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AMERICA AND THE WORLD WAR
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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
[Illustration]
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.
FOREWORD
In the New York _Evening Post_ for September 30, 1814, a correspondent
writes from Washington that on the ruins of the Capitol, which had
just been burned by a small British army, various disgusted patriots
had written sentences which included the following: “Fruits of war
without preparation” and “Mirror of democracy.” A century later, in
December, 1914, the same paper, ardently championing the policy of
national unpreparedness and claiming that democracy was incompatible
with preparedness against war, declared that it was moved to tears by
its pleasure in the similar championship of the same policy contained
in President Wilson’s just-published message to Congress. The message
is for the most part couched in terms of adroit and dexterous, and
usually indirect, suggestion, and carefully avoids downright, or indeed
straight-forward, statement of policy--the meaning being conveyed in
questions and hints, often so veiled and so obscure as to make it
possible to draw contradictory conclusions from the words used. There
are, however, fairly clear statements that we are “not to depend upon
a standing army nor yet upon a reserve army,” nor upon any efficient
system of universal training for our young men, but upon vague and
unformulated plans for encouraging volunteer aid for militia service
by making it “as attractive as possible”! The message contains such
sentences as that the President “hopes” that “some of the finer
passions” of the American people “are in his own heart”; that “dread
of the power of any other nation we are incapable of”; such sentences
as, shall we “be prepared to defend ourselves against attack? We
have always found means to do that, and shall find them whenever it
is necessary,” and “if asked, are you ready to defend yourself? we
reply, most assuredly, to the utmost.” It is difficult for a serious
and patriotic citizen to understand how the President could have
been willing to make such statements as these. Every student even of
elementary American history knows that in our last foreign war with a
formidable opponent, that of 1812, reliance on the principles President
Wilson now advocates brought us to the verge of national ruin and of
the break-up of the Union. The President must know that at that time we
had not “found means” even to defend the capital city in which he was
writing his message. He ought to know that at the present time, thanks
largely to his own actions, we are not “ready to defend ourselves” at
all, not to speak of defending ourselves “to the utmost.” In a state
paper subtle prettiness of phrase does not offset misteaching of the
vital facts of national history.
In 1814 this nation was paying for its folly in having for fourteen
years conducted its foreign policy, and refused to prepare for defense
against possible foreign foes, in accordance with the views of the
ultrapacificists of that day. It behooves us now, in the presence of
a world war even vaster and more terrible than the world war of the
early nineteenth century, to beware of taking the advice of the equally
foolish pacificists of our own day. To follow their advice at the
present time might expose our democracy to far greater disaster than
was brought upon it by its disregard of Washington’s maxim, and its
failure to secure peace by preparing against war, a hundred years ago.
In his message President Wilson has expressed his laudable desire that
this country, naturally through its President, may act as mediator to
bring peace among the great European powers. With this end in view
he, in his message, deprecates our taking any efficient steps to
prepare means for our own defense, lest such action might give a wrong
impression to the great warring powers. Furthermore, in his overanxiety
not to offend the powerful who have done wrong, he scrupulously
refrains from saying one word on behalf of the weak who have suffered
wrong. He makes no allusion to the violation of the Hague conventions
at Belgium’s expense, although this nation had solemnly undertaken to
be a guarantor of those conventions. He makes no protest against the
cruel wrongs Belgium has suffered. He says not one word about the need,
in the interests of true peace, of the only peace worth having, that
steps should be taken to prevent the repetition of such wrongs in the
future.
This is not right. It is not just to the weaker nations of the earth.
It comes perilously near a betrayal of our own interests. In his
laudable anxiety to make himself acceptable as a mediator to England,
and especially to Germany, President Wilson loses sight of the fact
that his first duty is to the United States; and, moreover, desirable
though it is that his conduct should commend him to Germany, to
England, and to the other great contending powers, he should not for
this reason forget the interests of the small nations, and above all of
Belgium, whose gratitude can never mean anything tangible to him or to
us, but which has suffered a wrong that in any peace negotiations it
should be our first duty to see remedied.
