armies and navies and the resolution to endure. Have faith in the moral
power of America. It gave independence under Washington and freedom
under Lincoln. Here, right never lost. Here, wrong never won. However
powerful the forces of evil may appear, somewhere there are more
powerful forces of righteousness. Courage and confidence are our
heritage. Justice is our might. The outcome is in your hand, my fellow
American; if you deserve to win, the Nation cannot lose.
XVII
ROXBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, BUNKER HILL DAY
JUNE 17, 1918
Reverence is the measure not of others but of ourselves. This assemblage
on the one hundred and forty-third anniversary of the Battle of Bunker
Hill tells not only of the spirit of that day but of the spirit of
to-day. What men worship that will they become. The heroes and holidays
of a people which fascinate their soul reveal what they hold are the
realities of life and mark out a line beyond which they will not
retreat, but at which they will stand to overcome or die. They who
reverence Bunker Hill will fight there. Your true patriot sees home and
hearthstone in the welfare of his country.
Rightly viewed, then, this day is set apart for an examination of
ourselves by recounting the deeds of the men of long ago.
What was there in the events of the seventeenth day of June, 1775,
which holds the veneration of Americans and the increasing admiration of
the world? There are the physical facts not too unimportant to be
unworthy of reiteration even in the learned presence of an Historical
Society. A detachment of men clad for the most part in the dress of
their daily occupations, standing with bared heads and muskets grounded
muzzle down in the twilight glow on Cambridge Common, heard Samuel
Langdon, President of Harvard College, seek divine blessing on their
cause and marched away in the darkness to a little eminence at
Charlestown, where, ere the setting of another sun, much history was to
be made and much glory lost and won. When a new dawn had lifted the
mists of the Bay, the British, under General Howe, saw an intrenchment
on Breed's Hill, which must be taken or Boston abandoned. The works were
exposed in the rear to attack from land and sea. This was disdained by
the king's soldiers in their contempt for the supposed fighting ability
of the Americans. Leisurely, as on dress parade, they assembled for an
assault that they thought was to be a demonstration of the uselessness
of any armed resistance on the part of the Colonies. In splendid array
they advanced late in the day. A few straggling shots and all was still
behind the parapet. It was easier than they had expected. But when they
reached a point where 'tis said the men behind the intrenchments could
see the whites of their eyes, they were met by a withering fire that
tore their ranks asunder and sent them back in disorder, utterly routed
by their despised foes. In time they form and advance again but the
result is the same. The demonstration of superiority was not a success.
For a third time they form, not now for dress parade, but for a
hazardous assault. This time the result was different. The patriots had
lost nothing of courage or determination but there was left scarcely
one round of powder. They had no bayonets. Pouring in their last volley
and still resisting with clubbed muskets, they retired slowly and in
order from the field. So great was the British loss that there was no
pursuit. The intensity of the battle is told by the loss of the
Americans, out of about fifteen hundred engaged, of nearly twenty per
cent, and of the British, out of some thirty-five hundred engaged, of
nearly thirty-three per cent, all in one and one half hours.
It was the story of brave men bravely led but insufficiently equipped.
Their leader, Colonel Prescott, had walked the breastworks to show his
men that the cannonade was not particularly dangerous. John Stark,
bringing his company, in which were his Irish compatriots, across
Charlestown Neck under the guns of the battleships, refused to quicken
his step. His Major, Andrew McCleary, fell at the rail fence which he
had held during the day. Dr. Joseph Warren, your own son of Roxbury,
fell in the retreat, but the Americans, though picking off his officers,
spared General Howe. They had fought the French under his brother.
Such were some of the outstanding deeds of the day. But these were the
deeds of men and the deeds of men always have an inward significance. In
distant Philadelphia, on this very day, the Continental Congress had
chosen as the Commander of their Army, General George Washington, a man
whose clear vision looked into the realities of things and did not
falter. On his way to the front four days later, dispatches reached him
of the battle. He revealed the meaning of the day with, one question,
"Did the militia fight?" Learning how those heroic men fought, he said,
"Then the liberties of the Country are safe." No greater commentary has
ever been made on the significance of Bunker Hill.
We read events by what goes before and after. We think of Bunker Hill
as the first real battle for independence, the prelude to the
Revolution. Yet these were both after-thoughts. Independence Day was
still more than a year away and then eight years from accomplishment.
