Page:Great Speeches of the War.djvu/67

Rh that not only would the economic waste be of unparalleled magnitude, running already into billions; not only would the loss of life reach absolutely inconceivable proportions—running already after these few months of the war into millions—but the sufferings of the non-combatants in those countries where German arms have met with success could scarcely be equalled in the history of Europe, surely we should have asked in, how, or to what is civilization, to what is morality, to what is Christianity coming, if these things can be? [Cheers.]

Now, do not suppose that a catastrophe of this magnitude has not got its causes deeply rooted in some historic past. It is not the accident of a day. It is not due to a dispatch having been answered or not at a particular time. It is not due to this diplomatic error or to that. It is due, believe me, to causes far deeper, causes which have gradually, and by an almost inevitable destiny led up to the terrible tragedy which we now see before us. What are those causes? It is quite true to say that we are at war because treaty obligations and national honour [cheers] require us to defend a nation whose neutrality we were bound to support [cheers] against another nation equally bound to support it, but which had nevertheless violated it with every circumstance of military horror and abomination. ["Shame."] But the tragedy of Servia and the tragedy of Belgium are but two episodes in a still greater tragedy; and the crimes that have been committed in Flanders and in the North of France are but two episodes in a yet greater crime against civilization and progress.

Germany's great error, and as I think, her great misfortune, is that she was not content to be on the Continent of Europe first among equals. A distinguished German writer has said that a great nation [he was speaking of Germany] must be everything or nothing [laughter]. Well, I don't want Germany to be nothing. But rather than that Germany should be everything, there is not a man of us who ought not to lay down his life gladly [cheers]; and she never will be everything while there is one cartridge left to fire, and one stout heart left to fire it.

There is a fantastic conception—made in Germany [laughter]—of what is called the super-man; a monster of aggressive egotism, to whom such virtues as humility and kindness are virtues fit only for slaves. I think, myself, that this conception of the super-man is slightly ludicrous. If