CHAPTER XXI
THE AWAKENING OF AMERICA
There followed dark days for America. Washington was taken by the enemy,but not until our important prisoners, the Crown Prince and vonHindenburg, had been hurried to Chicago. Baltimore was taken. Everythingfrom Maine to Florida and all the Gulf ports were taken.
Add to this a widespread spirit of disorder and disunion, strikes andrioting in many cities, dynamite outrages, violent addresses ofdemagogues and labour leaders, pleas for peace at any price by misguidedfanatics who were ready to reap the whirlwind they had sown. These weredays when men of brain and courage, patriots of the nation with thespirit of '76 in them, almost despaired of the future.
Through all this storm and darkness, amid dissension and violence, oneman stood firm for the right, one wise big-souled man, the President ofthe United States. In a clamour of tongues he heard the still small voicewithin and laboured prodigiously to build up unity and save the nation.Like Lincoln, he was loved and honoured even by his enemies.
It was my privilege to hear the great speech which the President of theUnited States delivered in Chicago, November 29, 1921, a date whichTheodore Roosevelt has called the most memorable in American history. Theimmense auditorium on the lake front, where once were the MichiganCentral tracks, was packed to suffocation. It is estimated that 40,000men and women, representing every state and organisation in the Union,heard this impassioned appeal for the nation, that will live in Americanhistory along with Lincoln's Gettysburg address.
The President spoke first and did not remain to hear the other orators,as he was leaving for Milwaukee, where he hoped to relieve a dangerous,almost a revolutionary situation. He had been urged not to set foot inthis breeding place of sedition, but he replied that the citizens ofMilwaukee were his fellow countrymen, his brothers. They were dear tohim. They needed him. And he would not fail them.
In spite of this stirring cry from the heart, the audience seemed butmildly affected and allowed the President to depart with only perfunctoryapplause. There was no sign of success for his plea that the nation rouseitself from its lethargy and send its sons unselfishly in voluntaryenlistment to drive the enemy from our shores. And there were resentfulmurmurs when the President warned his hearers that compulsory militaryservice might be inevitable.
"Why shall the poor give their lives to save the rich?" answered CharlesEdward Russell, speaking for the socialists. "What have the rich everdone for the poor except to exploit them and oppress them? Why should theproletariat worry about the frontiers between nations? It's only aquestion which tyrant has his heel on our necks. No! The labouring men ofAmerica ask you to settle for them and for their children the frontiersbetween poverty and riches. That's what they're ready to fight for, afair division of the products of toil, and, by God, they're going to haveit!"
One feature of the evening was a stirring address by the beautifulCountess of Warwick, prominent in the feminist movement, who had comeover from England to speak for the Women's World Peace Federation.
"Women of America," said the Countess, "I appeal to you to save thisnation from further horrors of bloodshed. Rise up in the might of yourlove and your womanhood and end this wholesale murder. Remember the greatwar in Europe! What did it accomplish? Nothing except to fill millions ofgraves with brave sons and beloved husbands. Nothing except to darkenmillions of homes with sorrow. Nothing except to spread ruin anddesolation everywhere. Are you going to allow this ghastly business to berepeated here?
"Women of America, I bring you greetings from the women of England, thewomen of France, the women of Germany, who have joined this greatpacifist movement and whose voices sounding by millions can no longer bestifled. Let the men hear and heed our cry. We say to them: 'Stop! Ourrights on this earth equal yours. We gave you birth, we fed you at thebreast, we guarded your tender years, and we notify you now that youshall no longer kill and maim our husbands, our sons, our fathers, ourbrothers, our lovers. It is in the power of women to drive war's hellfrom the earth and, whatever the cost, we are going to do it.'"
"No! No!" came a tumult of cries from all parts of the hall.
"We believe in fighting to the last for our national existence,"cried Mrs. John A. Logan, waving her hand, whereupon hundreds ofwomen patriots, Daughters of the American Revolution, suffrage andanti-suffrage leaders, members of the Navy League, Red Cross workers,sprang to their feet and screamed their enthusiasm for righteous war.