The Revolution cannot be said to have become established until the
adoption of the Federal Constitution. No, on this June day, these were
not the conscious objects sought. They were contending for the liberties
of the country, they were not yet bent on establishing a new nation nor
on recognizing that relationship between men which the modern world
calls democracy. They were maintaining well their traditions, these sons
of Londonderry, lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray, and these
sons of the Puritans, whom Macaulay tells us humbly abased themselves in
the dust before the Lord, but hesitated not to set their foot upon the
neck of their king.
It is the moral quality of the day that abides. It was the purpose of
those plain garbed men behind the parapet that told whether they were
savages bent on plunder, living under the law of the jungle, or sons of
the morning bearing the light of civilization. The glorious revolution
of 1688 was fading from memory. The English Government of that day
rested upon privilege and corruption at the base, surmounted by a king
bent on despotism, but fortunately too weak to accomplish any design
either of good or ill. An empire still outwardly sound was rotting at
the core. The privilege which had found Great Britain so complacent
sought to establish itself over the Colonies. The purpose of the
patriots was resistance to tyranny. Pitt and Burke and Lord Camden in
England recognized this, and, loving liberty, approved the course of the
Colonies. The Tories here, loving privilege, approved the course of the
Royal Government. Bunker Hill meant that the Colonies would save
themselves and saving themselves save the mother country for liberty.
The war was not inevitable. Perhaps wars are never inevitable. But the
conflict between freedom and privilege was inevitable. That it broke out
in America rather than in England was accidental. Liberty, the rights of
man against tyranny, the rights of kings, was in the air. One side must
give way. There might have been a peaceful settlement by timely
concessions such as the Reform Bill of England some fifty years later,
or the Japanese reforms of our own times, but wanting that a collision
was inevitable. Lacking a Bunker Hill there had been another Dunbar.
The eighteenth century was the era of the development of political
rights. It was the culmination of the ideas of the Renaissance. It was
the putting into practice in government of the answer to the long
pondered and much discussed question, "What is right?" Custom was giving
way at last to reason. Class and caste and place, all the distinctions
based on appearance and accident were giving way before reality. Men
turned from distinctions which were temporal to those which were
eternal. The sovereignty of kings and the nobility of peers was
swallowed up in the sovereignty and nobility of all men. The inequal in
quantity became equal in quality.
The successful solution of this problem was the crowning glory of a
century and a half of America. It established for all time how men ought
to act toward each other in the governmental relation. The rule of the
people had begun.
Bunker Hill had a deeper significance. It was an example of the great
law of human progress and civilization. There has been much talk in
recent years of the survival of the fittest and of efficiency. We are
beginning to hear of the development of the super-man and the claim that
he has of right dominion over the rest of his inferiors on earth. This
philosophy denies the doctrine of equality and holds that government is
not based on consent but on compulsion. It holds that the weak must
serve the strong, which is the law of slavery, it applies the law of the
animal world to mankind and puts science above morals. This sounds the
call to the jungle. It is not an advance to the morning but a retreat to
night. It is not the light of human reason but the darkness of the
wisdom of the serpent.
The law of progress and civilization is not the law of the jungle. It is
not an earthly law, it is a divine law. It does not mean the survival of
the fittest, it means the sacrifice of the fittest. Any mother will give
her life for her child. Men put the women and children in the lifeboats
before they themselves will leave the sinking ship. John Hampden and
Nathan Hale did not survive, nor did Lincoln, but Benedict Arnold did.
The example above all others takes us back to Jerusalem some nineteen
hundred years ago. The men of Bunker Hill were true disciples of
civilization, because they were willing to sacrifice themselves to
resist the evils and redeem the liberties of the British Empire. The
proud shaft which rises over their battlefield and the bronze form of
Joseph Warren in your square are not monuments to expediency or success,
they are monuments to righteousness.
This is the age-old story. Men are reading it again to-day--written in
blood. The Prussian military despotism has abandoned the law of
civilization for the law of barbarism. We could approve and join in the
scramble to the jungle, or we could resist and sacrifice ourselves to
save an erring nation. Not being beasts, but men, we choose the
sacrifice.
This brings us to the part that America is taking at the end of its
second hundred and fifty years of existence. Is it not a part of that
increasing purpose which the poet, the seer, tells us runs through the
ages? Has not our Nation been raised up and strengthened, trained and
prepared, to meet the great sacrifice that must be made now to save the
world from despotism? We have heard much of our lack of preparation. We
have been altogether lacking in preparation in a strict military sense.