In the following chapters, substantially reproduced from articles
contributed to the Wheeler Syndicate and also to _The Outlook_, _The
Independent_, and _Everybody’s_, the attempt is made to draw from the
present lamentable contest certain lessons which it would be well for
our people to learn. Among them are the following:
We, a people akin to and yet different from all the peoples of Europe,
should be equally friendly to all these peoples while they behave well,
should be courteous to and considerate of the rights of each of them,
but should not hesitate to judge each and all of them by their conduct.
The kind of “neutrality” which seeks to preserve “peace” by timidly
refusing to live up to our plighted word and to denounce and take
action against such wrong as that committed in the case of Belgium, is
unworthy of an honorable and powerful people. Dante reserved a special
place of infamy in the inferno for those base angels who dared side
neither with evil nor with good. Peace is ardently to be desired, but
only as the handmaid of righteousness. The only peace of permanent
value is the peace of righteousness. There can be no such peace until
well-behaved, highly civilized small nations are protected from
oppression and subjugation.
National promises, made in treaties, in Hague conventions, and the like
are like the promises of individuals. The sole value of the promise
comes in the performance. Recklessness in making promises is in
practice almost or quite as mischievous and dishonest as indifference
to keeping promises; and this as much in the case of nations as in the
case of individuals. Upright men make few promises, and keep those they
make.
All the actions of the ultrapacificists for a generation past, all
their peace congresses and peace conventions, have amounted to
precisely and exactly nothing in advancing the cause of peace. The
peace societies of the ordinary pacificist type have in the aggregate
failed to accomplish even the smallest amount of good, have done
nothing whatever for peace, and the very small effect they have had
on their own nations has been, on the whole, slightly detrimental.
Although usually they have been too futile to be even detrimental,
their unfortunate tendency has so far been to make good men weak and
to make virtue a matter of derision to strong men. All-inclusive
arbitration treaties of the kind hitherto proposed and enacted are
utterly worthless, are hostile to righteousness and detrimental to
peace. The Americans, within and without Congress, who have opposed the
fortifying of the Panama Canal and the upbuilding of the American navy
have been false to the honor and the interest of the nation and should
be condemned by every high-minded citizen.
In every serious crisis the present Hague conventions and the peace
and arbitration and neutrality treaties of the existing type have
proved not to be worth the paper on which they were written. This
is because no method was provided of securing their enforcement,
of putting force behind the pledge. Peace treaties and arbitration
treaties unbacked by force are not merely useless but mischievous in
any serious crisis.
Treaties must never be recklessly made; improper treaties should be
repudiated long before the need for action under them arises; and all
treaties not thus repudiated in advance should be scrupulously kept.
From the international standpoint the essential thing to do is
effectively to put the combined power of civilization back of the
collective purpose of civilization to secure justice. This can be
achieved only by a world league for the peace of righteousness, which
would guarantee to enforce by the combined strength of all the nations
the decrees of a competent and impartial court against any recalcitrant
and offending nation. Only in this way will treaties become serious
documents.
Such a world league for peace is not now in sight. Until it is created
the prime necessity for each free and liberty-loving nation is to keep
itself in such a state of efficient preparedness as to be able to
defend by its own strength both its honor and its vital interest. The
most important lesson for the United States to learn from the present
war is the vital need that it shall at once take steps thus to prepare.
Preparedness against war does not always avert war or disaster in
war any more than the existence of a fire department, that is, of
preparedness against fire, always averts fire. But it is the only
insurance against war and the only insurance against overwhelming
disgrace and disaster in war. Preparedness usually averts war and
usually prevents disaster in war; and always prevents disgrace in war.
Preparedness, so far from encouraging nations to go to war, has a
marked tendency to diminish the chance of war occurring. Unpreparedness
has not the slightest effect in averting war. Its only effect is
immensely to increase the likelihood of disgrace and disaster in
war. The United States should immediately strengthen its navy and
provide for its steady training in purely military functions; it
should similarly strengthen the regular army and provide a reserve;
and, furthermore, it should provide for all the young men of the
nation military training of the kind practised by the free democracy
of Switzerland. Switzerland is the least “militaristic” and most
democratic of republics, and the best prepared against war. If we
follow her example we will be carrying out the precepts of Washington.
