and, because your democracy is after the same thing, that’s why we are on your side in this war.  Under all the sentiment on the subject this is the bedrock fact.  We’re for England because we’re for the ideals of democracy.  That we speak the same language is only an accident.  It’s your spirit we desire to share, the spirit which desires to make life kinder, sweeter, better, more beautiful, and more righteous.  America believes