Chapter I: Front Matter

Note: Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive. See
https://archive.org/details/americaworldwar01roos

AMERICA AND THE WORLD WAR

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BOOKS BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS.
Illustrated. Large 8vo $3.50 _net_

LIFE-HISTORIES OF AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS.
With Edmund Heller. Illustrated. 2 vols. Large 8vo $10.00 _net_

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS. An account of the African
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Illustrated. Large 8vo $4.00 _net_

OUTDOOR PASTIMES OF AN AMERICAN HUNTER.
New Edition. Illustrated. 8vo $3.00 _net_

HISTORY AS LITERATURE and Other Essays. 12mo $1.50 _net_

OLIVER CROMWELL. Illustrated. 8vo $2.00 _net_

THE ROUGH RIDERS. Illustrated. 8vo $1.50 _net_

THE ROOSEVELT BOOK. Selections from the Writings
of Theodore Roosevelt. 16mo 50 cents _net_

AMERICA AND THE WORLD WAR. 12mo 75 cents _net_

THE ELKHORN EDITION. Complete Works of Theodore Roosevelt. 26
volumes. Illustrated. 8vo. Sold by subscription.

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AMERICA AND THE WORLD WAR

by

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

New York Charles Scribner’S Sons 1915

Copyright, 1915, by Charles Scribner’S Sons

Published January, 1915

PRAYER FOR PEACE

Now these were visions in the night of war:

I prayed for peace; God, answering my prayer,
Sent down a grievous plague on humankind,
A black and tumorous plague that softly slew
Till nations and their armies were no more--
And there was perfect peace ...
But I awoke, wroth with high God and prayer.

I prayed for peace; God, answering my prayer,
Decreed the Truce of Life:--Wings in the sky
Fluttered and fell; the quick, bright ocean things
Sank to the ooze; the footprints in the woods
Vanished; the freed brute from the abattoir
Starved on green pastures; and within the blood
The death-work at the root of living ceased;
And men gnawed clods and stones, blasphemed and died--
And there was perfect peace ...
But I awoke, wroth with high God and prayer.

I prayed for peace; God, answering my prayer,
Bowed the free neck beneath a yoke of steel,
Dumbed the free voice that springs in lyric speech,
Killed the free art that glows on all mankind,
And made one iron nation lord of earth,
Which in the monstrous matrix of its will
Moulded a spawn of slaves. There was One Might--
And there was perfect peace ...
But I awoke, wroth with high God and prayer.

I prayed for peace; God, answering my prayer,
Palsied all flesh with bitter fear of death.
The shuddering slayers fled to town and field
Beset with carrion visions, foul decay.
And sickening taints of air that made the earth
One charnel of the shrivelled lines of war.
And through all flesh that omnipresent fear
Became the strangling fingers of a hand
That choked aspiring thought and brave belief
And love of loveliness and selfless deed
Till flesh was all, flesh wallowing, styed in fear,
In festering fear that stank beyond the stars--
And there was perfect peace ...
But I awoke, wroth with high God and prayer.

I prayed for peace; God, answering my prayer,
Spake very softly of forgotten things,
Spake very softly old remembered words
Sweet as young starlight. Rose to heaven again
The mystic challenge of the Nazarene,
That deathless affirmation:--Man in God
And God in man willing the God to be ...
And there was war and peace, and peace and war,
Full year and lean, joy, anguish, life and death,
Doing their work on the evolving soul,
The soul of man in God and God in man.
For death is nothing in the sum of things,
And life is nothing in the sum of things,
And flesh is nothing in the sum of things,
But man in God is all and God in man,
Will merged in will, love immanent in love,
Moving through visioned vistas to one goal--
The goal of man in God and God in man,
And of all life in God and God in life--
The far fruition of our earthly prayer,
“Thy will be done!” ... There is no other peace!

WILLIAM SAMUEL JOHNSON.