England
Title
England
Creator
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
Identifier
WWP15564
Date
1918 December 28
Description
President Woodrow Wilson speaks about the close friendship between England and America while fighting World War I as allies and into the future.
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
Your unexpected call upon me for a speech reminds me of an amusing incident which once took place near Washington.
As you know, the American Capital is on the Potomac river, and one day a boy was fishing from the end of a raft anchored in the stream a short distance below the city, when the thing happened which very rarely happens on the Potomac river, he got a bite. So excited was he in striving to get the fish out of the water that he lost his balance and fell over into the river. As he was struggling in the water to get back to the raft with the water streaming out of his eyes, nose, mouth and ears, a farmer passing along the bank called out to him: Hello, my boy, how did you come to fall in? Quick as a flash the young fellow called back: I didn't come to fall in, you darn fool, I come to fish! So I didn't come here tonight to make a speech, but in the language of the signs we read on the railroad tracks, I came to Stop, Look and Listen. But since I am on my feet I cannot refrain, as no American or Englishman could, from saying a word of felicitation upon the splendid achievement by which your country and mine have just vindicated the courage of free peoples armed in defense of their freedom, and demonstrated not only that liberty and efficiency can function together, but that great democracies can impose such discipline upon themselves as to turn out a war machine that will outmatch the murderous devices of autocracy. In other words, we have not only made the world safe for democracy, but we have done a greater thing, for we have proven that democracy is safe for the world.
It is a privilege to live in this age. The events of the last five years have been the greatest in all recorded time; and the final triumph of civilization over savagery, the victory of right over might, makes of this day and hour an epoch beside which all history is dimmed.
We are living, we are dwelling
In a grand and awful time,
In an age on ages telling,
To be living is sublime.
Hereafter, in my humble judgment, the history of mankind will be put into two grand divisions only, that before, and that after, this great world conflict.
I am not one of those who believe that without the aid of the United States the cause of the Allies would have been lost. I believe that while the war might have been prolonged, the issue, in the hidden scroll of God, was never for a moment in doubt; and the ultimate defeat of Germany was as certain when the arrogant invaders violated Belgian soil as it was when the cringing puppets of a fugitive emperor came to beg an armistice of General Foch.
But I am one of those who believe that the greatest good that has come out of this war is the bond of deathless friendship, born in a common cause, and dipped in fraternal blood, which shall forever unite the British empire and the Ameirican commonwealth.It is a curious fact that ecxcept for the Boxer uprising in China a few years ago, England and the United States never before, in their separate sovereignties, have fought side by side. We have fought two wars against each other, while in the several controversies which each has had in its own household, or with a third power, the other has often looked on with an unfriendly interest. But now, at last, on land and sea, English and American forces have fought so close together, that the colors of their flags were merged into one banner of the free. Heretofore, the tie that bound us was one language. Hereafter, we shall be one race. All of us must and do hope that this is the last of wars, and that from the waste and ashes of its fields will rise, Phoenix-like, a great covenant of mankind to compose the differences and enforce peace throughout the world. But mutual respect and affection which come from the comradeship of periol and sacrifice, and the consciousness of the same traditions, the same ideals and the same destiny, are safer guaranties of peace than written treaties or leagues of nations. Enngland and the United States now, at last, see each other not through a glass darkly, but face to face.
* * *
As you know, the American Capital is on the Potomac river, and one day a boy was fishing from the end of a raft anchored in the stream a short distance below the city, when the thing happened which very rarely happens on the Potomac river, he got a bite. So excited was he in striving to get the fish out of the water that he lost his balance and fell over into the river. As he was struggling in the water to get back to the raft with the water streaming out of his eyes, nose, mouth and ears, a farmer passing along the bank called out to him: Hello, my boy, how did you come to fall in? Quick as a flash the young fellow called back: I didn't come to fall in, you darn fool, I come to fish! So I didn't come here tonight to make a speech, but in the language of the signs we read on the railroad tracks, I came to Stop, Look and Listen. But since I am on my feet I cannot refrain, as no American or Englishman could, from saying a word of felicitation upon the splendid achievement by which your country and mine have just vindicated the courage of free peoples armed in defense of their freedom, and demonstrated not only that liberty and efficiency can function together, but that great democracies can impose such discipline upon themselves as to turn out a war machine that will outmatch the murderous devices of autocracy. In other words, we have not only made the world safe for democracy, but we have done a greater thing, for we have proven that democracy is safe for the world.
It is a privilege to live in this age. The events of the last five years have been the greatest in all recorded time; and the final triumph of civilization over savagery, the victory of right over might, makes of this day and hour an epoch beside which all history is dimmed.
We are living, we are dwelling
In a grand and awful time,
In an age on ages telling,
To be living is sublime.
Hereafter, in my humble judgment, the history of mankind will be put into two grand divisions only, that before, and that after, this great world conflict.
I am not one of those who believe that without the aid of the United States the cause of the Allies would have been lost. I believe that while the war might have been prolonged, the issue, in the hidden scroll of God, was never for a moment in doubt; and the ultimate defeat of Germany was as certain when the arrogant invaders violated Belgian soil as it was when the cringing puppets of a fugitive emperor came to beg an armistice of General Foch.
But I am one of those who believe that the greatest good that has come out of this war is the bond of deathless friendship, born in a common cause, and dipped in fraternal blood, which shall forever unite the British empire and the Ameirican commonwealth.It is a curious fact that ecxcept for the Boxer uprising in China a few years ago, England and the United States never before, in their separate sovereignties, have fought side by side. We have fought two wars against each other, while in the several controversies which each has had in its own household, or with a third power, the other has often looked on with an unfriendly interest. But now, at last, on land and sea, English and American forces have fought so close together, that the colors of their flags were merged into one banner of the free. Heretofore, the tie that bound us was one language. Hereafter, we shall be one race. All of us must and do hope that this is the last of wars, and that from the waste and ashes of its fields will rise, Phoenix-like, a great covenant of mankind to compose the differences and enforce peace throughout the world. But mutual respect and affection which come from the comradeship of periol and sacrifice, and the consciousness of the same traditions, the same ideals and the same destiny, are safer guaranties of peace than written treaties or leagues of nations. Enngland and the United States now, at last, see each other not through a glass darkly, but face to face.
* * *
Files
Collection
Citation
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924, “England,” 1918 December 28, WWP15564, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.