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ADDRESS DELD7ERED 
 by 
 
 HOMER S. CUMMINGS 
 
 of 
 STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT 
 
 JUNE 6, 1917 
 
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 3>>& 
 
STENOGRAPHIC REPORT OF AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 HOMER S. CUMMINGS 
 
 Or Stamford^ Connecticut 
 
 Member of the Connecticut State Council of Defense at a 
 
 Meeting of that body held at Hartford 
 
 June 6th, 1917. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: 
 
 I am very regretful that I did not have sufficient notice 
 of this meeting, and what was expected of me, to formulate 
 in my mind suggestions worthy of the occasion. 
 
 It is needless to say that I am proud to be associated 
 with an organization composed of such intelligent and 
 patriotic citizens. It is needless to say that the crisis which 
 confronts our country is so great that we have not yet fully 
 realized its scope, and it is also needless to say that I am 
 glad to do anything in my power in behalf of our country, 
 and for the preservation of the form of liberty, which is 
 characteristic of the life of this continent. We are very slow 
 to anger, we are very reluctant to engage in great contests of 
 arms, but I hope we are willing, if need be, to defend with 
 our lives the principles that our forefathers have made 
 sacred (Applause). We have a record running back for 
 more than two thousand years into the earliest times when 
 men began to aspire to have rights as men ; and we have seen 
 the slow unfolding of that story of freedom through all the 
 
pages of our history. And there are milestones on this way 
 of progress — great monuments of achievement. 
 
 The Great Charter, the Petition of Rights, the Bill of 
 Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution 
 of the United States and a multitude of inspiring docu- 
 ments of liberty, together with the struggles that brought 
 them forth, have made that history illustrious and delivered 
 into our hands a noble heritage. 
 
 We have seen slowly forming through all these ages, 
 through blood and toil and service, a kind of government 
 which has flowered into its completest efficiency on this con- 
 tinent; and, of late years, before this terrible war came, we 
 began to feel that that kind of government was destined to 
 be embraced by all peoples and to prove a blessing to all 
 mankind. We knew that the nations of South America had 
 already based their forms of government upon the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, and we found almost everywhere 
 this moving impulse toward popular government. Some- 
 times it was abortive; sometimes it failed; and sometimes it 
 lapsed into a condition worse than that which preceded it — 
 but still there was that impulse. We saw its effect in China 
 and in Persia. It was active in Finland, and successful in 
 Cuba. We have seen developments into a large form of 
 democracy in Italy and Great Britain; and of late Russia 
 has thrown off its antiquated form of government and is 
 attempting to set up a government based on some sort of 
 freedom and liberty and humanity and equality. (Applause.) 
 Let us not forget that the process of trying to upset auto- 
 cratic government is probably the most laborious process 
 which humanity has ever undertaken. Robert Burns said, 
 "Liberty's a glorious feast" — but it is likewise an intoxicat- 
 ing beverage, and sometimes it mounts to the brain. We 
 have an illustration of this now in Europe. 
 
 Elihu Root, I think it was, said that popular govern- 
 ment is organized self-control. That is the kind of govern- 
 
ment that was founded here ; that is the kind of government 
 that gives each man his fairest and largest opportunity ; and 
 that is fundamentally the thing in which Americans believe. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 I mention these things because they are ideals common 
 to us all, because we thought they would go on and on to a 
 higher culmination and a more complete triumph throughout 
 the world. But they have had their setback. Men, from 
 time to time, complained of the failures of popular govern- 
 ment. They pointed to the case of Germany and called 
 attention to the efficiency which is said to be a characteristic 
 of that Empire. I have sometimes thought we could make 
 the hundred million people of America the most efficient in 
 the world if we closed the doors of Congress, put a muzzle 
 on the press and turned the government over to one strong 
 man. It is quite possible that we would then have the most 
 efficient government in the world, but it would be an intoler- 
 able tyranny and it would bear within itself the germs of 
 ultimate destruction. And so I say, despite all the failures 
 of popular government, despite all the difficulties we are 
 now confronting, there is only one kind of a flag to which I 
 care to give my allegiance, only one kind of flag which stirs 
 my blood, and that is the flag that floats over a free people 
 voluntarily participating in their own governmnet. (Ap- 
 plause. ) 
 
 Now all this I mention because these things today seem 
 to be at hazard; because along with this great democratic 
 development there has been growing up in the center of 
 Europe a contrary policy and one which constitutes a rever- 
 sion to feudalistic forms. I have been thinking lately of Bis- 
 marck and the potent influence he exerted upon the Teutonic 
 peoples. 
 
