Muffled Drum

"It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything we are and everything that we have."

Woodrow Wilson's words to Congress, as quietly dramatic and eloquent as the man who spoke them, still ring with sharp urgency, still speak directly to the national conscience. But in a capital preoccupied with another war, there was no official observance last week to mark the day, 50 years ago, on which the United States entered World War I.

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