We had no vast forces of artillery or infantry, no large stores of
munitions, few trained men. But let us not forget to pay proper respect
to the preparation we did have, which was the result of long training
and careful teaching. We had a mental, a moral, a spiritual training
that fitted us equally with any other people to engage in this great
contest which after all is a contest of ideas as well as of arms. We
must never neglect the military preparation again, but we may as well
recognize that we have had a preparation without which arms in our hands
would very much resemble in purpose those now arrayed against us.
Are we not realizing a noble destiny? The great Admiral who discovered
America bore the significant name of Christopher. It has been pointed
out that this name means Christ-bearer. Were not the men who stood at
Bunker Hill bearing light to the world by their sacrifices? Are not the
men of to-day, the entire Nation of to-day, living in accordance with
the significance of that name, and by their service and sacrifice
redeeming mankind from the forces that make for everlasting destruction?
We seek no territory and no rewards. We give but do not take. We seek
for a victory of our ideas. Our arms are but the means. America follows
no such delusion as a place in the sun for the strong by the destruction
of the weak. America seeks rather, by giving of her strength for the
service of the weak, a place in eternity.
XVIII
FAIRHAVEN
JULY 4, 1918
We have met on this anniversary of American independence to assess the
dimensions of a kind deed. Nearly four score years ago the master of a
whaling vessel sailing from this port rescued from a barren rock in the
China Sea some Japanese fishermen. Among them was a young boy whom he
brought home with him to Fairhaven, where he was given the advantages of
New England life and sent to school with the boys and girls of the
neighborhood, where he excelled in his studies. But as he grew up he was
filled with a longing to see Japan and his aged mother. He knew that the
duty of filial piety lay upon him according to the teachings of his
race, and he was determined to meet that obligation. I think that is one
of the lessons of this day. Here was a youth who determined to pursue
the course which he had been taught was right. He braved the dangers of
the voyage and the greater dangers that awaited an absentee from his
country under the then existing laws, to perform his duty to his mother
and to his native land. In making that return I think we are entitled to
say that he was the first Ambassador of America to the Court of Japan,
for his extraordinary experience soon brought him into the association
of the highest officials of his country, and his presence there prepared
the way for the friendly reception which was given to Commodore Perry
when he was sent to Japan to open relations between that Government and
the Government of America.
And so we see how out of the kind deed of Captain Whitefield, friendly
relations which have existed for many years between the people of Japan
and the people of America were encouraged and made possible. And it is
in recognition of that event that we have here to-day this great
concourse of people, this martial array, and the representative of the
Japanese people--a people who have never failed to respond to an act of
kindness.
It was with special pleasure that I came here representing the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to extend an official welcome to His
Excellency Viscount Ishii, who comes here to present to the town of
Fairhaven a Sumari sword on behalf of the son of that boy who was
rescued long ago. This sword was once the emblem of place and caste and
arbitrary rank. It has taken on a new significance because Captain
Whitefield was true to the call of humanity, because a Japanese boy was
true to his call of duty. This emblem will hereafter be a token not only
of the friendship that exists between two nations but a token of
liberty, of freedom, and of the recognition by the Government of both
these nations of the rights of the people. Let it remain here as a
mutual pledge by the giver and the receiver of their determination that
the motive which inspired the representatives of each race to do right
is to be a motive which is to govern the people of the earth.
XIX
SOMERVILLE REPUBLICAN CITY COMMITTEE
AUGUST 7, 1918
Coming into your presence in ordinary times, gentlemen of the committee,
I should be inclined to direct your attention to the long and patriotic
services of our party, to the great benefits its policies have conferred
upon this Nation, to the illustrious names of our leaders, to our
present activities, and to our future party policy. But these are not
ordinary times. Our country is at war. There is no way to save our party
if our country be lost. And in the present crisis there is only one way
to save our country. We must support the State and National Governments
in whatever they request for the conduct of the war. The Constitution
makes the President Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy. What he
needs should be freely given. This has been and will be the policy of
the Republican administration of Massachusetts and of her Senators and
Representatives in Congress. We seek no party advantage from the
distress of our country. Among Republicans there will be no political
profiteering.
It is a year and four months now since we declared the German Government
was making war on America. We are beginning to see what our requirements
are. We had a small but efficient standing army, and a larger but less
efficient National Guard. These have been increased by enlistments. We
have a new national force,--never to be designated as Conscripts, but as
the accepted soldiers of a whole Nation that has volunteered, of almost
unlimited numbers. By taxation and by three Liberty Loans, each
over-subscribed by more than fifty per cent, we have demonstrated that
there will be no lack of money. The problem of the production and
conservation of food is being met, though not yet without some
inconvenience, yet so far with very little suffering. The remaining
factor is the production of the necessary materials for carrying on the
war. We lack ships and military supplies. Whether these are secured in
time in sufficient quantity will depend in a large measure upon the
attitude of the people managing and employed in these industries. The
attitude of the leaders of organized labor has been patriotic. They
realize that this is a war to preserve the rights that have been won for
the people, and they have at all times advised their fellow workmen to
remain at work. There must be forbearance on all sides. Where wages are
too low they should be increased voluntarily. Where there is
disagreement the Government has provided means for investigation and
adjustment. Our industrial front must keep pace with our military front.