 Bismarck breathed the breath of life into the dying doc- 
 trine of the divine right of kings; and built up a government 
 of caste supported by military system, the purpose of which 
 
we did not fully understand, the scope of which we are only 
 beginning to realize, and the triumph of which has been so 
 near that those of us who are familiar with the perils of the 
 past and the perils which still confront us, can scarcely con- 
 tain ourselves because of the anxiety which we feel for our 
 country and for our .institutions. 
 
 Now, I think I may say this — for you know the ruth- 
 less things that that government has been capable of, you 
 know to what depths it has brought humanity, you know what 
 it has done in Belgium; you know that, while professing 
 friendship to us through Ambassador Bernstorf, it was 
 secretly plotting to dismember our country and apportion 
 it, in part at least, to Mexico and to Japan — the Imperial 
 German government has lost somehow its hold upon funda- 
 mental morality. Not long ago I was speaking with a dis- 
 tinguished diplomat (I will not give you his name), and the 
 conversation had to do with the torpedoing of hospital ships 
 going on so ruthlessly of late. I learned that there is in 
 England, at the present time, a certain representative of 
 the Imperial House of Germany. His name perhaps you 
 know; if you don't, it is as well not to mention it. When 
 Germany began the destruction of hospital ships, Lloyd 
 George sent a message to the Kaiser and saying, in substance, 
 "We will hold this man hostage against the destruction of 
 hospital ships." The message came back: "We are at war; 
 do with him as you see fit." And then Lloyd George tele- 
 graphed again that on certain of these hospital ships there 
 would be German wounded and that if these ships were de- 
 stroyed it would mean the destruction of German life. The 
 message came back: "We are at war," and the ghastly work 
 went on unabated. This war is absolutely and completely 
 pitiless. The military caste of Germany is striving to main- 
 tain the dynasty and if they can maintain the dynasty they 
 will maintain in this world a standing menace to all free 
 governments. There are more than a million and a half sol- 
 diers in England today who have never gone to the front 
 but are being held in reserve. 
 
It is because, as some authorities aver, there is no means 
 of estimating the extent of the collapse of Russia, no telling 
 how much pressure may be put on the western line, and it 
 may be wiser for England to keep her million and a half men 
 for the defense of her own soil than throw them into a los- 
 ing conflict. But she will throw them into the conflict if we 
 are prepared to render adequate assistance to the other 
 democracies of the world. (Applause.) 
 
 I am not an alarmist. I am only trying to have you 
 sense the situation which confronts us now. This little meet- 
 ing here, presided over so ably by our good friend Bissell, is 
 a significant meeting in the life of Connecticut. There is 
 work to do — work, work, work — for every one of us. We 
 may not all be able to go to the front, but there is work to be 
 done at home — Liberty bonds must be sold, the ranks must 
 be kept filled, the industry and commerce of Connecticut, 
 probably the most important in America, must be kept effec- 
 tive, vigorous, active and useful. These are the things that 
 we can do and these are the things which put so much tax 
 on our funds, our industry, our patriotism, our time; but we 
 have got to give this time and we have got to give intelligent 
 consideration to the things that our country imperatively 
 requires. (Applause.) 
 
 I think the time has come — I pray God the time has come 
 — when Kings and Emperors and potentates and Kaisers 
 shall no longer be able, with the aid of a military caste, to meet 
 in secret to partition the world, to plot against the happi- 
 ness of humanity and to determine the destiny of the human 
 race. (Applause.) The time has come for the free peoples 
 of the world to take counsel together to see how democracy 
 shall be saved to humanity. (Applause.) When we go into 
 this vast conflict we must remember we go in glorious com- 
 pany. 
 
 We rejoice to be with little Belgium, that never in the 
 least degree provoked the assault made upon her and proved 
 
herself heroic beyond all description. When we think of 
 Great Britain we think of that 3,000 miles of unprotected 
 frontier between us and Canada, which shows how self-gov- 
 erning nations can live in peace side by side. We think, 
 too, of Italy that gave Columbus to the world and through 
 Columbus gave America to the world ; and we think of France 
 and what France has meant to humanity, and the costly sacri- 
 fices she has placed upon the altar of freedom. (Applause.) 
 These are our brothers in the common cause of liberty, and 
 when the fight is won, as it will be won, America will have 
 its opportunity to participate in laying the foundations of 
 international peace, so safe, so broad, so deep, so secure that 
 no King or Kaiser will ever vex or disturb them again. 
 (Applause.) 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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