The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1905-05-26
Naval and Military Expansion.

| recently been quoted by the great last
President of the United Statesin support
of a national programme of tremendous
and to all appearances indefinite naval
expansion. He has proposed policy by
which our country assumes the position
of an international policeman. He as
sumes for our country general guardian
ship, with full responsibility, of various
supposedly irresponsible though indepcn-
| dent nations. He demands first of all
justice to all peoples within our power;
but, at least in some instances, interprets
| Justice" to mean government on our
part, without reference to the consent of
the governed, and taxation without re-
gard to representation.
| None of the thousands who were carried
away from their accustomed course by
the winning personality, virile presence
and commanding earnestness ofthe Presi-
dent, can fail to see how large an element
that personality was in the persuading
power of his address. 1t is not an argu-
ment for the necessity of an overwhelm-
ing navy, it is an assertion of that neces-
sity; it does not show our title as an in
ternational policeman, but assumes that
| title; and it uses freely, but without def
milton, such commanding words as
duty" Justice, rights" and "princi-
pies" Now the meaning of the words is
more important than the words, fine and
soul-stirring words as they may be.
| We are urged to a feverish haste in the
expansion of our navy in order "best to
show our loyalty to the teachings of
Washington. A great gaunt spector of
invasion from abroad seems to stare us
in the face. Already we almost hear the
boom of the guns of a united European
navy in ourports. Englandis still weak,
it is true, from doubtful struggle with
two minute republics of undrilled farmers.
France has been bled white and is decay
ing from the wasting waks of the last
century. Germany is half socialist and
wholly discontinued, with a medieval
monarch on her throne. Russia is in the
throes of revolution whose outcome no
man may safely predict. Yet we, with
three thousand miles of water walls on
either side, urge ourselves to practice
haste with the threat of a phantom world
navy bearing down upon us. What chal-
lenge do we expect to cast in the teeth of
the wide world that we hurry together
warships that an invention of tomorrow
may consign to the scrap heap? And
this in spite of the fact that we now
stand fourth or third among the navies
of the earth! By what miracle do we
expect these distant and mutually hostile
friends of ours over the sea to be trans
formed into strong, united and hostile
foes? Have we forgotten the message of
Washington in that same wise address,
that while respectable defensive pos
ture" is desirable, 1--WE may safely trust
to temporary alliances for extraordinary
emergencies" This years naval appro-
priation means two thousand effective
and much-needed public buildings, it
means hundred colleges better endo owed
than our own Swarthmore-an equip
ment for twenty thousand students.
Two such years means a sea-level canal
at Panama. thing which at present
we cannot "afford"-and vast surplus
besides. 1t means halfdozen Simplon
tunnels, each dozen miles long, to bring
the parts of our nation nearer and to
knit them to closer union. 1t means
irrigation of the arid belt in few years.
1t means the dispensing with the tainted
money of the liquor revenue. 1t means
innumerable form of uplift and approve
ment. 1t means this-or, on the other
hand, the building up of an idle navy at
the best, or meddling, intruding busy
body navy at the worst.
For on what basis may we call our
selves a world policeman? A policeman
represents people directing itself A
policeman derives his just powers from
the consent of the policed. Who has
given US a world commission? If Phila-
delphia annoys New York by corrupt and
disorderly government, may New York
police Philadelphia against Philadel-
phia's will? Let US cease from the ques-
tion-begging absurdity of calling our in
ternational meddling- against which
Washington warns us-by the once re-
spectacle name of policing. When we
take on the function of the infant lawyer
in collecting bad debts for speculative for
eigners, or that of forcing an ill-htting
and alien civilization on unwilling peoples
: who hate us and all our works, we are
f constituting ourselves not policemen, but
at once lawmaker, police judge, jury, ad-
ministratiou, and, if need be, executioner
to such weaker nations as attract our
wavering and capricious interest. Wash
ington saws: avoid the necessity for
an overgrown military establishment
He says: Resist with care limo.
vations upon the spirit of the constitu-
ton" He says: Have caution that