Court of last year gave the Governor power to make rules for the use by
individuals of their property during the war for the general defence of
the Commonwealth, and on failure on their part so to use their property,
to take possession of it for such term as may be necessary. Up to the
present time it has not been necessary to take property. Our faith in
the patriotism of our citizens has been amply demonstrated. Of our four
millions of people few have failed voluntarily to use their every
resource for the defence of the Nation. But of late there have been some
complaints of too high charges for rent in war-material centres. In some
cases patriotic workmen engaged in labor most vital to our country's
salvation have been threatened with eviction by profiteering landlords
unless they paid exorbitant rents. No one is undertaking to say that
rents must on no account be raised. But the Executive Department of
Massachusetts is undertaking to say that in any case where rents are
unreasonably raised to the detriment of people who are just as essential
to our victory as the soldier in the field, if any one is to be evicted
from such premises it will be the persons who are raising rents and not
the persons who are asked to pay them. This action is taken to protect
the Nation. It is taken in our desire and determination here to
coöperate with the Federal Government in every activity that is
necessary to the prosecution of the war. It is taken also for the
protection of the individual. We do not care how humble he may be, we do
not care how exalted the landlord may be, justice shall be done.
This is not to be taken as an offer on the part of the Commonwealth to
have unloaded on it a large amount of property at a high price.
Possession may be taken, but the ownership will not change. Unless
reasonable rents are charged, the tenant will stay in possession, but
the rent which the Commonwealth shall pay for occupation will be
determined by a jury. This means justice, nothing more, nothing
less--justice to the tenant, justice to the landlord. It is not to be
inferred that our real estate owners have lacked anything as a class in
patriotism. They are our most loyal, most self-sacrificing, most
commendable citizens. Massachusetts by its Homestead Commission is
encouraging its citizens to own real estate because such ownership is a
sheet anchor to self-government. But it is a proclamation of warning to
profiteers, of approbation and approval to patriots, and of assurance
and assistance to the working people and rent payers of our
Commonwealth.
XXI
ESSEX COUNTY CLUB, LYNNFIELD
SEPTEMBER 14, 1918
We meet here to-day as the inheritors of those principles which
preserved our Nation and extended its constitutional guaranties to all
its citizens. We come not as partisans but as patriots. We come to
pledge anew our faith in all that America means and to declare our firm
determination to defend her within and without from every foe. Above
that we come to pay our tribute of wonder and admiration at the great
achievements of our Nation and at the glory which they are shedding
around her. The past four years has shown the world the existence of a
conspiracy against mankind of a vastness and a wickedness that could
only be believed when seen in operation and confessed by its
participants. This conspiracy was promoted by the German military
despotism. It probably was encouraged by the results of three wars--one
against Denmark which robbed her of territory, one against Austria which
robbed her of territory, and one against France which robbed her of
territory and a cash indemnity of a billion dollars. These seemingly
easy successes encouraged their perpetrators to plan for the pillage and
enslavement of the earth.
To accomplish this, the German despotism began at home. By a systematic
training the whole German people were perverted. A false idea of their
own greatness was added to their contempt and hate of other nations,
who, they were taught, were bent on their destruction. The military
class were exalted and all else degraded. Thus was laid the foundation
for the atrocities which have marked their conduct of the war.
The vastness of the conquest planned has recently been revealed by
August Thyssen, one of the greatest steel men of the empire. He tells
of a calling together, in the years before the war, of the industrial
and banking interests of the Nation, when a plan of war was laid before
them, and their support secured by the promise of spoils. France, India,
Canada, Australia were to be given over to German satraps. His share was
30,000 acres in Australia, with $750,000 provided by the Government for
its development. This was the promise made by the Kaiser. Here was the
motive of the war.
How it was provoked is told by Prince Lichnowski, the Ambassador of
Germany to London. He shows how he had reached agreements for a treaty
which would show the good will of Great Britain. Berlin refused to sign
it unless it should be kept secret. He shows how Germany used Austria to
attack Serbia; how mediations were refused; when Austria was about to
withdraw, Germany sent an ultimatum to Russia one day and the next day
declared war.
