Will the American
Nation rise to the chance given to it to prove that its civilization is
a real thing and that its acts measure up with its inherent and
professed Christianity?
I am a profound believer in the great-heartedness of the United States,
and there is not an American of German origin who ought not gladly and
freely give to the relief of people who, unless the world feeds them,
must be the remnant of a nation; and the world in this case is the
United States. She can give most.
The price of one good meal a week for a family in an American home will
keep a Belgian alive for a fortnight.
Probably the United States has 18,000,000 homes. How many of them will
deny themselves a meal for martyred Belgium? The mass of the American
people do not need to deny themselves anything to give to Belgium. The
whole standard of living on the American Continent, in the United States
and Canada, is so much higher than the European standard that if they
lowered the scale by one-tenth just for one six months the Belgium
problem would be solved.
I say to the American people that they cannot conceive what this strain
upon the populations of Europe is at this moment, and, in the cruel
grip of Winter, hundreds of thousands will agonize till death or relief
comes.
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