We feel no hostility toward any nation engaged in the present
tremendous struggle. We feel an infinite sadness because of the black
abyss of war into which all these nations have been plunged. We admire
the heroism they have shown. We act in a spirit of warm friendliness
toward all of them, even when obliged to protest against the
wrong-doing of any one of them.
Our country should not shirk its duty to mankind. It can perform this
duty only if it is true to itself. It can be true to itself only by
definitely resolving to take the position of the just man armed; for a
proud and self-respecting nation of freemen must scorn to do wrong to
others and must also scorn tamely to submit to wrong done by others.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
SAGAMORE HILL,
January 1, 1915.
CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD vii
CHAPTER
I. THE DUTY OF SELF-DEFENSE AND OF GOOD CONDUCT TOWARD
OTHERS 1
II. THE BELGIAN TRAGEDY 15
III. UNWISE PEACE TREATIES A MENACE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS 44
IV. THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 60
V. HOW TO STRIVE FOR WORLD PEACE 74
VI. THE PEACE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS 88
VII. AN INTERNATIONAL POSSE COMITATUS 104
VIII. SELF-DEFENSE WITHOUT MILITARISM 128
IX. OUR PEACEMAKER, THE NAVY 156
X. PREPAREDNESS AGAINST WAR 174
XI. UTOPIA OR HELL? 220
XII. SUMMING UP 244
CHAPTER I
THE DUTY OF SELF-DEFENSE AND OF GOOD CONDUCT TOWARD OTHERS
In this country we are both shocked and stunned by the awful cataclysm
which has engulfed civilized Europe. By only a few men was the
possibility of such a wide-spread and hideous disaster even admitted.
Most persons, even after it occurred, felt as if it was unbelievable.
They felt that in what it pleased enthusiasts to speak of as “this age
of enlightenment” it was impossible that primal passion, working hand
in hand with the most modern scientific organization, should loose upon
the world these forces of dread destruction.
In the last week in July the men and women of the populous civilized
countries of Europe were leading their usual ordered lives, busy and
yet soft, lives carried on with comfort and luxury, with appliances
for ease and pleasure such as never before were known, lives led in
a routine which to most people seemed part of the natural order of
things, something which could not be disturbed by shocks such as the
world knew of old. A fortnight later hell yawned under the feet of
these hard-working or pleasure-seeking men and women, and woe smote
them as it smote the peoples we read of in the Old Testament or in the
histories of the Middle Ages. Through the rents in our smiling surface
of civilization the volcanic fires beneath gleamed red in the gloom.
What occurred in Europe is on a giant scale like the disaster to the
_Titanic_. One moment the great ship was speeding across the ocean,
equipped with every device for comfort, safety, and luxury. The men
in her stoke-hold and steerage were more comfortable than the most
luxurious travellers of a century ago. The people in her first-class
cabins enjoyed every luxury that a luxurious city life could demand
and were screened not only from danger but from the least discomfort
or annoyance. Suddenly, in one awful and shattering moment, death
smote the floating host, so busy with work and play. They were in that
moment shot back through immeasurable ages. At one stroke they were
hurled from a life of effortless ease back into elemental disaster;
to disaster in which baseness showed naked, and heroism burned like a
flame of light.
In the face of a calamity so world-wide as the present war, it behooves
us all to keep our heads clear and to read aright the lessons taught
us; for we ourselves may suffer dreadful penalties if we read these
lessons wrong. The temptation always is only to half-learn such a
lesson, for a half-truth is always simple, whereas the whole truth is
very, very difficult. Unfortunately, a half-truth, if applied, may turn
out to be the most dangerous type of falsehood.