This diplomat sums up the whole case when he says: "I had to support in
London a policy the heresy of which I recognized. That brought down
vengeance on me because it was a sin against the Holy Ghost." What an
indictment of Germany from her own confession! A plan to use the
revelations of science for the sack and slavery of the earth; the
degradation, perversion, corruption of a whole people, and by those who
should have been the wardens of their righteousness, done for the
temporal glory of a military caste, and all in the name of divine right.
Much of this was not known in America when we declared war. It is with
great difficulty we realize it now. We had seen Germany going from
infamy to infamy. We did know of the violated treaty of Belgium, of the
piracy, the murder of women and children, the destruction of the
property and lives of our neutral citizens, and finally the plain
declaration of the German Imperial Government that it would wantonly
and purposely destroy the property and lives of any American citizen who
exercised his undoubted legal right to sail certain portions of the sea.
This attempt to declare law for America by an edict from Potsdam we
resisted by the sword. We see at last not only the hideous wickedness
which perpetrated the war, we see that it is a world war, that Germany
struck not only at Belgium, she struck at us, she struck at our whole
system of civilization. A wicked purpose, which a vain attempt to
realize has involved its authors in more and more wickedness. We hear
that even among the civil population of Germany crime is rampant.
Looking now at this condition of Germany and her Allies, it is time to
inquire what America and her Allies have to offer as a remedy, and what
effect the application of such remedy has had upon ourselves. We have
drawn the sword, but is it only to
"Be blood for blood, for treason treachery?"
Are we seeking merely to match infamy with infamy, merely to pillage
and destroy those who threatened to pillage and destroy us? No; we have
taken more than the sword, lest we perish by the sword; we have summoned
the moral power of the Nation. We have recognized that evil is only to
be overcome by good. We have marshalled the righteousness of America to
overwhelm the wickedness of Germany. A new spirit has come over the
nation the like of which was never seen before. We can see it not only
in the new purity of camp life, in the heroism of our soldiers as they
fight in the faith and for the faith of the fathers, but we see it in
the healing influences which a righteous purpose has had upon the evils
which beset us.
We entered the war a people of many nationalities. We are united now;
every one is first an American. We were beset with jealousies, and envy,
and class prejudice. Service in the camp has taught each soldier to
respect the other, whatever his source, and a mutual sympathy at home
has brought all into a common citizenship. The service flag is a great
leveller.
Our industrial life has been purified of prejudice. No one is
complaining now that any concern is too large, too strong. All see that
the great organizations of capital in industry are our salvation. Labor
has taken on a new dignity and nobility. When the idle see the necessity
of work, when we begin to recognize industry as essential, the working
man begins to have paid him the honor which is his due.
Invention, chemistry, medicine, surgery, have been stimulated and
improved. Even our agriculture has taken on more economical methods and
increased production.
The call for man power has given a new idea of the importance of the
individual, so that there has been brought to the humblest the knowledge
that he was not only important but his importance was realized.
And with this has come the discovery of new powers, not only in the
slouch whom military drill has transformed into a man, but to labor that
has found a new joy, satisfaction and efficiency in its work. The entire
activities of the Nation are tuned up.
The spirit of charity has been aroused. Hundreds of millions have been
provided by voluntary gifts for the Red Cross, Knights of Columbus,
Hebrew Charities, and Christian Associations. The people are turning to
their places of worship with a new religious fervor. Everywhere
selfishness is giving way to service, idleness to industry, wastefulness
to thrift.
The war is being won. It is being overwhelmingly won. A righteous
purpose has not only strengthened our arms abroad but exalted the Nation
at home.
The great work before us is to keep this new spirit in the right path.
