Page:Great Speeches of the War.djvu/91

Rh of England came from her when she was a nation of the size of Belgium fighting a great Empire. [Cheers.] The heroic deeds that thrill humanity through generations were the deeds of little nations fighting for their freedom. [Cheers.]

Ah, yes, and the salvation of mankind came through a little nation. God has chosen little nations as the vessels by which He carries the choicest wines to the lips of humanity, to rejoice their hearts, to exalt their vision, to stimulate and to strengthen their faith, and if we had stood by when two little nations were being crushed and broken by the brutal hands of barbarism our shame would have rung down the everlasting ages. [Cheers.]

But Germany insists that this is an attack by a low civilization upon a higher. [Laughter.] Well, as a matter of fact the attack was begun by the civilization which calls itself the higher one. Now, I am no apologist for Russia. She has perpetrated deeds of which I have no doubt her best sons are ashamed. But what Empire has not? And Germany is the last Empire to point the finger of reproach at Russia. [Hear, hear.] But Russia has made sacrifices for freedom—great sacrifices. You remember the cry of Bulgaria when she was torn by the most insensate tyranny that Europe has ever seen. Who listened to the cry? The only answer of the higher civilization was that the liberty of Bulgarian peasants was not worth the life of a single Pomeranian soldier. But the rude "barbarians" of the North, they sent their sons by the thousands to die for Bulgarian freedom. [Cheers.]

What about England? You go to Greece, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and France, and all these lands could point out to you places where the sons of Britain have died for the freedom of these countries. [Cheers.] 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 the modern Prussian has ever sacrificed a single life? [Cheers.] The test of our faith, the highest standard of civilization, is the readiness to sacrifice for others. [Cheers.]

I would not say a word about the German people to disparage them. They are a great people; they have great qualities of head, of hand, and of heart. I believe, in spite of recent events, there is as great a store of kindness in the German peasant as in any peasant in the world, but he has been drilled into a false idea of civilization—[hear, hear]—efficiency, capability. But it is a hard civilization; it is