after attending divine service in their respective churches, invoking the blessing of Jesus of Nazareth upon their hellish designs. Why? What had the Poles done? What quarrel had they with anybody? "Busy as the devil is, not the slightest!" Winter reigns on Poland's bleak fields. Lack of food and high prices and paucity of the means of transportation grow daily worse. Famine and disease are king and queen of this desolated realm. In the colossal tempest of bloodshed and violence in Europe the corpse of Poland rises like the spectre of the most monstrous of human tragedies. Thursday, January 28, 1915. AMERICA'S PLACE IN HISTORY "THERE is something distinctive that America has to contribute to the world's spiritual treasury," says Rabbi Gorfinkle of Sinai Temple, Mount Vernon, N. Y. "Ancient Israel gave religions to the world; Greece contributed art and a sense of the beautiful; Rome's influence in the realms of law has been universally felt; English genius has expressed itself in the form of parliamentary government; and now the world needs peace.' Let us make this admirable list a little more conclusive, and drive it home. The world needs peace, but most of all the world needs to SEE-to see the only way in which peace is possible. It is America's function to bring about some practical form of world government. At present there is none. We have only world anarchy, each nation its own judge, jury, and policeman. Out of this can only come war after war. Anarchy is government by everybody; law is government by delegated authority. There have been but two principles of world government, empire and federation. Empire was tried out by Alexander, Cæsar, Charlemagne, Napoleon. It is now being tried by Germany, England, and Russia. It is utterly impractical. It always falls by its own weight. Empire means for one nation to conquer all the others. Federation means that there shall be no conquest; each country is to mind its own business, and disputes between them shall be settled by some central, representative body. America's history has been one long experiment in federation. The original thirteen colonies, after much confusion, were brought together. There is only one army, that of the United States, and one navy. No Ohio army or Virginia army is allowed. Force is concentrated behind the delegated government at Washington. The civil war was not a breakdown of this idea. It was a supreme test of the idea, and was brought to a successful conclusion. It settled forever the principle of federation. No better model of world government could be found than this American Union. We have worked it out, fought for it, cemented it; it is forever unbreakable. That the nations of Europe and Asia speak different languages and have different customs need not interfere with federation, as each land is to be left absolutely alone in its internal affairs, only being compelled by world force to adjudicate international differences by a court of law and not by war. When will America arise to this, its mission to earth? When shall we get a president who will realize his greatest policy to be the advocacy of world government? When shall we secure a congress with vision enough to propose some plan of workable union with other nations, and make this issue paramount? O men in high places, get out of the wallow of partisanship! Destiny has set before you an open door. All the streams of history have converged upon this day; will you falter or take the tide at its flood? The eyes of all humanity are upon you. Almighty God is waiting for you. The way open before you. is Realize the vision of John Milton: "Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after |