The opportunity for a military training, the beneficial results of its
discipline, must be continued for the youth of our country. The
sacrifice necessary for national defence must hereafter never be
neglected. The virtues of war must be carried into peace. But this must
not be done at the expense of the freedom of the individual. It must be
the expression of self-government and not the despotism of a German
military caste or a Russian Bolshevik state. We are in this war to
preserve the institutions that have made us great. The war has revealed
to us their true greatness. All argument about the efficiency of
despotism and the incompetence of republics was answered at the Marne
and will be hereafter answered at the Rhine. We are not going to
overcome the Kaiser by becoming like him, nor aid Russia by becoming
like her.
We see now that Prussian despotism was the natural ally of the Russian
Bolshevik and the I.W.W. here. Both exist to pervert and enslave the
people; both seek to break down the national spirit of the world for
their own wicked ends. Both are doomed to failure. By taking our place
in the world, America is to become more American, as by doing his duty
the individual develops his own manhood. We see now that when the
individual fails, whether it be from a despotism or the dead level of a
socialistic state, all has failed.
A new vision has come to the Nation, a vision that must never be
obscured. It is for us to heed it, to follow it. It is a revelation, but
a revelation not of our weakness but of our strength, not of new
principles, but of the power that lies in the application of old
doctrines. May that vision never fade, may America inspired by a great
purpose ever be able to say,
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."
XXII
TREMONT TEMPLE
NOVEMBER 2, 1918
To the greatest task man ever undertook our Commonwealth has applied
itself, will continue to apply itself with no laggard hand. One hundred
and ninety thousand of her sons already in the field, hundreds of
millions of her treasure contributed to the cause, her entire
citizenship moved with a single purpose, all these show a determination
unalterable, to prosecute the war to a victory so conclusive, to a
destruction of all enemy forces so decisive, that those impious
pretentions which have threatened the earth for many years will never be
renewed. There can be no discussion about it, there can be no
negotiation about it. The country is united in the conviction that the
only terms are unconditional surrender.
This determination has arisen from no sudden impulse or selfish motive.
It was forced upon us by the plan and policy of Germany and her methods
of waging war upon others. The main features of it all have long been
revealed while each day brings to light more of the details. We have
seen the studied effort to make perverts of sixty millions of German
people. We know of the corrupting of the business interests of the
Empire to secure their support. We know that war had been decreed before
the pretext on which it was declared had happened. We know Austria was
and is the creature of Germany. We have beheld the violation of innocent
Belgium, the hideous outrages on soldier and civilian, the piracy, the
murder of our own neutral citizens, and finally there came the notice,
which as an insult to America has been exceeded only by the recent
suggestion that we negotiate a peace with its authors,--the notice
claiming dominion over our citizens and authority to exclude our ships
from the sea. The great pretender to the throne of the earth thought
the time had come to assert that we were his subjects. Two millions of
our men already in France, and each day ten thousand more are hastening
to pay their respects to him at his court in Berlin in person. He has
our answer.
It would be a mistake to suppose we have already won the war. It is not
won yet, but we have reached the place where we know how to win it, and
if we continue our exertions we shall win it fully, completely, grandly,
as becomes a great people contending for the cause of righteousness.
We entered the war late and without previous military preparation. The
more clearly we discern the beginning and the progress of the struggle,
the more we must admire the great spirit of those nations by whose side
we fight. The more we know of the terrible price they paid, the
matchless sacrifices they magnificently endured--the French, the
Italians, the British, the Belgians, the Serbians, the Poles, and the
misgoverned, misguided people of Russia--the bravery of their soldiers
in the field, the unflinching devotion of their people at home, and
remember that in no small sense they were doing this for us, that we
have been the direct beneficiaries of peoples who have given their all,
the less disposition we have to think too much of our own importance.
But all this should not cause us to withhold the praise that is due our
own Army and Navy, or to overlook the fact that our people have met
every call that patriotism has made. The soldiers and sailors who fight
under the Stars and Stripes are the most magnificent body of men that
ever took up arms for defence of a great cause. Man for man they surpass
any other troops on earth.