Now, our business here in America in the face of this cataclysm is
twofold. In the first place it is imperative that we shall take the
steps necessary in order, by our own strength and wisdom, to safeguard
ourselves against such disaster as has occurred in Europe. Events have
shown that peace treaties, arbitration treaties, neutrality treaties,
Hague treaties, and the like as at present existing, offer not even
the smallest protection against such disasters. The prime duty of the
moment is therefore to keep Uncle Sam in such a position that by his
own stout heart and ready hand he can defend the vital honor and vital
interest of the American people.
But this is not our only duty, even although it is the only duty we
can immediately perform. The horror of what has occurred in Europe,
which has drawn into the maelstrom of war large parts of Asia, Africa,
Australasia, and even America, is altogether too great to permit us to
rest supine without endeavoring to prevent its repetition. We are not
to be excused if we do not make a resolute and intelligent effort to
devise some scheme which will minimize the chance for a recurrence of
such horror in the future and which will at least limit and alleviate
it if it should occur. In other words, it is our duty to try to devise
some efficient plan for securing the peace of righteousness throughout
the world.
That any plan will surely and automatically bring peace we cannot
promise. Nevertheless, I think a plan can be devised which will render
it far more difficult than at present to plunge us into a world war
and far more easy than at present to find workable and practical
substitutes even for ordinary war. In order to do this, however, it
is necessary that we shall fearlessly look facts in the face. We
cannot devise methods for securing peace which will actually work
unless we are in good faith willing to face the fact that the present
all-inclusive arbitration treaties, peace conferences, and the like,
upon which our well-meaning pacificists have pinned so much hope, have
proved utterly worthless under serious strain. We must face this fact
and clearly understand the reason for it before we can advance an
adequate remedy.
It is even more important not to pay heed to the pathetic infatuation
of the well-meaning persons who declare that this is “the last great
war.” During the last century such assertions have been made again and
again after the close of every great war. They represent nothing but
an amiable fatuity. The strong men of the United States must protect
the feeble; but they must not trust for guidance to the feeble.
In these chapters I desire to ask my fellow countrymen and countrywomen
to consider the various lessons which are being writ in letters of
blood and steel before our eyes. I wish to ask their consideration,
first, of the immediate need that we shall realize the utter
hopelessness under actually existing conditions of our trusting for
our safety merely to the good-will of other powers or to treaties or
other “bits of paper” or to anything except our own steadfast courage
and preparedness. Second, I wish to point out what a complicated and
difficult thing it is to work for peace and how difficult it may be
to combine doing one’s duty in the endeavor to bring peace for others
without failing in one’s duty to secure peace for one’s self; and
therefore I wish to point out how unwise it is to make foolish promises
which under great strain it would be impossible to keep.
Third, I wish to try to give practical expression to what I know is the
hope of the great body of our people. We should endeavor to devise some
method of action, in common with other nations, whereby there shall
be at least a reasonable chance of securing world peace and, in any
event, of narrowing the sphere of possible war and its horrors. To do
this it is equally necessary unflinchingly to antagonize the position
of the men who believe in nothing but brute force exercised without
regard to the rights of other nations, and unhesitatingly to condemn
the well-meaning but unwise persons who seek to mislead our people into
the belief that treaties, mere bits of paper, when unbacked by force
and when there is no one responsible for their enforcement, can be of
the slightest use in a serious crisis. Force unbacked by righteousness
is abhorrent. The effort to substitute for it vague declamation for
righteousness unbacked by force is silly. The policeman must be put
back of the judge in international law just as he is back of the judge
in municipal law. The effective power of civilization must be put back
of civilization’s collective purpose to secure reasonable justice
between nation and nation.
First, consider the lessons taught by this war as to the absolute
need under existing conditions of our being willing, ready, and able
to defend ourselves from unjust attack. What has befallen Belgium and
Luxembourg--not to speak of China--during the past five months shows
the utter hopelessness of trusting to any treaties, no matter how
well meant, unless back of them lies power sufficient to secure their
enforcement.
