AMERICA'S HELP

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 14, 16 January 1918, Page 8

AMERICA'S HELP

REASONS FOR ENTERING

THE WAR

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS,

Professor Thomas C. Trueblood, Professor of Oratory at the University of Michigan, United States, delivered an interesting address on " America and the War," at the V.M.C.A. Rooms yesterday afternoon. There was a good attendance. Mr. E. C. Brownell, General National Secretary of the V.M.C.A., occupied the chair.

Professor Trueblood dealt at some length with the reasons for the delay of the United States in declaring war on Germany. It was, he said, against, the traditions of the American people to interfere in the disputes of Europe. Another reason why they disliked entering the war was their habit of resorting to arbitration. There had been seven or eight instances in the last century when they might have gone to war with Great Britain, but they had been in the habit of settling their difficulties round the table. He thought that* a war between Great; Britain and the United States was now unthinkable. Americans believed difficulties should be settled by reason and not by the arbitrament of the sword. While the boundary lines between France and Germany were lined with forts and bristling with bayonets, the Canadian frontiers had not a single fort, gunboat, or sentinel. Another reason why it was difficult to break away from traditional policy was the principle of the freedom of the seas. The American people always had contended that they should have the right to go where they chose on the seas. When Germany denied neutrals that right and drew a zone over which their ships should not go without being sunk, the Americans declined to submit. Germany began,sinking the ships of America and other neutral nations with American sailors and citizens on them. Then there was the trampling of Belgium under foot, the enslavement of ■ Servia, Montenegro, Albania, and Rumania. There was also the attitude of Germany towards the Turks while the latter were butchering the Armenians—the utter lawlessness and frightfulhess of a nation which ought to be called savage rather than civilised. Those were the things that weighed with America. In addition, there was the intrigue of Germany through Zimmermann, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs at Berlin, with Mexico and Japan to _ get them to go to war with the United States, Mexico being promised four of the great American States. When all these things came to pass the indignation of the people of the United States was unbounded, and the Americans could stay out of the war no longer.

GERMANY'S BARBAROUS METHODS.

Tho lecturer then alluded in scathing j terms tc the atrocities committed by the. Central Powers, and. their Allies in occu 1 j pied territory," ;snd "to the barbarous nature of their methods of warfare. "It was these atrocities," he said, "that made it possible for us to go into the war. It was these atrocities that caused many German Americans to turn against their mother country. They were very im- ; patient for a, long time before they would agree to stand with America." : Professor Trueblood declared that the United States had never gone into anything with more earnestness and determination than this war-for the liberation of the peoples of the earth and the safety of Democracy. As President Wilson had pointed out, an increased tendency towards Democracy was essential for the world's peace. Since it was announced that America was in the war, the colleges had been decimated of students. There were now, tinder arms 1,500,000 men, and the programme had been to have in France 900,000 by Christmas. As no blunders have been made, it could, be taken, for granted that 500,000. American soldiers were in Fiance and ready for business as soon as wanted. i WHAT AMERICA'S ASSISTANCE i MEANS. Professor Trueblood described the systematic steps that had been taken in the United States to conserve the food supplies and construct 100,000 aeroplanes of the latest approved type. These aeroi planes, thanks to Howard Coffyn, who had been called to Washington to manage the munitions, ought now to be ready, and if they could not be taken to Europe I ; by ships, they could fly the distance by way of the Azores and Portugal. They j were designed to make a speed of 200 miles an hour. America would be able to furnish 15,000,000 soldiers, and the upshot of the war must be regarded as a foregone conclusion. But it must not cease until an enduring peace was beyond all question. There must be a combination of nations strong enough to insist on a-reduction of armaments and the settlement of international disputes by arbitration. (Applause.) A vote of thanks was tendered the lecturer or. the motion of Mr. C. M. Luke, the president of the association. A. public recital on "Mark Twain," will be given by the professor in the same hall this evening at 8 o'clock.