The story of the great war . so provoked us to defend ourselves; the sec-ond is, that we made war for an ideal and not for nationalor material profit of any kind. I ought, perhaps, to makeit clear that we did fight for national profit^ which meantthat we fought to keep and exercise our countrys libertyof life and action. It was more a privilege than a profit,however, because it was something we already had and didnot want to lose. There was no material ambition inhaving this purpose because it was an ideal one, and wewere willing to share the fruits of it with all the had nothing
The story of the great war . so provoked us to defend ourselves; the sec-ond is, that we made war for an ideal and not for nationalor material profit of any kind. I ought, perhaps, to makeit clear that we did fight for national profit^ which meantthat we fought to keep and exercise our countrys libertyof life and action. It was more a privilege than a profit,however, because it was something we already had and didnot want to lose. There was no material ambition inhaving this purpose because it was an ideal one, and wewere willing to share the fruits of it with all the had nothing that we wanted to take away fromher which was once ours, or that we wished to weakenbecause it threatened our supremacy in certain directions,like a colony or a navy. She was possessed of an immoraland uncivilized idea, and that we wished to destroy; theidea of militarism which was a poison to other nations andtheir freedom. As long as this poison was in her posses-sion civilization would remain unhealthy with fear and .86. STORY OF THE UNITED STATES 87 worry and nervous watchfulness lest she should suddenly,and in the dark, force it to the lips of mankind. Wewished to get rid of this poison not merely for ourselvesalone but for all the other nations who were nearer to herhand than we. As far away as we were from her brutalfingers, we felt them, through her submarines, creeping,creeping slowly through the dark up to our throats, andat a time too when we acted with all fairness and im-partiality towards her; we simply were compelled in self-defense to push those fingers away before they throttledus. So we went to war to save our national life, and thelives of other nations. And we asked for no reward exceptthis salvation. Much of what happened before April 6, 1917, will beforgotten, or recalled from the dusty records of the gov-ernment to guide historians in their arguments. Thenotes that passed between Washington and Berlin in con-troversy over the illegal attacks of the Germa
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