Canada and the War
In the countries of the world which have cast their lot on the side of democracy and opportunity, many struggles and many sacrifices have been made, but there is not a man or a woman in any of the democratic countries that now regrets the sacrifices that have been made in the past that freedom may survive.
In the Canadian House of Commons, Ottawa, April 26th, 1918.
WITH my associates and me that enterprise in which we are now all engaged, and which we have been accustomed to call war, is no longer fully expressed by the term war, but takes on a larger view, a larger cause, a greater meaning; it is the most wonderful crusade ever entered upon by men in the whole history of the world. No nobler cause, no holier undertaking, has ever commanded the intelligent and the self-sacrificing natures of men. You men of Canada, there was no compulsion that impelled you into this war; there was no compulsion for our Australian brothers to enter into the war; there was no need for the men of South Africa to enter into the war; there was no compulsion that drove India into the war. The Mother Country of democracy, her life and her honor, were at stake. Her plighted faith had been given, Belgium outraged and overrun, France invaded; England responded, and her colonies and dominions, her men and her women, who had learned what was meant by English democracy and English idealism, responded with an alacrity and a purpose and a meaning that sent a thrill to the hearts and consciences of liberty-loving men the world over.
We had no quarrel with the people of Germany. We even had no quarrel with the autocratic Imperialistic Government of Germany. So long as that system suited or apparently suited the ideas and the purposes of the German people, they might have gone on and on and on, suffering as they might be, tyrannized over as they were, denied opportunity for self-expression, wonderfully successful in their arts, in their sciences and in their trade. No one wished them ill so long as they confined themselves to their own tasks of self-development. But when, unsatisfied with the marts of the world and with the acceptance of the standards set in the sciences of Germany, they let the dogs of war loose to dominate in the every-day affairs of the human family the world over—my tribute to Belgium in her agony; my tribute to France in her gallantry; my tribute to Great Britain, and to you men of Canada for the magnificent response which all have made, declaring to the German militarist machine: Thus far shalt thou go and no farther; back from France, back from Belgium—and then we will talk peace terms with you.
It is needless for me to refer to the causes which finally brought the people and the Government of the United States into the struggle. You are, perhaps, better informed than I am upon that phase of it. But the conscience and sympathies of the people of the United States were with the cause of the allied countries, for on one side, the side of Germany, stood a dominating force, a militarist machine perfected in the science of murder; the denial of rights and opportunities; and on the other side—our side, yours and mine—was the spirit of freedom, the spirit of democracy, a sense of justice to all mankind; a willingness to afford opportunity to the peoples of all countries to work out their own destinies as best they could. Theirs the side of reaction, power, the domination of might; ours the side of opportunity for the free development of the human. There was no other choice; there could have been no other choice. Perhaps this incident of recent occurrence has not attracted world-wide attention, but I desire just to mention it as indicative of the whole scheme which underlies Germany's prosecution of this war. In the Prussian Diet recently the Chancellor declared against a proposal which had been presented in that body for universal manhood suffrage in Prussia. The most significant statement made by him in opposition to that proposal was that if universal manhood suffrage were to come to Prussia, it would be worse than losing the war. Is this not typical of all that preceded the war, and of the manner in which the war has been conducted by our enemies?
It is not understood among the people of Germany that there is any possible efficiency in any activity of life unless it is founded upon might and power, from above, leading down. It is the contempt which they hold for men in democratic countries. They believed that the people of democracies were wholly inefficient, incapable of coöperating man power or of willingness to be diverted from the ordinary avenues of industry, business, trade and the discussion of democratic policies in order to become a potent force in defending the rights of the people in common. It is that contempt, that lack of understanding of the fact that, when once the consciences and the hearts of the peoples of democratic countries are aroused, they become a potent fighting force that brooks no opposition to its triumphant conclusion that was Germany's undoing.
The Central Powers of Europe, Germany and Austria have as their ally "Civilized" Turkey. It is said among English-speaking countries: "Tell me your company, and I will tell you who you are." To say that the Allies of Germany and Austria are Turkey and Bulgaria is a sufficient answer to the inquiry in regard to keeping company. On our side we have whom? We have France, Belgium, Italy, all the Dominions of Great Britain, and the Republic of the United States of America. It does not require much enthusiasm or much understanding to know upon which side liberty loving men are willing to throw their lot. It has come to pass in the world's history that we are no longer great distances from each other, for we now speak in terms less of miles than of hours and minutes and seconds, and when our countries are so closely united in terms of information by telegraph, by wireless, when we are in such close touch physically by fast-going trains and by fast-driven steamships, when we have the flying machines that have dominated the air, when we have our newspapers and magazines, when we meet in each other's territory so frequently, when we are in such close communication in business, in all the affairs of life there is a law of contact by which we acquire some of the characteristics of the peoples with whom we come in touch.
The time was well chosen by the German Imperialist machine to inaugurate this battle when we were the least prepared for it, but, in my judgment, it had to come at some time or other. As Lincoln in his time said that the United States could no longer be half free and half slave, so the time, thank God, has come that sets up for determination now that this world can no longer remain half democratic and half autocratic.