We must not forget these things. We must not neglect to record them for
the information of generations to come. The names and records of boards
and commissions, relief societies, of all who have engaged in financing
the cause of government and charity, and other patriotic work, should be
preserved in the Library of the Commonwealth, and with these, our
military achievements. These will show how American soldiers met and
defeated the Prussian Guard. They will show also that in all the war no
single accomplishment, on a like scale, excelled the battle of St.
Mihiel, carried out by American troops, with our own Massachusetts boys
among them, and that the first regiment to be decorated as a regiment
for conspicuous service and gallantry in our Army in France was the
104th, formerly of the old Massachusetts National Guard. Such is our
record and it cannot be forgotten.
In reaching the great decision to enter the war, in preparing the answer
which speaks with so much authority, in the only language that despotism
can understand, America has arisen to a new life. We have taken a new
place among the nations. The Revolution made us a nation; the Spanish
War made us a world power, the present war has given us recognition as a
world power. We shall not again be considered provincial. Whether we
desired it or not this position has come to us with its duties and its
responsibilities.
This new position should not be misunderstood. It does not mean any
diminution of our national spirit. It rather means that it should be
intensified. The most outstanding feature of the war has been the
assertion of the national spirit. Each nationality is contending for the
right to have its own government, and in that is meeting with the
sanction of the free peoples of the earth. We are discussing a league of
nations. Such a league, if formed, is not for the purpose, must not be
for the purpose, of diminishing the spirit or influence of our Nation,
but to make that spirit and influence more real and more effective.
Believing in our Nation thoroughly and unreservedly, confident that the
evidence of the past and present justifies that belief, it is our one
desire to make America more American. There is no greater service that
we can render the oppressed of the earth than to maintain inviolate the
freedom of our own citizens.
Under our National Government the States are the sheet-anchors of our
institutions. On them falls the task of administering local affairs and
of supporting the National Government in peace and war. The success with
which Massachusetts has met her local problems, the efficiency with
which she has placed her resources of men and materials at the disposal
of the Nation, has been unsurpassed. The efficient organization of the
Commonwealth, which has proved itself in time of stress, must be
maintained undiminished. On the States will largely fall the task of
putting into effect the lessons of the war that are to make America more
truly American.
One of our first duties is military training. The opportunity hereafter
for the youth of the Nation to receive instruction in the science of
national defence should be universal. The great problem which our
present experience has brought is the development of man power. This
includes many questions, but especially public health and mental
equipment. Sanitation and education will require more attention in the
future.
America has been performing a great service for humanity. In that
service we have arisen to a new glory. The people of the nation without
distinction have been performing a great service for America. In it they
have realized a new citizenship. Prussianism fails. Americanism
succeeds. Education is to teach men not what to think but how to think.
Government will take on new activities, but it is not more to control
the people, the people are more to control the Government.
We have come to the realization of a new brotherhood among nations and
among men. It came through the performance of a common duty. A
brotherhood that existed unseen has been recognized at last by those
called to the camp and trenches and those working for their victory at
home. This spirit must not be misunderstood. It is not a gospel of ease
but of work, not of dependence but of independence, not of an easy
tolerance of wrong but a stern insistence on right, not the privilege of
receiving but the duty of giving.
"Man proposes but God disposes." When Germany lit up her long toasted
day with the lurid glare of war, she thought the end of freedom for the
peoples of the earth had come. She thought that the power of her sword
was hereafter to reign supreme over a world in slavery, and that the
divine right of a king was to be established forever. We have seen the
drama drawing to its close. It has shown the victory of justice and of
freedom and established the divine rights of the people. Through it is
shining a new revelation of the true brotherhood of man. As we see the
purpose Germany sought and the result she will secure, the words of Holy
Writ come back to us--"The wrath of man shall praise Him."
XXIII
FANEUIL HALL
NOVEMBER 4, 1918
We need a word of caution and of warning. I am responsible for what I
have said and what I have done. I am not responsible for what my
opponents say I have said or say I have done either on the stump or in
untrue political advertisements and untrue posters. I shall not deal
with these. I do not care to touch them, but I do not want any of my
fellow citizens to misunderstand my ignoring them as expressing any
attitude other than considering such attempts unworthy of notice when
men are fighting for the preservation of our country.
