I'm sorry
I don't want to be an emperor.
That's not my business.
I don't want to rule or conquer anyone.
I should like to help everyone - if possible
Jew, Gentile - black man - white.
We all want to help one another.
Human beings are like that.
We want to live by each other's happiness - not by each other’s misery
We don’t want to hate and despise one another.
In this world there is room for everyone.
And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.
The way of life can be free and beautiful,
but we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls,
has barricaded the world with hate,
has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in.
Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us cynical.
Our cleverness, hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little.
More than machinery we need humanity.
More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.
Without these qualities, life will be violent
and all will be lost…
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together.
The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men
cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all.
Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world
millions of despairing men, women, and little children
victims of a system that makes men torture
and imprison innocent people.
To those who can hear me, I say
do not despair.
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed
the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress.
The hate of men will pass
and dictators die
and the power they took from the people
will return to the people.
And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
Soldiers! don’t give yourselves to brutes
men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives
tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel!
Who drill you - diet you
treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder.
Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men
machine men with machine minds and machine hearts!
You are not machines!
You are not cattle!
You are men!
You have the love of humanity in your hearts!
You don’t hate!
Only the unloved hate
the unloved and the unnatural!
Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery!
Fight for liberty!
In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written:
“the Kingdom of God is within man”
not one man nor a group of men
but in all men! In you!
You, the people have the power
the power to create machines
The power to create happiness!
You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful
to make this life a wonderful adventure.
Then - in the name of democracy
let us use that power - let us all unite!
Let us fight for a new world
a decent world that will give men a chance to work
that will give youth a future and old age a security.
By the promise of these things
brutes have risen to power.
But they lie!
They do not fulfil that promise.
They never will!
Dictators free themselves
but they enslave the people!
Now let us fight to fulfil that promise!
Let us fight to free the world
to do away with national barriers
to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance.
Let us fight for a world of reason
a world where science and progress
will lead to all men’s happiness.
Soldiers! in the name of democracy,
let us all unite!