[DELIVERED IN THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE, NEW YORK CITY, MAY 17, 1918]
There are two duties with which we are face to face. The first duty is
to win the war. And the second duty that goes hand in hand with it is
to win it greatly and worthily, showing the real quality of our power
not only, but the real quality of our purpose and of ourselves. Of
course, the first duty, the duty that we must keep in the foreground of
our thought until it is accomplished, is to win the war. I have heard
gentlemen recently say that we must get 5,000,000 men ready. Why limit
it to 5,000,000?
I have asked the Congress of the United States to name no limit,
because the Congress intends, I am sure, as we all intend, that every
ship that can carry men or supplies shall go laden upon every voyage
with every man and every supply she can carry. And we are not to be
diverted from the grim purpose of winning the war by any insincere
approaches upon the subject of peace. I can say with a clear conscience
that I have tested those intimations and have found them insincere. I
now recognize them for what they are, an opportunity to have a free
hand, particularly in the East, to carry out purposes of conquest and
exploitation.
Every proposal with regard to accommodation in the West involves a
reservation with regard to the East. Now, so far as I am concerned,
I intend to stand by Russia as well as France. The helpless and the
friendless are the very ones that need friends and succor, and if
any men in Germany think we are going to sacrifice anybody for our
own sake, I tell them now they are mistaken. For the glory of this
war, my fellow-citizens, so far as we are concerned, is that it is,
perhaps for the first time in history, an unselfish war. I could not be
proud to fight for a selfish purpose, but I can be proud to fight for
mankind. If they wish peace let them come forward through accredited
representatives and lay their terms on the table. We have laid ours and
they know what they are.
But behind all this grim purpose, my friends, lies the opportunity
to demonstrate not only force, which will be demonstrated to the
utmost, but the opportunity to demonstrate character, and it is
that opportunity that we have most conspicuously in the work of the
Red Cross. Not that our men in arms do not represent our character,
for they do, and it is a character which those who see and realize
appreciate and admire; but their duty is the duty of force. The duty of
the Red Cross is the duty of mercy and succor and friendship.