Germany failed to understand that once the hearts of the people of a democracy are aroused and touched, they become invincible.
At a meeting to welcome an American Federation of Labor Mission on its return from Great Britain and France. St. Paul, Minn., June 12th, 1918.
YOU come here primarily to hear the message of the men and women who were appointed as a Mission representing the masses of labor of America, to the workers and the people generally of Great Britain and of France. They have a wonderful message to convey to you, and through you to the citizenship of Minnesota and every city and state of this great Union of ours. No doubt their message will reach the center of every civilized country on the face of the globe, and it is, and must be, their wish and hope, as it is mine, and I feel it to be yours, that their message will reach the minds and hearts and consciences of the people of Germany and Austria. It may not be amiss to relate, however, briefly, how it came about that these representatives of Labor, the men and women composing that Mission, were sent to the other side. We are certain, at least to a considerable degree, that a systematic propaganda has been conducted by the German government in Germany, and an underground, and often unknown, propaganda in the countries outside of Germany, to divide the masses of the people of all countries outside of Germany into hostile camps, to instill into the minds of the people of Belgium, France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Russia, America, the idea that internationalism was the most important of all principles to guide the people of the world; and while that propaganda for internationalism was conducted with wonderful subtlety and ability in Germany, the principle enunciated and practiced was nationality first, and internationality second. The whole program and policy were to divide the peoples of the various countries outside of Germany, and particularly the labor movements of those countries, into hostile camps. I know of a large number of agents of German propaganda, and of many others who are not the direct agents of German plan and propaganda, but who are nevertheless, unconsciously, playing the game of Germany. That propaganda has gone on, that poison has been injected into many minds, resulting in the strange conduct of quite a number of people, workers in France and in Great Britain, and if my imagination is not stretched too far, I think that men so infected can be traced right in these United States.
We hold that this, the Republic of the United States, the people of our Republic, have entered into this world struggle willing to offer up and to sacrifice all things except honor and freedom in order that justice and democracy shall have the opportunity to live among the free peoples of the earth; we hold that we have the right to determine at least our own policy and to carry out our own program for working towards the best possible results and bringing this terrific struggle to an end at the earliest possible date, with victory and glory upon the banner of our fighting boys and the fighting boys of Britain, France, Belgium and Italy.
We are a peace-loving people. The American labor movement is a peace-loving movement. Only after the ruthless murder of our innocent men, women and children were we moved to declare that we were no longer pacifists; that to remain pacifists in the face of the scientific murder policy, plan and program of the German government was to write ourselves down as poltroons and cowards. If ever there was evidence that peace by negotiation with the present government of Germany is impossible, it is found in the example of Russia, defeated, crushed, humiliated, through a treaty of peace with the government of Germany, accepting provisions that it was scarcely believable any people or representatives speaking in the name of people, would or could accept. At this moment I want to say, that the people of the democracies of the world shall be wiped out before they accept such a treaty of peace.
And yet, after entering solemnly into a treaty with the semblance of government in Russia, scarcely was the ink with which the signatures to that treaty of peace were made dry, when to the fullest extent of her power, Germany sent into Russia her armed forces, invading that country as if it were still an enemy country, as if no treaty of peace had been signed. To speak of a negotiated peace with the German government is to write into the history of the world for the future the principle that militarism is the only means by which the people can protect themselves. To accept a treaty of peace now would be to write for all time that Germany and kaiserism had been the conquerors in this war.
The autocratic, military machine of Germany is perhaps the most efficient murder organization ever brought together in the history of the world. The democracies of the world, including our own Republic, were unprepared from a military viewpoint to hurl back such a great military organization. But Germany forgot or failed to take into account this one fact, that though we were unorganized for military policies and campaigns, and were going about our business in our ordinary way, working out our problems as best we could, once the hearts of the people of a democracy are aroused and touched, they become invincible in the power to smite the most powerful military organization.
A propaganda to divide the forces of Labor in our country has been going on here as it has gone on in Europe. We have heard much about the toilers in Europe wanting to arrange conferences with representatives of the German labor and Socialist movements; we have heard much about their wanting to inveigle or invite workers of our country into such conferences. We know that there is not anything which that movement in Germany can do unless it has the approval of the German Imperial Government.
We were disinclined, and emphatically declared our determination not to sit in conference or to participate in any conference of which the representatives of Germany in any way should be a part, either until they have overthrown their autocracy and established a democracy at home or until the fighting forces of the allied countries and ourselves shall have driven the invading forces out of Serbia, out of Roumania, out of Russia, out of Belgium, out of France and out of Italy.
There seems to be amongst the men of the labor movement in our allied countries the thought that this expression of our judgment is a violation of a principle. They imagine that if they send a delegation of men to the United States to confer with us, we should be easily persuaded to the other view and converted so that we too should take part in an international conference to which the representatives of the labor movement in Germany would come as participants.
In order that Labor of Great Britain and France might have a clearer understanding of the soundness of our position, we sent over a delegation of labor men, seven men and two women, that they might confer with all of the representatives of every variety and shade of opinion of labor in Great Britain and France; and while these men and women were to undertake that mission to clear the atmosphere and bring about an understanding of the fact that we were unalterably committed to that policy, come what may, in addition, the mission was asked to get to the citizenship of the countries where they might have the opportunity of going and to talk to the men at the front and in the trenches, the fighting boys of all of our allied countries. They were to convey to them a word of heartening and encouragement, our pledge to them and to our Allies of all our man-power and all our wealth, with every possession of the people of the United States, that kaiserism shall be crushed and that freedom and justice shall obtain throughout the whole world.
In an official way, the mission reported in a document presented to the convention of the American Federation of Labor now being held in St. Paul. In an unofficial manner, and yet quite as interestingly, they will briefly portray the activities of each one of the mission, and of the group. If ever a group of men and women have performed a service satisfactorily and gratifyingly, I say here and now, conscious of the importance of the utterance, that in my wide experience I have found none to surpass and few to compare with this work.
Personally, as well as officially, I feel a sense of obligation to these men and women for the magnificence of their work and the great advantage which they have given to the right thinking men and women of America, and to our fellows across the sea.
It is but proper that I should at this time read to you a telegram sent by the President of the United States to this meeting.
"The American Alliance for Labor and Democracy have my heartiest hope for a successful meeting that will give added strength to future activities called into being to combat ignorance and misunderstanding skillfully played upon by disloyal influences. Your organization has done a great and necessary work. It has aided materially in promoting the unity that proceeds from a just understanding and is to-day a valid and important part of the great machinery to coördinate the energies of America in the prosecution of a just and righteous war. The war can be lost in America as well as on the fields of France, and ill-considered or unjustifiable interruptions of the essential labor of the country may make it impossible to win it. No controversy between capital and labor should be suffered to interrupt it until every instrumentality set up by the Government for its amicable settlement has been employed and its intermediation heeded to the utmost, and the Government has set up instrumentalities wholly fair and adequate. This duty to avoid such interruptions of industry wherever they can be avoided without the actual sacrifice of essential rights, rests upon the employer as imperatively as upon the workman. No man can afford to do injustice at any time, but at this time, justice is of the essence of national defense, and contests for any sort of advantage that at other times would be justified, may now jeopardize the very life of the nation."
(Signed) Woodrow Wilson.