D 570 
 .15 
 .M17 
 Copy 1 
 
D 570 
 .15 
 .Ml? 
 Copy 1 
 
 ADDRESS BY HON. W. G. McADOO, SECRETARY OF THE 
 
 TREASURY, 
 
 AT MADISON HIGH SCHOOL, 
 MADISON, WIS., OCTOBER 3. 1917. 
 
 Gov. Phillips, Toung ladies, an<l gentlemen : I esteem it a great 
 privilege to meet you and to say a few words to you. It is an 
 unexpected pleasure, because as I go about tlie country on the im- 
 jwrtant mission which the Government has confided to me I find 
 that my fate is wrapped up more with grown people than with 
 young people, and, being an old person myself. I naturally want to 
 get younger, so I am only too glad when I am thrown with the 
 younger element. 
 
 ,\.s I heard that inspiring song you sang a moment ago with such 
 sj)irit and enthusiasm, ni}^ heart swelled aneAv with pride that I an^ 
 an American citizen. " On America," that is the cry ; '' On America," 
 to save not alone America, but civilization in the world. 
 
 VCe hiive a great task before us, 3'oung ladies and young gentlemen. 
 The burden of that task rests upon those who ha^e attained their 
 majority, but they are fighting not alone for themselves and for those 
 Avho are older than they; they are fighting more for you tlian for 
 anybody else. The eyes of a nation must always be to the future, 
 and the future of a nation always rests upon the shoulders, as well 
 as in the spirit, of the young who are coming on. America's fate 
 lies in your hands. "\^liat we transmit to you, you in turn must trans- 
 mit to succeeding generations. It is therefore of essential importance 
 that the spirit of the Nation sliould always be kept at the highe.st 
 elevation, that the ideals of a nation should be of the most superlative 
 character, that America's idealism and America's principles should be 
 transmitted by us untarnished and as pure as they came to us from 
 our noble ancestors whose blood and valor and cburage created this 
 great and free democracy. 
 
 It is because that democracy is imperiled, that civilization itself 
 has been thrown into the balance by the barbarities of one of the 
 greatest and most despotic military powers ever organized upon the 
 face of the earth, that noble America, free America, the quintessence 
 of the spirit of modern democracy, in the face of a challenge from 
 
 17246°— 17 
 
the greatest military despotism of all time, is cr.rrying iforA\arsl \\, 
 confidence and \\-ith absolute certainty of ultimate A'ictory the banner 
 which AAaves over the land of the free and the homes of the brave. 
 
 We want to carry our ideals throughout the world, but while we 
 are doing that we want to make America safe for you, for the young 
 people, for our children and our children's children. We must be 
 animated in this war by the spirit of one of the noblest patriots ever 
 produced an American, who gave utterance to the most immortal i 
 sentiment ever expressed, that splendid patriot of the Revolution, I 
 Nathan Hale, who, when standing in the shadow of an ignominious ^ 
 death, condemned by the enemies of his country'' as a spy, said 
 proudly : " My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my 
 country." That is the sentiment that must pervade America to-day. 
 I know it is the sentiment that does pervade America to-day. I 
 know it is the sentiment and the spirit of every boy and girl in this 
 room. It must be the treasured sentiment of America, the slogan of; 
 its citizenship for all time. If we live up to it, America will be 
 invincible ! 
 
 And let me say to you that America will never enlist in any cause 
 that is not a worthy one. She has never fought except for freedom. 
 In 1776 we went to war w4th Great Britain to achieve our inde- 
 pendence, and we won it after years of terrible struggles and hard- f 
 ships under the heroic Continental Army under the command of that 
 greatest of Americans, George Washington. In 1812 we went to 
 war again — and for what? To secure the freedom of the seas, a 
 right so essential to America's independence and iiational securit}^, 
 so absolutely vital to her prosperity as a people, that we could never \ 
 surrender that right without fighting to the death for it. That is 
 the right that is being challenged in this war by the military despot 
 of Europe, the right of America to the free use of the highways of ] 
 the world. We can never surrender that right. We must fight for ' 
 it if we in America would be safe. We must fight for it if we are 
 going to transmit to you young people unimpaired the heritage of 
 our forefathers. We must fight for it to vindicate the rules of 
 humanity and international law, and while doing that, to restore 
 the light of civilization in the world, a light which the barbarities 
 of the German Kaiser haA^e practically extinguished. In 1861 we 
 went to war again — for what? Again for human freedom. We 
 went to war to settle that issue, and again the side which espoused 
 the cause of human freedom won. In 1898 we went to war again — i 
 for what? Human freedom. We went to war to disenslaA^e op- 
 pressed Cuba. We had no motive but an altruistic one. We did not 
 ask anything from Cuba. We expended American blood and treas- ^ 
 ure to liberate Cuba, and Ave set her up as an independent republic, J 
 and she is an independent republic to-day. The seed we planted in \ 
 
 D. Of D. 
 
 ^PR I 1918 
 
(tliP-Jcasr^vi^ihG Cubans has^Borne fruit; the flower of liberty has 
 since grown to full blossom, because no sooner had America been 
 [drawn into this war against military despotism, the very kind Cuba 
 Iliad suffered from and from which we had rescued her, than valiant, 
 inoble Cuba instantly declared war against the Kaiser and aligned 
 herself with America, the champion of liberty throughout the world. 
 
