e possessed
by it, and, following it in the spirit of Him who cried, "I was
not disobedient to the Heavenly vision," they went forth
proclaiming it to the world, knowing that misunderstanding,
misrepresentation and persecution would combine to make the task
difficult. It was not that they sought persecution but that they
loved justice and freedom more than escape from it--these
pioneers of the greatest political reform which history recounts.
Year after year the task has been carried forward until the time
has come when "new occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient
good uncouth," and the idealist and the reformer are supplanted
in our movement by the politician. Our cause has passed beyond
the stage of academic discussion and has entered the realm of
practical politics. The time has come when our organized
machinery must be political in its character and work along
political lines directed by political leaders....

The United States is looked upon as being the most powerful
neutral nation, which with its high human ideal is the best
equipped to present its good offices in mediation between the
warring nations of the East, but is this true? What better
preparation could it make than by removing from within its own
borders the very cause which led to the present barbarous
conditions across the sea?... How can the United States, in any
spirit of a truly great nation, offer its services as mediator
when it is following the same line of action towards its own
people? How can it plead for justice in the East when it denies
this to its own women? How can it claim that written agreements
between nations are binding when it violates the fundamental
principles of its own National Constitution which declare that
"the right of the citizen to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or any State," and for forty-five years
Congress has turned a deaf ear to the appeal of our own citizens
for protection under this law? Is it true that the United States
Constitution too is but a "scrap of paper" to be repudiated at
will? If, as a mediator of justice, we hold out our hands to lift
other nations from the abyss into which injustice has plunged
them, they must be clean hands. Our words must ring true....

Many appeals will be made to