Lincoln, when stumping the country for the Presidency, said, " No nation can exist one-half free and one-half slave." He was right. I apply that saying to the world. We do not live in two worlds ; we live in one world. Oceans no longer separate nations they connect them. The world cannot exist one-half armed and one-half unarmed. All must be equally armed, or all equally unarmed (preferably the latter) the one-half armed will enslave the half unarmed. The unarmed half cannot oppose the greed and ambition of the armed Empire, and will go down in suffering and misery.

            One of the fundamental duties of a Government is to know what other Governments are doing and are preparing to do, and not be themselves " surprised " and " unprepared " to defend their liberty.

            That is the danger to the best form of Government that has ever been devised, viz., Republican- a free Republic. History for 5,000 years shows us that no free Republic can continue alongside of an armed Empire. Despotism has more potential military force than a free Republic. The Republic goes under. The only hope for the Republic of France and the democracy of England is that both to-day have changed to Dictatorships. Democracy cannot wage war successfully against a military Empire. The result of the present war will depend on whether the Dictatorships have come in time and with sufficient energy to take charge of unprepared and unorganised countries against an organised Absolute Monarchy. What makes all peaceful neutrals hope and pray for the Allies' success is the knowledge that at the end of a successful war the Governments will revert to the people, and that free Republican and democratic principles will revive and prevail. We know this from the character of the peoples and their history.

            There is a subconsciousness in people ; this attribute leads them to conclusions ; it springs overnight, it is unexplainable ; I believe it to be quite different from a reasoning process. It makes public opinion. Once public opinion is formed it is difficult to change it. This subconsciousness in the American people sprang overnight to the sympathetic side of England and France; the ground thus prepared was receptive ; Belgium, and German methods, fanned the American feeling ; there are no neutrals individually in America to-day. No one's feelings can be neutral ; the Government is- must be for the present- that is politics. I have read many explanations by America's great men of why America's sympathies are with the Allies.

            The explanations are varied, almost as varied as the number of writers. None of them satisfies my mind. I attribute it to that subconsciousness which, without reasoning, unerringly impresses the people with the fear, perhaps even knowledge, that freedom is at stake for the world.

            After untold centuries of suffering, poverty, and deprivation of human rights, the people struggled up-ward to liberty, freedom, and equality in the democracy of America, England, and France. The promised goal was in sight ; it had arrived in those three countries. The subconscious instinct of the people rightly jumped to the conclusion that the final great battle for freedom had commenced. They had hoped and believed that freedom and equality had been achieved, that they could rest from further struggle for those ends, and devote themselves to the social aims of improving the lot of mankind by raising the standard of life.

            In the midst of working out these social problems for which civilisation seemed ready, the people refused to take the necessity for arming seriously. They had had enough of struggle, strife, and war. Armament was not popular, any aspirant for political honours or advancement lost votes if he advocated it. It required a strong man to oppose public opinion, and one by one politicians of all parties ceased to do it. The peaceful democracies of the world were therefore unprepared, unready, as the masses of the world have always been unprepared, and this is the cause of their having always been enslaved. The democracies of Europe have been suddenly and rudely awakened, they have gone back to the ranks, they have had to go, and fight for all they have achieved, hoping it is the last fight.

            The American people have not reasoned this all out ; but they have a subconsciousness of it, hence it is their sympathies are with the Allies, without being able in words to formulate articulate reasons. They are far away ; that 3,O00 miles of water waste which all of them or their ancestors have crossed is, in their minds, a great and sufficient barrier from old-world dominion or influence. And so it was in the days of Washington, when he gave the country the sound advice against entangling alliances or interference in European politics ! Sailing ships, slow mails, a minimum of foreign commerce, a nearly self-contained sufficiency for all wants. There were two worlds. America was living in one of them, far removed from the congested troubles of Europe which the inhabitants of America had escaped from. But times have changed. Science has changed the world into one world. What affects one country affects all countries ; not next week, next month, next year, but within the hour. The American people have a subconsciousness of this, but they don't know it. They don't yet know they have more than sympathy for the Allies. They don't yet know that if the Allies lose, America's day of trial will come. It has been so stated many times. It is not believed. People find it difficult to believe what they don't want to believe ; it generally ends in their not believing it. If the number of people were as intelligent and far-seeing as we sometimes like to believe them to be, there would not have been despotism in the world for the last 5,000 years. During all that period it is only 150 years since freedom has gained a foothold- this war indicates it is thus far only a foothold.

End of Opinion 4

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Adelbert Henry Alden