Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1900-09-06
DANGER OF A STANDING ARMY.

COcKra9 OF new YORK mas the follow
ing to say concerning standing armies
Standing armies always must be fsts
to free institutions. To realize the ut.
ter incJmpatibility of militarism anC
| republcanism we have but to look al
France. When we recall the French
| Republic scattering the combined forces
| Of Europe through the valor of its vol.
unteer armies. how pitiful is the specta-
Gle of the third republic covering in ab
ject fear of its own standing army, 10
capable of welding any influence abroad
impotent even to do justice at home.
The experience of this country proves
that a citizen soldiery is invincible
against foreign aggression or domestic
lnsurrectiOn, while all history shows
that mercenary soldiery has never
been so formidable to any country as
the one which supports it.
A standing army in the long run has
always become helpless against foreign
foes, but it has always remained Of
deadly efficiency against domestic lib
critics.
The soldier in the war may be hero,
the soldier in peace is either useless or
dangerous. The camp may be school
OF virtue and patriotism, the barrack 8
are always asylums of lazness aBc
often hotbeds of vice. The moral law
binding on nations as well as indivd-
uals. A violation OF 1t by either is al
ways followed by retributioD, slow,
perhaps, hut inexorably stern.
He who draws the sword will perish
by the sword, and the republic that es
tablishes standing army to smite free
dom in other lands will live to find her
own liberties trampled in the dust un-
der the feet of mercenary soldiers.
Aside from its inherent hostility to
rec institutions, a standing army is a
crushing burden On the neck OF the la
Oorer, because it operates to reduce his
earning capacity, while at the same
time he is forced TO bear the whole ex-
pense of its maintenance.
Every dollar of surplus product or
capital invested 10 implements, in ma
chinery, 10 buildings. is a fruitful dol
isr. Commodities used in production
multiply themselves even while they
perish.
Every dollar expended for munitions
Of war is sterile dollar.
1t is not used for the purpose of pro
duction, but for the purpose of destruc-
ton. 1t is wasted as completely as If il
wele thrown into the sea.
A standing army imposes upon each
abOrer the burden of supporting two
men-himsef and sOldier-while at
the same time 1t diminishes his earning
capacity by dissipating the capital on
which his productive efficiency depends.
But far worse than the spoliation OF
he lsborer is the degradation which he
suffers from standing army.
Militarism has always despised indus
try.
The world power which the imperial
st invites us to become would be a
power based on conquest and violence.
a survival OF barbarism, world power
consistent with the darkness and ig-
norancs of the tenth century. The
world power which we are is D
light of civilization and progress,
gliding with splendor the dawn OF
The twentieth century. What patriot
would prefer for his country an emf
aence of force, of violence, of bsrbarism,
to an eminence of peace, OF progress
and of civilization
oppose this novel un-Americsn
policy of Imperialism, because the
grounds on which its advocates support
it are puerile, inconsis ent and dis
honest; because it involves the exist
ence of standing army to menace
liberty and to oppress labor by dimin-
ishing wages; because it is cowardly to
invade the rights OF the weak while re-
spectiug those of the strong; because it
would divorce the American flag and
the American Constitution by sending
the one where the other cannot 60; be-
cause il is policy of inconceivable iolly
from a material point of view, and a
policy of unspeakable infamy from a
moral point OF view.