Our work is drawing to a close--our patriotic efforts. We have had in
view but one object--the saving of America.
We shall accomplish that object first by winning the war. That means a
great deal. It means getting the world forever rid of the German idea.
We can see no way to do this but by a complete surrender by Germany to
the Allies.
We stand by the State and National Governments in the prosecution of
this object. I have reiterated that we support the Commander-in-Chief in
war work. He says that is so.
We want no delay in prosecuting the war. The quickest way is the way to
save most lives and treasure. We want to care for the soldiers and their
dependents. That has been the recognized duty of the Government for
generations.
To save America means to save American institutions, it means to save
the manhood and womanhood of our country. To that we are pledged.
There will be great questions of reconstruction, social, industrial,
economic and governmental questions, that must be met and solved. They
must be met with a recognition of a new spirit.
It is a time to keep our faith in our State, our Nation, our
institutions, and in each other. Doing that, the war will be won in the
field and won in civil life at home.
XXIV
FROM INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS GOVERNOR
JANUARY 2, 1919
You are coming to a new legislative session under the inspiration of the
greatest achievements in all history. You are beholding the fulfilment
of the age-old promise, man coming into his own. You are to have the
opportunity and responsibility of reflecting this new spirit in the laws
of the most enlightened of Commonwealths. We must steadily advance. Each
individual must have the rewards and opportunities worthy of the
character of our citizenship, a broader recognition of his worth and a
larger liberty, protected by order--and always under the law. In the
promotion of human welfare Massachusetts happily may not need much
reconstruction, but, like all living organizations, forever needs
continuing construction. What are the lessons of the past? How shall
they be applied to these days of readjustment? How shall we emerge from
the autocratic methods of war to the democratic methods of peace,
raising ourselves again to the source of all our strength and all our
glory--sound self-government?
It is your duty not only to reflect public opinion, but to lead it.
Whether we are to enter a new era in Massachusetts depends upon you. The
lessons of the war are plain. Can we carry them on into peace? Can we
still act on the principle that there is no sacrifice too great to
maintain the right? Shall we continue to advocate and practise thrift
and industry? Shall we require unswerving loyalty to our country? These
are the foundations of all greatness.
Let there be a purpose in all your legislation to recognize the right of
man to be well born, well nurtured, well educated, well employed, and
well paid. This is no gospel of ease and selfishness, or class
distinction, but a gospel of effort and service, of universal
application.
Such results cannot be secured at once, but they should be ever before
us. The world has assumed burdens that will bear heavily on all peoples.
We shall not escape our share. But whatever may be our trials, however
difficult our tasks, they are only the problems of peace, and a
victorious peace. The war is over. Whatever the call of duty now we
should remember with gratitude that it is nothing compared with the
heavy sacrifice so lately made. The genius and fortitude which conquered
then cannot now fail.
XXV
STATEMENT ON THE DEATH OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
The people of our Commonwealth have learned with profound sorrow of the
death of Theodore Roosevelt. No other citizen of the Nation would have
brought in so large a degree the feeling of a common loss. During the
almost eight years he was President, the people came to see in him a
reflection of their ideals of the true Americanism.
He was the advocate of every good cause. He awakened the moral purpose
of the Nation and raised the standard of public service. He appealed to
the imagination of youth and satisfied the judgment of maturity. In him
Massachusetts saw an exponent of her own ideals.
In token of the love and reverence which all the people bore him, I urge
that the national and state flags be flown at half-mast throughout the
Commonwealth until after his funeral, and that, when next the people
gather for public worship, his loss be marked with proper ceremony.
XXVI
LINCOLN DAY PROCLAMATION
JANUARY 30, 1919
_The Commonwealth of Massachusetts By His Excellency Calvin Coolidge,
Governor_
A PROCLAMATION