At the outset let me explain with all possible emphasis that in what
I am about to say at this time I am not criticising nor taking sides
with any one of the chief combatants in either group of warring
powers, so far as the relations between and among these chief powers
themselves are concerned. The causes for the present contest stretch
into the immemorial past. As far as the present generations of Germans,
Frenchmen, Russians, Austrians, and Servians are concerned, their
actions have been determined by deeds done and left undone by many
generations in the past. Not only the sovereigns but the peoples
engaged on each side believe sincerely in the justice of their several
causes. This is convincingly shown by the action of the Socialists in
Germany, France, and Belgium. Of all latter-day political parties the
Socialist is the one in which international brotherhood is most dwelt
upon, while international obligations are placed on a par with national
obligations. Yet the Socialists in Germany and the Socialists in France
and Belgium have all alike thrown themselves into this contest with
the same enthusiasm and, indeed, the same bitterness as the rest of
their countrymen. I am not at this moment primarily concerned with
passing judgment upon any of the powers. I am merely instancing certain
things that have occurred, because of the vital importance that we as a
people should take to heart the lessons taught by these occurrences.
At the end of July Belgium and Luxembourg were independent nations. By
treaties executed in 1832 and 1867 their neutrality had been guaranteed
by the great nations round about them--Germany, France, and England.
Their neutrality was thus guaranteed with the express purpose of
keeping them at peace and preventing any invasion of their territory
during war. Luxembourg built no fortifications and raised no army,
trusting entirely to the pledged faith of her neighbors. Belgium, an
extremely thrifty, progressive, and prosperous industrial country,
whose people are exceptionally hard-working and law-abiding, raised
an army and built forts for purely defensive purposes. Neither nation
committed the smallest act of hostility or aggression against any
one of its neighbors. Each behaved with absolute propriety. Each was
absolutely innocent of the slightest wrong-doing. Neither has the very
smallest responsibility for the disaster that has overwhelmed her.
Nevertheless as soon as the war broke out the territories of both were
overrun.
Luxembourg made no resistance. It is now practically incorporated in
Germany. Other nations have almost forgotten its existence and not the
slightest attention has been paid to its fate simply because it did
not fight, simply because it trusted solely to peaceful measures and
to the treaties which were supposed to guarantee it against harm. The
eyes of the world, however, are on Belgium because the Belgians have
fought hard and gallantly for all that makes life best worth having
to honorable men and women. In consequence, Belgium has been trampled
under foot. At this moment not only her men but her women and children
are enduring misery so dreadful that it is hard for us who live at
peace to visualize it to ourselves.
The fate of Luxembourg and of Belgium offers an instructive commentary
on the folly of the well-meaning people who a few years ago insisted
that the Panama Canal should not be fortified and that we should trust
to international treaties to protect it. After what has occurred in
Europe no sane man has any excuse for believing that such treaties
would avail us in our hour of need any more than they have availed
Belgium and Luxembourg--and, for that matter, Korea and China--in their
hours of need.
If a great world war should arise or if a great world-power were at
war with us under conditions that made it desirable for other nations
not to be drawn into the quarrel, any step that the hostile nation’s
real or fancied need demanded would unquestionably be taken, and any
treaty that stood in the way would be treated as so much waste paper
except so far as we could back it by force. If under such circumstances
Panama is retained and controlled by us, it will be because our forts
and garrison and our fleets on the ocean make it unsafe to meddle with
the canal and the canal zone. Were it only protected by a treaty--that
is, unless behind the treaty lay both force and the readiness to use
force--the canal would not be safe for twenty-four hours. Moreover, in
such case, the real blame would lie at our own doors. We would not be
helped at all, we would merely make ourselves objects of derision, if
under these circumstances we screamed and clamored about the iniquity
of those who violated the treaty and took possession of Panama. The
blame would rightly be placed by the world upon our own supine folly,
upon our own timidity and weakness, and we would be adjudged unfit to
hold what we had shown ourselves too soft and too short-sighted to
retain.
