Page:William Howard Taft - America Can't Quit (1919).djvu/32



Now, my friends, don't we owe it to Europe, don't we owe it to ourselves, don't we owe it to the world to establish a league of nations, which will stabilize what is worth having in our civilization? Are we quitters? Are we slackers? Are we going to fight the battle in the field and leave the peace which represents the fruit of our effort, which represents the justification of our sacrifices, to go as meaning nothing? Or are we going to stand up and with the tremendous power that God has given us, as the most powerful nation of the world, with resources beyond compare, with people of the highest average intelligence of one hundred million or more, and the military potentiality that we demonstrated on the fields of Belgium and France—are we going to allow that great power to operate in no way in the settlement of this great war in which we took an honorable part? Are we going to run away from it, saying as one statement was made, "We have licked the Huns, and now you clean up the mess." Isn't that a grand vision of the situation?

If you believe that the objections to this League are real, if you believe they are fair, that the boon that the League offers does not justify the endangering of the nation and assuming that risk, then it is your duty to use your influence against the ratification of the League. But if you feel as I do that this represents the greatest possible step forward to save civilization, then you will use your influence with your senators and notify them to support the League. But what I urge you to do is to purge your minds and souls from unworthy considerations in reference to the issue. Take it upon its merits. If, because you do not like Mr. Wilson, or don't like that administration, or don't like the democratic party—any more than I do—and think it may redound to the credit of that party and so oppose the League, then you are acting from unworthy motives, irrelevant and incompetent to any such issue.

I am a Republican and hope to live and die a Republican. No matter whether they read me out of the party or not, I can vote the Republican ticket.

Now I believe in parties. A party is essential in popular government to interpret the will of the majority. A party is an organization in which the members agree on general principles waiving minor differences. They select their candidates and adopt their platforms representing those prin-