nce
against the present war risks.

I have spoken of our commerce and of the legitimate errands of our
people on the seas, but you will not be misled as to my main
thought--the thought that lies beneath these phrases and gives them
dignity and weight. It is not of material interest merely that we are
thinking. It is, rather, of fundamental human rights, chief of all the
rights of life itself.

[Sidenote: To protect the lives of noncombatants.]

I am thinking not only of the right of Americans to go and come about
their proper business by way of the sea, but also of something much
deeper, much more fundamental than that. I am thinking of those rights
of humanity without which there is no civilization. My theme is of those
great principles of compassion and of protection which mankind has
sought to throw about human lives, the lives of noncombatants, the lives
of men who are peacefully at work keeping the industrial processes of
the world quick and vital, the lives of women and children and of those
who supply the labor which ministers to their sustenance. We are
speaking of no selfish material rights, but of rights which our hearts
support and whose foundation is that righteous passion for justice upon
which all law, all structures alike of family, of State, and of mankind
must rest, as upon the ultimate base of our existence and our liberty.

I cannot imagine any man with American principles at his heart
hesitating to defend these things.

HOW THE WAR CAME TO AMERICA

OFFICIAL ACCOUNT

[Sidenote: The Monroe Doctrine a warning to the old world.]

In the years when the Republic was still struggling for existence, in
the face of threatened encroachments by hostile monarchies over the sea,
in order to make the New World safe for democracy our forefathers
established here the policy that soon came to be known as the Monroe
Doctrine. Warning the Old World not to interfere in the political life
of the New, our Government pledged itself in return to abstain from
interference in the political conflicts of Europe; and history has
vindicated the wisdom of this course. We were then too weak to influence
the destinies of Europe, and it was vital to mankind that this first
great experiment in government of and by the people should not be
disturbed by foreign attack.

[Sidenote: Our isolation fast becoming imaginary.]

Reenforced by the experience of our expanding national life, this
doctrine has been ever since t