Among these I recognised Mrs. John A. Logan, Miss Mabel Boardman, Mrs.Lindon Bates, Mrs. Mary S. Lockwood, Mrs. Seymour L. Cromwell, Miss AliceHill Chittenden, Mrs. Oliver Herford, Mrs. Hobart Chatfield-Taylor, Mrs.John Temple Graves, Mrs. Edwin Gould, Mrs. George Dewey, Mrs. WilliamCumming Story, Mrs. George Harvey, Mrs. Thomas A. Edison, Mrs. William C.Potter, Miss Marie Van Vorst, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, Mrs. George J. Gould,Mrs. T. J. Oakley Rhinelander, Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt, Mrs. John JacobAstor, Mrs. Peter Cooper Hewitt, Mrs. M. Orme Wilson, Mrs. Simon Baruch,Mrs. Oliver Herford, Mrs. Wm. Reynolds Brown, and Mrs. Douglas Robinson.
When this storm had subsided, Henry Ford rose to renew the pacifistattack.
"It shocks and grieves me," he began, "to find American women openlyadvocating the killing of human beings."
"Where would your business be," yelled a voice in the gallery, "if GeorgeWashington hadn't fought the War of the Revolution?"
This sally called forth such frantic cheers that Mr. Ford was unable tomake himself heard and sat down in confusion.
Other speakers were Jane Addams, Hudson Maxim, Bernard Ridder and WilliamJennings Bryan. The audience sat listless as the old arguments andrecriminations, the old facts and fallacies, were laid before them. Likethe nation, they seemed plunged in a stupor of indifference. They wereasleep.
Then suddenly fell the bomb from heaven. It was during the mild applausefollowing Mr. Bryan's pacifist appeal, that I had a premonition of somemomentous happening. I was in the press gallery quite near to TheodoreRoosevelt, the next speaker, who was seated at the end of the platform,busy with his notes, when a messenger came out from behind the stage andhanded the Colonel a telegram. As he read it I saw a startling change.Roosevelt put aside his notes and a strange tense look came into his eyesand, presently, when he rose to speak, I saw that his usually ruddy facewas ashen grey.
As Roosevelt rose, another messenger thrust a wet, ink-stained newspaperinto his hand.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he began, and in his first words there was asense of impending danger, "for reasons of the utmost importance I shallnot deliver the speech that I have prepared. I have a brief message, avery grave message, that will reach your hearts more surely than anywords of mine. The deliberations of this great gathering have been takenout of our hands. We have nothing more to discuss, for Almighty God hasspoken!
"My friends, the great man who was with us but now, the President of theUnited States, has been assassinated."
No words can describe the scene that followed. A moment of smitingsilence, then madness, hysteria, women fainting, men clamouring andcursing, and finally a vast upsurging of quickened souls, as the organpealed forth: "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," and forty thousand Americansrose and sang their hearts out.
Then, in a silence of death, Roosevelt spoke again:
"Listen to the last words of the President of the United States: '_TheUnion! The Flag!_' That is what he lived for and died for, that is whathe loved. '_The Union! The Flag!_'
"My friends, they say patriotism is dead in this land. They say we areeaten up with love of money, tainted with a yellow streak that makes usafraid to fight. It's a lie! I am ready to give every dollar I have inthe world to help save this nation and it's the same with you men. Am Iright?"
A roar of shouts and hysterical yells shook the building.
"I am sixty years old, but I'll fight in the trenches with my four sonsbeside me and you men will do the same. Am I right?"
Again came a roar that could be heard across Chicago.
"We all make mistakes. I do nothin
g but make mistakes, but I'm sorry.I have said hard things about public men, especially aboutGerman-Americans, but I'm sorry."
With a noble gesture he turned to Bernard Ridder, who sprang to meet him,his eyes blazing with loyalty.
"There are no German-Americans!" shouted Ridder. "We're all Americans!Americans!"
He clasped Roosevelt's hand while the audience shouted its delight.
Quick on his feet came Charles Edward Russell, fired with the sameresistless patriotism.
"There are no more socialists!" he cried. "No more proletariat! We're allAmericans! We'll all fight for the Union and the old flag! _You too!_"
He turned to William Jennings Bryan, who rose slowly and withoutstretched hands faced his adversaries.
"I, too, have made mistakes and I am sorry. I, too, feel the grandeur ofthose noble words spoken by that great patriot who has sent us his lastmessage. I, too, will stand by the flag in this time of peril and willspare neither my life nor my fortune so long as the invader's foot restson the soil of free America."
"Americans!" shouted Roosevelt, the sweat streaming from his face."Look!" He caught Bryan by one arm and Russell by the other. "See how westand together. All the rest is forgotten. Americans! Brothers! On yourfeet everybody! Yell it out to the whole land, to the whole world,America is awake! Thank God, America is awake!"
Conquest of America: A Romance of Disaster and Victory, U.S.A., 1921 A.D. Page 24