TO WOODROW WILSON MR. WILSON, your hour has struck. Never before since the dawn of history has such an opportunity been presented to any man such as now is yours. The time has come to begin the federation of the world. The time has come to end international anarchy, where each nation enforces its judgments by its own arms. The time has come to lead the states of earth unto the realm of law. The United States of America is the logical nation to inaugurate this movement for which destiny has now prepared mankind. You are our leader. We wait upon you. Will you act? You can begin by proposing federation with the republics of the American continent. They. will gladly join us. China will enter the world league. At the close of the present conflict the exhausted states of Europe will be eager to come in. The peoples The world is sick of war. groan for deliverance from war. Among all the statesmen of Europe none has the clear word to stay. They can suggest nothing to do, when the existing war is over, but to fall back into the old system of international rivalry, with no arbiter but each nation's own arms. The eyes of humanity are upon you. You can say the word. You can propose now the United States of the World, with one army and one navy, under orders from the World Parliament. While each country retains its full independence, armies shall be disbanded, navies consolidated into one international fleet, and the hideous stupidity of war's destruction forever more be impossible. The tremendous cataclysm in Europe is the collapse of international individualism. There is nothing else to do but to get together. It only needs the right man, the right nation, to commence this. You are the man, this is the nation. This is the biggest idea of all time. Only once in centuries comes the chance for a man to be borne to fame upon the crest of so great crisis. The "tide in the affairs of men" is at its flood. Use it! And your name shall shine as one of the greatest of history. You have done well. The people are with you. But tariff and banking sink into insignificance before this vast issue. It is a cause that will thrill the nation. It will overwhelm all opposition. It will sweep you up to the leadership of the world. And no man will begrudge you your reward. Surely no such opening for a laudable ambition was ever before made to any man. Will you rise to the occasion? At this crisis will you falter? May God give you courage to play the man! Begin now! To-morrow it may be too late. Urge that we spend our $250,000,000 a year not on bellicose and war-breeding isolation, but upon building up the world federa tion. Urge that congress invite all other nations to join us in this, the only possible measure to insure against destruction. Some nation must eventually do this; why not ours? Some time it must be done; why not now? Let us not be a nation of Yankees trying merely to get gain from the earth's distress. We are too great for this. Let us, the young republic, richest of all the nations, our hands untied by complications, go forward as a nation of ideals, whose aim is to help and heal the world. Strike for the iron is hot. Strike for all the world listens. Propose your plan, that the nations get together. It will arouse such enthusiasm as was never known. Every preacher in the land will laud you from his pulpit. Every politician will hasten to ride the rising wave of popular approval. Every woman will bless you. The millions of the old world will look toward you as watchers of the night look to the ascending sun. Your name will stand beside the names of Washington and Lincoln. Are you big enough, wise enough, brave enough, far-sighted enough to do this great deed? You cannot rest upon your laurels. Your successes have already begun to breed that discontent that is the price any man pays for success. You need a new issue. Here it is. None such was ever known. Let the United States of America come out as the proposer and leader of the world fed |