They have affected the life
of the whole world. They have shaken men everywhere with a passion
and an apprehension they never knew before. It has been hard to
preserve calm counsel while the thought of our own people swayed
this way and that under their influence. We are a composite and
cosmopolitan people. We are of the blood of all the nations that
are at war. The currents of our thoughts as well as the currents
of our trade run quick at all seasons back and forth between us
and them. The war inevitably set its mark from the first alike
upon our minds, our industries, our commerce, our politics and our
social action. To be indifferent to it, or independent of it, was
out of the question.
And yet all the while we have been conscious that we were not part
of it. In that consciousness, despite many divisions, we have
drawn closer together. We have been deeply wronged upon the seas,
but we have not wished to wrong or injure in return; have retained
throughout the consciousness of standing in some sort apart,
intent upon an interest that transcended the immediate issues of
the war itself.
As some of the injuries done us have become intolerable we have
still been clear that we wished nothing for ourselves that we were
not ready to demand for all mankind--fair dealing, justice, the
freedom to live and to be at ease against organized wrong.
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