Iditarod pioneer., 1915-08-28
SOME EXCERPTS FROM SPEECH OF ROOSEVELT
 SO WIDELY DISCUSSED

On July 21, standing beneath the Tower of Jewels at the Panama-P Pacific lnterna- tional Exposition, former President Roose, welt delivered an address on War and Peace" This address has been widely quoted, and added interest attaches to 1t now ln view of the fact that President Wilson IS said to have been converted to the idea ot providing adequate national defense. MT Roosevelt said in part:
 'Pm not for war; 1 want peace, but l don't want peace to Uncle Sam because out siders don't think him worth kicking.
 q have very strong feeling about the Panama exposition. It was my good fortune to take the action in 1903, failure to take which, in exactly the shape l took it, would have meant that no Panama canal would have been built for half century, and therefore that there would have been no exposition to celebrate the building of the canal In everything we did in connection with the acquiring of the Panama zone we acted in a way to do absolute justice to all other nations, to benefit all others nations, including especially the adjacent states, and to render the utmost service, from the stand point alike of honor and of material interest to the United States 1 am glad that this is the case, for if there were the slightest taint upon our title or our conduct it would have been an improper and shameful thing to hold this exposition.
 'The building of the canal nearly doubles the potential efficiency of the United States navy, as long as it is fortified and is in our hands; but if left unfortihed it would at once become a menace to us.
 What Is true as to our proper attitude in regard to the canal is no less true as re- gards our proper attitude concerning the in- terests of the United States taken as whole The canal is to be great agency for peace; 1t can be such only and exactly in proportion as 1t increased our potential efficiecy in war.
 Those men who, like myself, believe that the highest duty of this nation Is to prepare itself against war. so that it may safely trust it's honor and interest to its own strength, are advocating merely that we do as a na- ton regarding our general interests what we have already done in Panama.
 If, instead of acting as this nation did in the fall of 1903, we had confined ourselves to debates in congress and diplomatic notes; if, in other words, we had treated elocutlon as substitute for action. we would have none nobody any good, and for ourselves we would have earned the hearty dersion of all other nations-the canal would not even have been begun at the present day; and there would have been general consensus of international opinion to the effect that we were totally unfit to perform any of the duties of international life especially in bo \Nne+orp borpicr>boro
 ''WeI-kigh CriminaIIy Renss"
 Unfortunately, in the last few years we have, as regards pretty much everything not connected with the 1sthmus of Panama, so failed in our duty of national preparedness that 1 fear there actually is a general con sensus of opinion to precisely this effect among the nations of the world as regards the United States at the present day This is primarily due to our unpreparedness.
 "We have been culpably well-nigh crimi- nally remiss as a nation in not preparing ourselves and if with the lessons taught the world by the dreadful tragedies of the last twelve months we continue with soft complacency to stand helpless and naked before the world we shall excite only con tempt and derision when disaster ultimately overwhelms us.
 Preparedness against war does not in varlably avert war, any more than a fire department in city will invariably avert fire; and there are well meaning foolish peo- pie who point out this fact as offering an excuse for unpreparedness. It should be just as sensible if, after the Chicago fire, Chi cago had announced that 1t would abolish its fire department as for our people to take the same view as regards military pre- paredness. Some years ago 1 was looking over some very old newspapers contempo- raneous with the early establishment of paid fire department in this country, and to my amusement l came across a letter which argued against paid fire department upon the ground that the knowledge of its exist ence would tend to make householders care less, and therefore would encourage fires.
 Examples of Unpreparedness
 Greece was not prepared for war when she went to war with Turkey a score of years ago. But this fact did not stop the war. It merely made the war unsuccessful for Greece. China was not prepared for war with Japan twenty odd years ago, nor for war with the allies who marched to Picking fifteen years ago.
 But the dearest teaching is conveyed in the experience of China and of Belgium during the last year. As regards Belgium the comparison should be made between it and Switzerland The territory of Switzer land like the territory of Belgium lay be- tween the great combatants, One offered as advantageous a path of entry to those combatants as the other. century ago, for instance, when Switzerland was utterly unprepared for war, the Napoleonic armies used it as highway in marching against the Austrans and South Germans. Abso- lutely the same fate would have been theirs now save for the vital fact that in the cen tury intervening the Swiss people having learned the lesson, had prepared in advance and were thoroughly competent to defend themselves They had frstclass citizens army of about one-tenth the size of their whole population. This army was instantly, mobilized and thrown on the frontiers, and in consequence Switzerland's territorial ln-