found people to drink beer with them, and the most beautiful harmony was established between the two nations, and what was happening? They were filling Great Britain with spies, as they were filling your country with spies. Only the other day there was an air raid on London, and the observer of an aeroplane happened to be captured in a very important suburb of London with immense military depots. On what basis do you suppose this man had been selected to act as observer to a most immense trade, one of our great munition centers? I will tell you. He had been employed for four years at a local railroad station, and there wasn't a yard in that neighborhood that he did not know. Do you suppose his employment was fortuitous? It was selected with that very object, and the opportunity came. These are the people to whom we have extended our hospitality, these are the people whom we have received as civilized men, whose hands we have clasped, with the knowledge that the clasped hand, when given among Anglo-Saxon peoples, carries with it the allegiance of the heart. Note, gentlemen, disillusioned to-day as our nations are gradually being disillusioned, let us realize the truth, for the truth is as plain to-day for those who will read it as it was plain for us who closed our eyes to it in the ten years that are past. The truth is this, that in this struggle, of all the struggles which have ever convulsed humanity there is no compromise, and for a fundamental reason. Great nations have waged with inveterate hostility long protracted wars over dynastic problems which at times have seemed invested with immense significance; but never, never in the history of the world has the gauge of battle been dropped in a quarrel which raises the elemental issue between right and wrong, between law and anarchy. That is the struggle in which humanity is engaged to-day. Be under no delu sions, we who have been fed by delusions for thirty years, be under no delusions as to the future. Let no false optimism blind you to the extent of the sacrifices which you, too, will be called upon to make. You are joining a brotherhood of whom many have almost lost their national existence, and there are still some of whom we cannot say even now that they will be able to march to the end of this road of blood, to the goal of victory. Of you, too, believe me, sufferings of which you have not yet taken toll will be demanded. Address yourselves to them with the fibre which your race and our race have already shown, and realize this: You who as a nation have always known how to harness time to your purposes and necessities should realize that in all your great history there never was a day of which every minute and every second counted more than it counts to-day in this world struggle. I attach no great weight to the warnings which are given to us of the great German menace which is preparing upon the western front. My experience of this truthful people has been that when they are preparing aggressive movements on any one frontier they do not advertise it in the Swiss press. I do not know whether it be so or not, and I am not here to tell you, the descendants and brothers and comrades of those who barred the road to the Channel ports, the British troops in 1914, or the brilliant soldiers of France who wrote in letters of blood on the gates of Verdun, "You shall not pass." I am not here to tell you that the men to whom they have bequeathed these imperishable names will be unable to deny the entry across those lines in the year in which we are now fighting. I do not say it and I do not believe it, but send your troops over as fast as American enterprise can bring them there, for they are needed for the encouragement of the men who have bled and suffered there for three and a half years. Every American uniform seen in France brings a precious message of encouragement and solace to mothers who have lost their sons and to wives who have lost their husbands. I remember in the first days of the war I hope it will not be indiscreet at this period to recall it, for much has happened since then, much water has flown under the bridges since then. I remember that a distinguished Frenchman, in speaking to Sir Edward Grey, on those two fateful days in August before the choice of England was finally determined, said, "Send us only the band of the Grenadier Guards, but send them at least," and then every Frenchman can say, "That stands for what England can do." Every soldier you send stands for what America can do, and brings to stricken allies the knowledge and the visible appreciation of the fact that there is standing side by side with them a mighty race which has never tasted the bitterness of military defeat. It is hard to see that a struggle disfigured by so much vileness, so much cruelty, so much obscenity, can ever bring to civilization any message of hope, however remote, however slight; and yet I believe that even from this horrible struggle we may pluck some message which gives some encouragement even to this stricken generation, at least to our sons and our grandchildren. If there should emerge from this war, and from a victorious war, the lesson to wrongdoers that after all those who mean right in the world are stronger in the last calculation than those who mean wrong in the world, I think that the principal contributors to the success of that doctrine will have been the brilliant Republic of France, which brought to this war great prepared armies, and the two Anglo-Saxon communities which have undertaken amid the very clash of war to improvise amateur and citizen armies; and when that league of nations is formed I do not think that either constitutions framed by lawyers, or disquisitions written by historians will be required, because that treaty and its terms between these great communities which will have suffered and bled together, will need the record of no document, because it will be written deep in letters of blood upon the hearts of three peoples. DELEGATES FROM COUNTY AND LOCAL BAR ASSOCIATIONS REGISTERED AT THE FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING Albany County Bar Association: William P. Rudd... H. LeRoy Austin. William V. R. Erving.. Bronx County Bar Association; Alfred J. Amend.. Joseph P. Hennessy. Charles E. Buchner.. Brooklyn Bar Association: Albany. Albany. Albany. New York. New York. New York. Charles I. Wood... Association of the Bar of the City of of New York: Austen G. Fox.... George W. Wickersham... Gloversville. Catskill. Catskill. Port Washington. Port Washington. New York. New York. William D. Guthrie. New York |