The most obvious lesson taught by what has occurred is the utter
worthlessness of treaties unless backed by force. It is evident that
as things are now, all-inclusive arbitration treaties, neutrality
treaties, treaties of alliance, and the like do not serve one particle
of good in protecting a peaceful nation when some great military power
deems its vital needs at stake, unless the rights of this peaceful
nation are backed by force. The devastation of Belgium, the burning of
Louvain, the holding of Brussels to heavy ransom, the killing of women
and children, the wrecking of houses in Antwerp by bombs from air-ships
have excited genuine sympathy among neutral nations. But no neutral
nation has protested; and while unquestionably a neutral nation like
the United States ought to have protested, yet the only certain way to
make such a protest effective would be to put force back of it. Let our
people remember that what has been done to Belgium would unquestionably
be done to us by any great military power with which we were drawn into
war, no matter how just our cause. Moreover, it would be done without
any more protest on the part of neutral nations than we have ourselves
made in the case of Belgium.
If, as an aftermath of this war, some great Old-World power or
combination of powers made war on us because we objected to their
taking and fortifying Magdalena Bay or St. Thomas, our chance of
securing justice would rest exclusively on the efficiency of our
fleet and army, especially the fleet. No arbitration treaties, or
peace treaties, of the kind recently negotiated at Washington by the
bushelful, and no tepid good-will of neutral powers, would help us in
even the smallest degree. If our fleet were conquered, New York and
San Francisco would be seized and probably each would be destroyed as
Louvain was destroyed unless it were put to ransom as Brussels has
been put to ransom. Under such circumstances outside powers would
undoubtedly remain neutral exactly as we have remained neutral as
regards Belgium.
Under such conditions my own view is very strongly that the national
interest would be best served by refusing the payment of all ransom
and accepting the destruction of the cities and then continuing the
war until by our own strength and indomitable will we had exacted
ample atonement from our foes. This would be a terrible price to pay
for unpreparedness; and those responsible for the unpreparedness would
thereby be proved guilty of a crime against the nation. Upon them would
rest the guilt of all the blood and misery. The innocent would have
to atone for their folly and strong men would have to undo and offset
it by submitting to the destruction of our cities rather than consent
to save them by paying money which would be used to prosecute the war
against the rest of the country. If our people are wise and far-sighted
and if they still have in their blood the iron of the men who fought
under Grant and Lee, they will, in the event of such a war, insist upon
this price being paid, upon this course being followed. They will
then in the end exact, from the nation which assails us, atonement for
the misery and redress for the wrong done. They will not rely upon the
ineffective good-will of neutral outsiders. They will show a temper
that will make our foes think twice before meddling with us again.
The great danger to peace so far as this country is concerned arises
from such pacificists as those who have made and applauded our recent
all-inclusive arbitration treaties, who advocate the abandonment of
our policy of building battle-ships and the refusal to fortify the
Panama Canal. It is always possible that these persons may succeed in
impressing foreign nations with the belief that they represent our
people. If they ever do succeed in creating this conviction in the
minds of other nations, the fate of the United States will speedily be
that of China and Luxembourg, or else it will be saved therefrom only
by long-drawn war, accompanied by incredible bloodshed and disaster.
It is those among us who would go to the front in such event--as I
and my four sons would go--who are the really far-sighted and earnest
friends of peace. We desire measures taken in the real interest of
peace because we, who at need would fight, but who earnestly hope
never to be forced to fight, have most at stake in keeping peace. We
object to the actions of those who do most talking about the necessity
of peace because we think they are really a menace to the just and
honorable peace which alone this country will in the long run support.
We object to their actions because we believe they represent a course
of conduct which may at any time produce a war in which we and not they
would labor and suffer.
In such a war the prime fact to be remembered is that the men really
responsible for it would not be those who would pay the penalty. The
ultrapacificists are rarely men who go to battle. Their fault or their
folly would be expiated by the blood of countless thousands of plain
and decent American citizens of the stamp of those, North and South
alike, who in the Civil War laid down all they had, including life
itself, in battling for the right as it was given to them to see the
right.