To begin with, I have a word to say to my good friends, the editors, and others who are moved to pity me.  Some people are grieved because they imagine I am in the hands of unprincipled persons who persuade me to adopt unpopular causes and make me the mouthpiece of their propaganda. 

              Now let it be understood once and for all that I do not want their pity: I would not change places with one of them.  I know what I am talking about.  My sources of information are as good and reliable as anybody else's.  I have papers and magazines from England, France, Germany and Austria that I can read myself.  Not all the editors I have met can do that.  Quite a number of them have to take their French and German second hand.  No, I will not depreciate the editors.

                 They are an overworked, misunderstood class.  Let them remember, though, that if I cannot see the fire at the end of their cigarettes, neither can they thread a needle in the dark.  All I ask, gentlemen, is a fair field and no favor.  I have entered the fight against preparedness and against the economic system under which we live.  It is to be a fight to the finish, and I ask no quarter.

               All the machinery of the system has been set in motion.  Above the complaint and din of the protest from the workers is heard the voice of authority.  "Friends," it says, "fellow workmen, patriots: your country is in danger!

           There are foes on all sides on all sides of us.  There is nothing between us and our enemies except the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean.  Look at what has happened to Belgium. 
              
                   Consider the fate of Serbia. Will you murmur about low wages when your country, your very liberties, are in danger?  What are the miseries you endure compared to the humiliation of having a victorious German army sail up the East River?  Quit your grumbling, get busy and prepare to defend your firesides and your flag.  Get an army, get a navy;  be ready to meet the invaders like the loyal-hearted freemen you are. "