We are in this struggle. Our men have been hard pressed. It is not the easiest thing in the world to transform a democratic people from a peace footing to a war footing, but it has been done. The sacrifices are large. If there be more sacrifices necessary to be made, pray that those sacrifices may be as few as possible. But though the sacrifices may be large and exacting, they must be made that liberty, opportunity, justice and democracy may survive for humanity.
In the countries of the world which have cast their lot on the side of democracy and opportunity, many struggles and many sacrifices have been made, but there is not a man nor a woman in any of the democratic countries who now regrets the sacrifices that have been made in the past that freedom may survive. And though our men and our women are burdened and made sad by the sacrifices that have been made, it must be a great satisfaction, a great honor and a great privilege to them, to know that their husbands, brothers and sons have made the fight that liberty shall live. Those who will write the history of the time, like us in our day who pay tribute to those who have gone before and who have kept the light burning that the ideals of freedom and justice shall survive, will record the wonderful sacrifices made in our day and pay tribute to us, saying: "Well done, good and faithful servants."
Somehow, I have an abiding faith that the cause of right and of justice cannot die. I would rather die fighting for the right than not to fight at all. If we should fail—and I repeat, we cannot fail, we must not fail, we will not fail—it is better to fail fighting than it is to submit to the yoke. The willingness to submit to the tyrant's yoke simply means the stifling and stamping out of the spirit of liberty. The willingness to fight and to sacrifice for liberty keeps the spark alive in the hearts of some men, and in time it will rekindle and spread into a flame, a consuming flame, so that every man will rise up and fight again for liberty.
In this hour of the world's travail, with its suffering and its struggle, there must be unity of spirit among the peoples of all our Allied nations. I believe, indeed, that the time will come when the great English-speaking peoples of the world, allied with the other powers of the world, are going to spread this doctrine even until it reaches the innermost recesses of Germany. In this world struggle there must be not only unity of spirit, coöperation and ideality among the peoples of the Allied countries, but there must be unity of spirit and activity among the peoples in all walks of life in each of the Allied countries. There must be a willingness to do and to dare, a willingness to sacrifice that the common cause may live and survive. Perhaps if I give you a part of the declaration made by the representatives of the workers of America—the United States and Canada—it may be refreshing and interesting though it is more than a year since the declaration was made. A conference was held on March 12, 1917, in the city of Washington, about a month before the United States entered the war. I had previously submitted to my associates in the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor the suggestion that they should authorize me to call a conference and they readily acquiesced. After a thorough discussion of the entire question the representatives of the American Labor Movement—I repeat, of the United States and Canada—adopted a declaration.* * Mr. Gompers here read from declaration of March 12, 1917, printed on page 289 of the appendix.
Gentlemen, from the time of that declaration until the present moment there has not been a difference of opinion between the policy of the Government of the United States and of the organized bodies of the working people. I knew before I came to Ottawa, as I know now and am convinced, that the people of Canada did not need to be heartened or encouraged in this war. They are determined as are the people of the United States to fight this battle to a finish and not to conclude it by any peace negotiations founded upon the map of Europe as it is to-day. My primary purpose in coming here was to receive inspiration from my visit, as I have already received it, and to give a word by way of suggestion, if needs be, that unity of action and of spirit on the part of the Government and of the workers and of the business men of Canada should prevail in order that we may win this war. There is no course of generosity or consideration which can be shown but that the workers will understand and appreciate and give if necessary more heartily of their coöperation, their energies and their service. After all out of this struggle the old conditions will never enter our lives again. We must dismiss from our minds the thought that after the war is over we shall return to pre-war conditions and jog along somehow. Through this war there are going to be new concepts of duty, responsibility and service. Service? There was a question propounded thousands of years ago which this crusade will answer: "Am I my brother's keeper?" The events and the sacrifice and the developments of this great struggle will answer that question in the affirmative. Either we will have to help to bear our brother's burden, or he will be crushed under the load. It is a question of new concepts of human right, human welfare, and social justice. With the sacrifices that our men are making, with the new ideas and ideals that are quickening in our minds, with the faster pulsations of our hearts and our beings, there is coming a new, a better and a nobler time. We are waiting for that time and for those ideals, that human brotherhood, that higher conception of duty devolving upon us, to all and from all, the world over. Sacrifice counts as nothing against all that is at stake as the outcome of this universal conflagration. There can be but one ending to it all. The human will become supreme. Right, justice, consideration, opportunity for development, and for the attainment of the highest of which the human mind can conceive, will prevail and bring peace and contentment to the whole human race.
We are fighting and sacrificing that peace may come to the world. No peoples have ever had a greater opportunity to win for themselves for all future generations the encomiums of praise and service than have the people of our own time. God grant that the day is near at hand when the forces not only of arms but the forces of the spirit dominating the minds of the peoples of all democratic countries shall prevail and our boys come home to us with the triumph of glory.