emembered to the damage of some important cause
later on.

"There are reasons why my position is, perhaps, more difficult than that
of some others. Talking is often a hazardous practice, and never more so
than now.

"The World is at crossroads, and everything may depend upon the United
States, which has been thrust by events into a unique position of moral
leadership. Whether the march of the future is to be to the right or to
the left, uphill or down, after the war is over, may well depend upon
the course this nation shall then take, and upon the influence which it
shall exercise.

"If we keep our heads clear there are two things that we can bring
insistently to the attention of Europe--each of vast import at such a
time as that which will follow the ending of this war.

"The first of these is the fact that race antagonisms die away and
disappear under the influence of liberal and enlightened political
institutions. This has been proved in the United States.

"We have huge Celtic, Latin, Teutonic and Slavic populations all living
here at peace and in harmony; and, as years pass, they tend to merge,
creating new and homogeneous types. The Old World antagonisms have
become memories. This proves that such antagonisms are not mysterious
attributes of geography or climate, but that they are the outgrowth
principally of social and political conditions. Here a man can do about
what he likes, so long as he does not violate the law; he may pray as he
pleases or not at all, and he may speak any language that he chooses.

"The United States is itself proof that most of the contentions of
Europeans as to race antagonisms are ill-founded. We have demonstrated
that racial antagonisms need not necessarily become the basis of
permanent hatreds and an excuse for war."

Hyphens Are Going.

"If human beings are given the chance they will make the most of
themselves, and, by living happily--which means by living at peace--they
will avoid conflict. The hyphen tends to disappear from American
terminology. The German-American, the Italio-American, the
Irish-American all become Americans.

"So, by and large, our institutions have proved their capacity to
amalgamate and to set free every type of human being which thus far has
come under our flag. There is in this a lesson which may well be taken
seriously to heart by the leaders of opinion in Europe when this war
ends.

"The second thing which we may press, with propriety, upon