Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/169

To Our Mistaught Millions stand by it — that common folks have some rights, which even emperors must respect.

"My will is the supreme law!" so proclaimeth the German Kaiser.

"All power is derived from the people!" which the republics of this earth are pledged to maintain — or they die. Don't you see that the Prussian Idea and the American Idea can never march down the big road together, side by side, and at peace? Both of us are now in the big road. One or the other has to get out. That's all there is about it.

Once upon a time old Abe Lincoln said: "This nation cannot endure half-slave, half-free" — nor can the world. Some folks say we ought to stand aside and let Europe fight it out. Stand aside? Where! There's no place for us to stand without stepping off the earth.

Before we are done with it, I look for a grand alliance, a brotherhood of all the republics of the world, marching magnificently, shoulder to shoulder, with clear eye and [151]