Current History Volume 4 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ...used for the defense of its supreme national interests. And the Italian people, having overthrown the barriers which had been set up between it and its King, resolutely faced the task before it. It faced with full knowledge and grim determination the tremendous sacrifices of a fierce and lengthy war. History tells us that wars have generally been decreed by the few. This war was decreed by the people. I do not know of any other instance in which a whole nation has realized the need of a war and has forced its representatives to declare it. CHAMPION OF RIGHT I wish that the American people would clearly realize that the Italians have not entered on this war, as some have said, to come to the assistance of the victors. After overcoming internal difficulties of all sorts, we entered the field when the final outcome of the struggle was still uncertain and far off. The Italian people did not desert its allies of thirty years' standing; those allies deserted us secretly, and in a way and for a purpose which amounted to betrayal. The Triple Alliance, the result of political intrigues which caused irreparable injury to Italy, had never been considered by the Central Empires as forming a bond of friendship between them and us, but had always been used by them to exploit Italy economically and politically. Consequently, when Austria acted in flagrant violation of the treaty on which it was based we were no longer bound by it. To protect her very existence, to safeguard her prestige, to preserve those principles in the name of which we reasserted our national existence, and on which the whole of modern civilization is based, Italy has entered the field toldefend the cause of progress threatened by the German desire of universal dominion. And...