The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1908-05-22
OUR MILITARIsTs


four new battleships this year, and
plenty of torpedo boats and destroy
ers is only one incident in the swell
ing movement of an imperial drama.
Ii is the most colossal and far-reach-
ing development which is taking place
in our day and generation, and yet,
with the exception of an isolated pro-
test here and there, our people have
quietly acquiesced in the adoption of
a policy which breaks completely
with our most sacred traditions, and
launches the republic upon a course
which is fraught at every step with
peril and which may lead TO unimag-
Unable disaster. Why is it that men
in such surprising numbers have be-
come ardent champions of the big
club, or have at least been reduced to
silence while the multiplication Of
battleships and cruisers goes steadily
onward before their eyes? 1t is be-
cause they are victims of a set of fall
licies. They are caught in the mesh
es of plausible sophistries. They are
captivated by a series of assumptions,
all of them both specious and false.
Let us look at some of these assump-
tons:
/ The navy is simply a police
force" OF course we believe in a pO-
lice force, both for cities and for ma
tions. A nation must do business on
the water as well as on the land. It
must have it's officers and agents on
land and sea. There are robbers on
the waters, pirates along certain
coasts. There must be armed vessels
on all the seas-everybOdy knows
this. The oceans must be pOliced.
But the navy we are building is not a
police force. It is not built to look af-
ter pirates. One-tenth of our ships
could attend to all the pirates which
the world can produce. We are build
ing a mighty engine of destruction,
getting ready for full-grOwn assassinS
who are going to break in on US at
midnight Who are these prospective
cut-throats? There are only four of
them: England, France, Germany and
Japan. No one else could break in on
us. no one else could possibly make
us afraid. These, then, must be the
assassins. These are the murderers
to be afraid of We are not preparing
for pirates, we are getting ready to
knock off the head of one of our
neighbors. Our great and growing
navy is not a police force--it is not
built to look after rowdies; it is
huge organization Of brute force, bull
lying force, terrifying force, which
can only produce irritation, ugly feel
ing and everlasting disturbance AMI
commotion.
=. But if these four nations have
great navies, we must follow their eX-
ample. We cannot afford not to do
what they do" So men say; but why
not? We are not like them. Their sit
uation is different from ours. They
have enemies, hereditary enemies:
we have not Moreover, these four
nations are our special friends. We
are coming closer all the while 70
England. Germany and America
have never been such good friends as
now. France and our republic have
always gone hand in hand. Nobody
outside of a pack of mischief-makers
has ever dreamed that Japan has any
feeling toward us but one of good will.
3. "a nation unarmed is at the
mercy of its neighbors." So some men
say. but it is not so. Mexico is not
armed. She is not at our mercy If
all our ships were at the bottom of
the sea we would not be at the mer-
cy of anybody. No nation would at
tack us; no nation could attack us I'M
less we deserved by our foolishness
to be attacked. All the protection
that a nation needs in the twentieth
century is a disposition in her rulers
and statesmen to love mercy and do
justly, and walk as a nation ought to
walk
+. I'VE have got to protect the
Philippines" men say with bateI
breath, as though all the nations were
looking on with envious eyes and itch
ing hands, eager to snatch away from
us our glittering treasure. 1--WE mus
protect the Philippines" From
whom? Tell us who wants the Philip
pines? Nobody. They are a white
elephant which can be left out over
night with safety. Nobody will take
them They are one of the heaviest