The Defenders of Democracy | Page 4

the principles that gave her birth and happiness,
and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no
other." Woodrow Wilson.

A Message From Vice Admiral William Sowden Sims, U.S.N.,
Commanding the American Naval Forces Operating in European
Waters

In such an hour as that with which we are now confronted, when so
much depends upon the individual efforts, our hearts swell with pride
as we learn of the thousands of America's best, staunch and true men
who are so willingly forgetting their own personal welfare and linking
their lives and all that they are with the cause of liberty and justice,
which is so dear to the hears of the American people. All honor to those

who are giving themselves as such willing sacrifices, and may God
grant that their efforts may be speedily rewarded by a world condition
which will make them realize that their efforts have accomplished the
desired result, and that the world is better and happier because of them.
[signed] Wm. S. Sims

American Expeditionary Force Office of the Commanding General
August 4th, 1917
I am very pleased to have an opportunity to say a word in praise of the
Militia of Mercy.
Unless our women are imbued with Patriotic sentiments, there will be
little to hope for in our life. A nation is only as great as its womanhood;
and, as are the women, so are the sons. All praise to the women of
America!
Please accept my very best wishes for the success of your organization.
[signed] John J. Pershing.

Introduction

I have seldom yielded so willingly to a request for my written views as
I do in this instance, when my valued friend, the master journalist,
Melville E. Stone, has asked me, on behalf of the Book Committee, to
write an introduction for "The Defenders of Democracy." Needless to
say, I comply all the more readily in view of the fact that the book in
which these words will appear is planned by the ladies of the Militia of
Mercy as a means of increasing the Fund the Society is raising for the
benefit of the families of "their own men" on the battle-line.

And what a theme! It demands a volume from any pen capable of doing
it justice. For the present purposes, however, I approve strongly of a
compilation which shall express the reasoned opinions of writers
representing the allied nations, while it is a real pleasure to turn for a
few minutes from the day's anxieties and consider the one great force
which supplies the leaven to a war-sodden world. Are men to live in
freedom or as slaves to a soulless system?--that is the question which is
now being solved in blood and agony and tears on the battlefields of
the Old World. The answer given by the New World has never been in
doubt, but its clarion note was necessarily withheld in all its
magnificent rhythm until President Wilson delivered his Message to
Congress last April. I have no hesitation in saying that Mr. Wilson's
utterance will become immortal. It is a new declaration of the Rights of
Man, but a finer, broader one, based on the sure principles of Christian
ethics. Yet, mark how this same nobility of thought and purpose runs
like a vein of gold through the rock of valiant little Belgium's defiance
of the Hun, of President Poincare's firm stand, and of Mr. Lloyd
George's unflinching labors in the Sisyphean task of stemming the
Teutonic avalanche. Prussia's challenge to the world came with the
shock of some mighty eruption undreamed of by chroniclers of
earthquakes. It stunned humanity. Nowhere was its benumbing effect
more perceptible than in these United state, whose traditional policy of
non-interference in European disputes was submitted so unexpectedly
to the fierce test of Right versus Expediency. And how splendidly did
President, Senator, Congress and the People respond to the test! Never
for one instant did America's clear judgment falter. The Hun was guilty,
and must be punished. The only issue to be solved was whether France,
Britain, Italy and Russia should convict and brand the felon unaided, or
the mighty power of the Western World should join hands with the
avengers of outraged law. Well, a purblind Germany settled that
uncertainty by a series of misdeeds which no nation of high ideals
could allow to pass unchallenged. I do believe most firmly that
President Wilson gave the criminal such chances of reform as no court
of law in the world would grant. But, at last, his patience was exhausted.
Whether the enslavers of Germany thought, in that crass ignorance of
other men's minds they have so often displayed, that America meant to
keep out of the war at all costs, or were