that without tarnishing true honor, endangering
civilization present and to come, and ruining all hope of future
tranquillity, my country could not have refused to take up arms for the
defense of Belgium's outraged neutrality, solemnly guaranteed by herself
and France.

I believe, and claim in proof, the trend of events and of national
character during the last century, that in democracy alone lies any
coherent hope of progressive civilization or any chance of lasting peace
in Europe, or the world.

I believe that this democratic principle, however imperfectly developed,
has so worked in France, in England, in the United States, that these
countries are already nearly safe from inclination to aggress, or to
subdue other nationalities.

And I believe that while there remain autocratic Governments basing
themselves on militarism, bitterly hostile to the democratic principle,
Europe will never be free of the surcharge of swollen armaments, the
nightmare menace of wars like this--the paralysis that creeps on
civilizations which adore the god of force.

And so I hold that, without betrayal of trusteeship, without shirking
the elementary defense of beliefs coiled within its fibre, or beliefs
vital to the future welfare of all men, my country could not stand by
and see the triumph of autocratic militarism over France, that very
cradle of democracy.

I believe that democratic culture spreads from west to east, that only
by maintenance of consolidate democracy in Western Europe can democracy
ever hope to push on and prevail till the Eastern powers have also that
ideal under which alone humanity can flourish.

And so I hold that my country is justified at this juncture in its
alliance with the autocratic power of Russia, whose people will never
know freedom till her borders are joined to the borders of democracy.

I do not believe that jealous, frightened jingoism has ever been more
than the dirty fringe of England's peace-loving temper, and I profess my
sacred faith that my country has gone to war at last, not from fear, not
from hope of aggrandizement, but because she must--for honor, for
democracy, and for the future of mankind.

*Hard Blows, Not Hard Words*

*By Jerome K. Jerome.*

*From The London Daily News.*

In one of Shaw's plays--I think it is "Superman"--one of the characters
hints, toward the end of the last act, that the hero is a gentleman
somewhat prone to talking. The hero admits it, but excu