FREEDOM
We are with you, men of Italy; we are with you, men of France; we are with you, men of Belgium; we are with you, men of England. We say to-day that this murderous German militarist machine must be destroyed. We will give, to the last man, and the last dollar, to achieve that great purpose.
Official lunch and reception tendered by the Italian Government to the American Federation of Labor Mission, Grand Hotel, Rome, Italy, October 8, 1918.
WANT you to believe me that I profoundly feel A the responsibility of replying even in my humble way to the many expressions of kindness, sympathy and appreciation. It is most difficult to be able to express all that is in one's heart, all that one feels, all that one thinks, all that one strives to attain and contribute toward the achievement of a common idealism. But may I say this to you? I think that since my associates and I have trod upon the European shores, we have become convinced beyond any peradventure of a doubt, that the heart and the conscience of the manhood of our allied countries ring true to our common cause. There may be one here and there who dares lift up his voice and say that he is not in accord with us in this great struggle; but so it has been from time immemorial in every struggle in the history of the human family. Some men, through ignorance, others from pure perversity, fail, or refuse, to make common cause with those who are fighting for a righteous cause. From the early Christian period, men have dared to believe in the hope of human brotherhood. Too many—not always—but too many have indicated "thumbs down." So it was with the Crusade, and so it was in the American Revolution—the Revolution of the American colonists for the establishment of an independent nation founded upon the rights of man and the inalienable right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There were some who fought in America against the establishment of those principles.
In the French Revolution there were some who stood by the old guard against that revolution which recognized the equality of opportunity among men.
And so with our Civil War at home in America, fought to maintain the Union of our Republic and to abolish human slavery—even there some negroes fought against their own emancipation. And now, in this great crisis, there are some who dare lift up their voices against their emancipation and the liberties of the whole world. Well, these are some of the difficulties and contradictions which appear in the expressions of human nature. Probably it might be better called nonhuman nature.
The American labor movement—the American Federation of Labor—is an institution which stands for justice and democracy. We find in our Republic the men who dare think, and thinking, dare speak, and speaking, dare to do for the right. We have not always 'ways been in agreement with the government of our country, but that is our own internal affair. But in this great struggle we find that the government and the Congress of our country and the President of the United States are the joint leaders of this movement of the Republic of America to express in word and thought and action the willingness to sacrifice to the last man that the principles for which Washington and the colonists fought, shall not die to-day. We are with you, men of Italy; we are with you, men of France; we are with you, men of England; we are with you, men of Belgium; we say to-day that this murderous German militarist machine must be destroyed. We will give, to the last man and the last dollar, to achieve that great purpose.
Men of Italy, your history is not unknown to us, nor is it lost to us—all that you have said and done, the heroes of battle and of thought, you men, your progenitors who have dared to think, who have dared to speak and who have dared to die for the truth! Is the life of Messing not dear to us? Do we forget Garibaldi and Bantisti? Are their lessons of no value to us? We, the children and the representatives of Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, of Lincoln and Wilson, bring to you the voice and the message of the masses of the people of America that, come what may, the opportunity to live the life of free men must be maintained at any sacrifice.
I sometimes feel concern as to whether you and I are going to prove ourselves worthy of the men who have gone before and whether we are going to receive the condemnation or the commendation of those who are to come after us, those who will curse us or bless us as we perform or fail to perform our duty in our time. I am afraid of myself, for I am carried along with enthusiasm, and, if I may say, the impetuosity of a man who has flung all guard to the winds and who aims to be of some help and of some service, not only to the people of his own time but to the men and the women of the future.
I would be afraid to revel in my own conscience if I were not to give all that is in me in this crusade for justice. I would not want to live now one moment if I were to have the conscience or the conviction that the children who are to come after me, my sons and daughter, my grandchildren and those who follow them, would be ashamed to acknowledge that I was a man that had been untrue to our common ideals of justice and democracy. I want to be true to the men who fought and made it possible for the people of Italy and the people of Great Britain and the people of France and the people of the United States to enjoy the freedom that we now have. I want to be true to my fellows of to-day and to help hand down the spirit of freedom to the generations yet unborn.
Pardon me, if you may think or suspect that there is a spirit of braggadocio or that there is a spirit of abandon in what I have said or in what I have tried to do; but I am so thoroughly conscious of the responsibility resting upon the manhood of to-day that when opportunity comes, that which presses upon my tongue for utterance, I say.
That which is in my heart and my soul, I want to convey to the men and women of Italy, and to my fellow compatriots in this great universal struggle of the world; that is, that, come what may in this crusade, a new life must result, new relations must be established betwen man and man, whereby no man shall look down upon the worker as a menial but that he shall be regarded as a man entitled to the full recognition and the stature of manhood; that new relations must be established between nation and nation even to bring democracy and the hope for justice to the peoples of Austria and Germany.
But until then, and so long as the peoples of the Central Powers take up arms against the representatives of democracy, they must be fought to a finish—beaten to their knees and made to understand that they are beaten—beaten beyond hope of the resurrection of their former military power.
Thus you have heard the expressions of a man who, out of sixty-eight years, was sixty-four an ultra-pacifist. I speak to you now, not as a pacifist of today but as one who is willing to fight in order that a real peace, real, true internationalism and human brotherhood may be established. I am confident that any attempt to defeat our aims by maneuver, threats or propaganda will fail, equally as the military machine of Germany and Austria has failed. Though sad at heart as we are at the sacrifices that have been and are being made, let us be joyous in the anticipation of the new time that shall come as the result of victory, of triumph unequaled in the cause of Italy, of France, and of Great Britain; of the restoration of Belgium, Roumania and Serbia—when Russia shall be given an opportunity to stand on her feet unafraid of German militarism; when Alsace-Lorraine shall be restored to France and when Italy also may come into her own, the wonderful Trentino and Trieste.
The United States of America wants nothing whatever out of this war. You cannot give us anything that we would take. What we want is not only for us to live in peace and unafraid for our freedom, but to know that the peoples of the nationalities of the world have an opportunity in the arts of peace, working for their own salvation, working out their destinies and in the common cause vying with each other to bring about the great, the true ideal of internationalism and human brotherhood.