"
This was the keynote of a speech by ex-President Taft at the celebration
of the fiftieth anniversary of the Union League's occupancy of the
historic home which it occupies in this city.
"Is war the only method of making a nation accountable? Let us look into
our own history. England connived at the fitting out of armed vessels,
to prey on our commerce, to attack our navy, and to kill our sailors. We
protested, and what did we do then? We held her strictly accountable in
the Geneva Conference. Was not our honor as much preserved by this
method as it would have been had we declared war?
"I agree that the inhumanity of the circumstances in the case now
presses us on, but in the heat of even just indignation is this the best
time to act, when action involves such momentous consequences and means
untold loss of life and treasure? There are things worse than war, but
delay, due to calm deliberation, cannot change the situation or minimize
the effect of what we finally conclude to do.
"With the present condition of the war in Europe, our action, if it is
to be extreme, will not lose efficiency by giving time to the people,
whose war it will be, to know what they are facing.
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