Democracy Today
An American Interpretation (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Democracy Today: An American Interpretation<br><br>The addresses which have been brought together in this little volume were carried across the Atlantic, since there was not time in which to write the promised introductory word before the journey was begun. I made notes along the way but it was not till I was delayed for many hours not far from the Western Front, where I could see the constant flashing in the sky above the place of the supreme struggle, that I could make a beginning of writing anything in preface to these august utterances which cry across our whole national history and especially out of its most critical hours and darkest nights. It was there that the very principles for whose maintenance Washington, Webster, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Wilson spoke, were being fought for in the most important and critical conflict in the world's history. The flashes in the sky seemed at first but "heat lightning" such as I had seen hundreds of times in the prairie skies of the Mississippi Valley, and as the train waited silently in the midst of the fields a nightingale began to sing whose voice was heard "in ancient days by Emperor and clown" and still sings on "the selfsame song that found a path through the heart of Ruth." But no pacifistic interpretation of the light in the skies should deceive our children and youth; and no singing in groves of literature cause to "fade, far away" the land "where but to think is to be full of sorrow."<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.