ower of their
own country; they cannot visualize the power of the enemy. I have been
accounted as a pessimist among my friends in thinking the war would not
be over before Christmas. I have always been convinced that the result
is inevitably a triumph for this country. I have also been convinced
that that result will not be secured without a prolonged struggle. I
will tell you why. I shall do so not in order to indulge in vain and
idle surmises as to the duration of the war, but in order to bring home
to my countrymen what they are confronted with, so as to insure that
they will leave nothing which is at their command undone in order, not
merely to secure a triumph, but to secure it at the speediest possible
moment. It is in their power to do so. It is also in their power, by
neglect, by sloth, by heedlessness, to prolong their country's agony,
and maybe to endanger at least the completeness of its triumphs. This is
what I have come to talk to you about this afternoon, for it is a work
of urgent necessity in the cause of human freedom, and I make no apology
for discussing on a Sunday the best means of insuring human liberty.
[Cheers.]

I will give you first of all my reasons for coming to the conclusion
that after this struggle victory must wait on our banners if we properly
utilize our resources and opportunities. The natural resources of the
allied countries are overwhelmingly greater than those of their enemies.
In the man capable of bearing arms, in the financial and economic
resources of these countries, in their accessibility to the markets of
the world through the command of the sea for the purpose of obtaining
material and munitions--all these are preponderatingly in favor of the
allied countries. But there is a greater reason than all these. Beyond
all is the moral strength of our cause, and that counts in a struggle
which involves sacrifices, suffering, and privation for all those
engaged in it. A nation cannot endure to the end that has on its soul
the crimes of Belgium. [Loud cheers.] The allied powers have at their
disposal more than twice the number of men which their enemies can
command. You may ask me why are not those overwhelming forces put into
the field at once and this terrible war brought to a triumphant
conclusion at the earliest possible moment. In the answer to that
question lies the cause of the war. The reason why Germany declared war
is in the answer to that question.

In the old days when