Omaha daily bee., 1915-07-22
ROOSEVELT WANTS
UNIVERSAL MILITARY
SERVICE In AMERICA
Colonel Denounces Psoificists and
Insists on Nation Taking
Measures to Prepare
for War.
HE CITES BELGIUM AND CHINA
All-Inclusive Arbitration Treaties
United States Has Entered
Into Condemned.
RETELLs HIS PANAMA EXPLOIT

SAN FRANCISCO, July al
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt ad-
dressed the Panama-Pacific exposi-
ton crowds today on Preparedness
for War" The speech was given
over almost entirely to that theme
and he set it forth with new en-
phasis.
Il firmly believe that there should be
universal military service for our young
men. on the Swiss model" said the for
mer president at one point in his speech.
At another. referring to the price which
Belgium had paid because of its unpre-
paredness, he said:
May Have 20 Pay.
Some day or other it may well be that
We shall have to pay on a tenfold greater
scale the same price for exactly the same
reasons; and II such should be the case.
remember, my fellow countrymen, that
whereas the case OF the Belgians excited
warm sympathy. our misfortunes would
excite nothing but scorn and contempt,
for a rich, powerful, boastful people in.
vites the ridicule of all mankind IL,
whether from sheer Stiffness and short
sightedness, or from soft timidlty, or
from gross and greedy devotion to the
material benefits of the moment, 1t fails
to prepare itself to defend its own rights
with its own strength"
Colonel Roosevelt spoke derisively of
"elocution as a substitute for action" "
and in his arraignment Of those who
stood in the way of preparedness for
nif at q
the peace-at-any-price, non-resistance,
universal arbitration people are seeking
to Chinafy this country-to reduce it to
the level of impotence to which old
China sank" The average Chinamanr
he said, had taken the view that China
was too proud to fight" and I'm prac-
tice made evident his hearty approval OF
that abject pacifist song. Didn't Raise
My Boy to Be a Soldier"
Denounces Peace Treaties.
With all of his old-time vigor Colonel
Roosevelt denounced the all-inclusive
arbitration treaties which the United
States had entered into and said that in
declining to apply their principle in the
case of the Lusitania there had beer
evidence of national hypocrisy or else
promises. 1t was necessary to repudiate
the principle in the Lusitania case, the
colonel agreed but "a shameful thing tc
have put ourselves in such position
that It had to be repudiated."
The United States had treated The
Hague conventions as mere scraps Of
paper" he said, when the demand wal
made to show that our signatures meant
something"
II have a very strong feeling about
the Panama exposition" said Colonel
Roosevelt in beginning his speech. 1T
was my good fortune to take the action
in 1908, failure to take which. in exactly
the shape l took it. would have meant
that no Panama canal would have been
built for half a century and, therefore,
that there would have been no exposl-
tion to celebrate the building of the
canal. In everything we did in connec-
tion with the acquiring of the Panama
zone we acted I'm a way to do absolute
justice to all other nations, to benefit all
other nations including especially the ad-
Jacent states, and to render the utmost
service, from the standpoint alike oi
honor and Of material interest, to the
United States. / am glad that this Is
the case, for IL there were the slightest
taint upon our title or our conduct, II
would have been an improper and shame
full thing to hold this exposition.
THE building Of the canal nearly
CONTINUED on Page Two. Column Two.