We are demonstrating the ability of America. Within the last few days
the report has come to us that our soldiers have defeated the Prussian
Guard. The sneer of Germany at America is vanishing. It is true that the
German high command still couple American and African soldiers together
in intended derision. What they say in scorn, let us say in praise. We
have fought before for the rights of all men irrespective of color. We
are proud to fight now with colored men for the rights of white men. It
would be fitting recognition of their worth to send our American negro,
when that time comes, to inform the Prussian military despotism on what
terms their defeated armies are to be granted peace.
While the victories that have recently come to our arms are most
encouraging, they should only stimulate us to redoubled efforts. The
only hope of a short war is to prepare for a long one. In this work the
States play a most important part. Massachusetts must be kept so
organized and governed as to continue that able, effective, and prompt
coöperation with the National Government that has marked the past
progress of the war. In this we have a great part to do here. It was for
such a task that the Republican Party came into being sixty-four years
ago. One of the resolutions adopted at its birth peculiarly dedicates it
to the requirements of the present hour.
"Resolved, that in view of the necessity of battling for the first
principles of republican government and against the schemes of an
aristocracy, the most revolting and oppressive with which the earth was
ever cursed, or man debased, we will coöperate and be known as
'Republicans' until the contest be terminated."
This great work lies before our party in Massachusetts. We shall go on
battling for the first principles of Republican government until it has
been secured to all the people of the earth.
Our American forces on sea and land are proving sufficient to turn the
tide in favor of the Allied cause. They could not succeed alone, we
could not succeed alone. We are furnishing a reserve power that is
bringing victory.
But America must furnish more than armies and navies for the future. If
armies and navies were to be supreme, Germany would be right. There are
other and greater forces in the world than march to the roll of the
drum. As we are turning the scale with our sword now, so hereafter we
must turn the scale with the moral power of America. It must be our
disinterested plans that are to restore Europe to a place through
justice when we have secured victory through the sword. And into a new
world we are to take not only the people of oppressed Europe but the
people of America. Out of our sacrifice and suffering, out of our blood
and tears, America shall have a new awakening, a rededication to the
cause of Washington and Lincoln, a firmer conviction for the right.
XX
WRITTEN FOR THE SUNDAY ADVERTISER AND AMERICAN
SEPTEMBER 1, 1918
The man who seeks to stimulate and increase the production of materials
necessary for the conduct of the war by raising the price he pays is a
patriot. The man who refuses to sell at a fine price whatever he may
have that is necessary for the conduct of the war is a profiteer. One
man seeks to help his country at his own expense, the other seeks to
help himself at his country's expense. One is willing to suffer himself
that his country may prosper, the other is willing his country should
suffer that he may prosper.
In ordinary times these difficulties are taken care of by the operation
of the law of supply and demand. If the price is too high the buyer has
time to go elsewhere. In war the element of time is one of the chief
considerations. When what is wanted is once found it must be made
available at once. The principle of trusteeship also comes into more
immediate operation. It is recognized in time of peace that the public
may take what it may need of private property for the general welfare,
paying a fair compensation, and that the right to own property carries
with it the duty of using it for the welfare of our fellow man. The time
has gone by when one may do what he will with his own. He must use his
property for the general good or the very right to hold private property
is lost.
These are some of the rules to be observed in the relationship between
man and man. To see that these rules are properly enforced, governments
are formed. When they are not observed--when the strong refuse voluntary
justice to the weak--then it is time for the strong arm of the law
through the public officers to intervene and see that the weak are
protected. This can usually be done by the enactment of a law which all
will try to obey, but when this course has failed there is no remedy
save by the process of law to take from the wrong-doer his power in the
future to do harm.
America is built on faith in the individual, faith in his will and power
to do right of his own accord, but equally is the determination that the
individual shall be protected against whatsoever force may be brought
against him. We believe in him not because of what he has, but what he
is. But this is a practical faith. It does not rest on any silly
assumption that virtue is the reward of anything but effort or that
liberty can be secured at the price of anything but eternal vigilance.