 Again we are at war — for what? For liberty, for freedom; for 
 the right of the smallest nation equally with the greatest to live its 
 [own life and to have that life determined by the will of its own 
 people; for the freedom of the seas, so that all nations may have 
 unmolested intercourse with each other in the peaceful pursuit of 
 legitimate commerce. Because our liberties have been challenged and 
 our rights as a people have been violated, we are again at war, and 
 again we shall win this war for human freedom and universal de- 
 mocracy. Those are the things for which we fight; those are the 
 things we must accomplish, that we must achieve. 
 
 The greatest sacrifice that any man can make for his country is to 
 give his life for his country. It is the supreme sacrifice. We owe 
 everything to our brave and glorious men who are now being mar- 
 shaled in training camps and prepared for the supreme effort in this 
 war. A duty devolves upon us who remain at home. That duty is to 
 see that those men are supplied with everything that the great heart 
 of America can provide to make them strong in the fight. We must 
 support them no matter what the cost to us. If they are willing to 
 sacrifice their lives upon the battle field for us, are we who stay be- 
 hind unwilling to sacrifice something of our convenience, something 
 of our comfort, to give up something that we enjoy every day, in 
 order that we may give them more for the fight ? No, ten thousand 
 times Xo ! We, the civil population, who stay behind, old and young 
 alike, must devote ourselves daily and hourly to the task of saving, 
 economizing, and sacrificing comfort, convenience, life itself with 
 the same prodigality that our soldiers upon the battle field and our 
 gallant tars upon our battleships are willing to make for us. That is 
 the duty of the hour. 
 
 Every boy and girl in this room can do a noble part. The Boy 
 Scouts and the Girl Scouts of this country have been doing splendid 
 work. Let everyone be animated by the thought that every penny 
 
 you save that you would otherwise spend upon pleasure of any kind ■ 
 
 pleasures of dress or of appetite — everything that you save of that 
 character and put away for the purpose of investing in these bonds 
 of your Government is a direct help to every soldier and sailor who 
 is risking his health and all that is dearest to him in this conflict. 
 You can all do that much. 
 
 There are other things you can do. You can maintain and uphold 
 the American spirit. By your example you can make those who are 
 
less foitmiatcly sitiiate<l than you iniuibe that spirit a-i...! i , 
 part. . 
 
 Oh, my young friends, can you think of what is happening in^ 
 Europe now? As you sit here happy, contented, care fre«, without i 
 anything to disturb your repose or your comfort, can you think of] 
 AA'hat is happening in those desolated homes of Europe, in Belgium, 1 
 in France, the horrors, the blackness of- the night there, without foodi 
 without fuel in the terrible winters through which thej^ must pass, 
 men being blown to atoms by shells, others grievously wounded and 
 being rescued by noble women of the Ked Cross, gallant men driving 
 ambulances into the jaws of death to drag the wounded from the 
 battle jEields and take them to the hospitals Avhere they may receive 
 the ministrations of angels of merc3\ Many may be saved; but J 
 some will come out sightness, armless, legless, or tongueless, and j 
 yet compelled to live ? To live for what ? To live u^wn the satisfac- 
 tion alone that they have sacrificed for liberty and civilization in j 
 the world. The blackness of niglit is upon Europe — brought there 1 
 bv whom? By a militar}'^ autocrat — the Kaiser — Avho brought thi> 
 terrible curse upon mankind. Isn't it a reflection on the civilization i 
 of this day that any one man should have the power to plunge the ' 
 world into this horrible abyss of suffering and disaster ? That i 
 the thing — military autocracy — we have got to destroy, because ■ 
 democracies are incapable of that sort of thing. Where peoples are ) 
 self-governing, where they are free, where they determine their own 
 lives they are incapable of the commission of such colossal crimes. • 
 
 Those stricken people in Europe, in the blackness of three years of 
 night and suffering, with hope almost destroyed, with the talons of j 
 despair clutching at their hearts, are suddenly revived^bj'- what? ) 
 A light, this time in the West, instead of in the East. What is it? \ 
 America — America to the rescue, holding aloft the torch of liberty 
 again, dispelling despair and illuminating the dark recesses of the 
 night and bring the assurance of peace to agonized humanity. That ! 
 is our mission, a glorious mission for old America and young 
 America ; and, by God's help, we shall soon succeed ! 
 
 o 
 
 LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 018 465 834 
 
 WASHINGTON- : CiOVEUXMEN'i I'lUNTING OFFICE : 1017 
 
LIBRARY OF CONf5RPcc 
 
 mmrnm 
 
 018 465 834 3