The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-08-26
Roosevelt Says e. s. Plays Ig-
noble Part in World.
Declares Country Failed TO Do
Duty Toward Belgium.
URGES SHIPMENTS OF ARMS
Colonel Brands Germany as
"Utterly Brutal"
Bitterly Arraigns Washington
for "MolIycoddIe" Ways.

Plattsburg. n. Y, Aug. 26.-"Don't
applaud unless you feel a burning
sense of shame because the United
States has not stood up for Belgium"
Theodore Roosevelt, former presi-
dent of the United States, snapped out
these words last night at a crowd at
the military instruction camp during
a speech in which he censured the
administration fer its attitude in the
European situation and strongly
urged preparedness for war. AS he
paused after uttering the sentence,
his audience, consisting of about 1900
members of the camp and more than
1000 other persons burst into Wlld
and prolonged applause.
''rhe surest way for nation to
invite disaster is to be rich, oppres-
sive and unarmed,' the former pres1-
dent said ct another time, in speaking
of preparedness
Colonel Roosevelt started to speak
shortly before dark. He was intro
duced by Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood
Before the colone' was 1alrly
launched on his address it became
too dark for him to see his manu-
script and a lantern was brought for
him to read by. Several times he di-
crossed from his written address.
No man is fitted" he said once,
looking away from the printed page,
ito be the citizen of a free country
unless he is willing to defend that
country" and loud applause followed.
Ignoble Part Among Nations.
Mr.. Roosevelt declared that for
thirteen months the United States
had played an ignoble part among
the nations" in that it had ia ely
submitted 20 seeing the weak, whom
we had covenanted to protect
wroneed" and had seen our own
men women and children murdered
on the high seas without action on
our part"
The former president condemned the
government for having mot taken the
smallest step in the way of prepared
ness to defend our own rights Ger
many he condemned as utterly brut-
al and ruthless in it's disregard of in
ternationaI morality and declared
ment of morality for American
manufacturers of munitions OF war 10
refuse to make shipments FOR the
use of the armies that are surviving
to restore Belgium to its own people.
Munition makers who refused TO
make such shipments should DE put
he said, on a roll of dishonor.
Free citizens should be allowed to
do their own fighting. The profes..
sional pacificist il as much out OF
place in a democracy as is the pol
troon himself; and he is no better
citizen than the poltroon. Probably
no body of citizens in the United
States during the last five years, have
wrought so efficiently for national
decadence and international degra-
dation, as the professional pacificlsts
the peace-at-any-pr price men, who have
tried to teach our people that silly all
inclusive arbitration treaties and the
utterance of fatuous platitudes at
peace congresses are substitutes Tor
adequate military preparedness.
The Wisdom of Preparation.
Under the conditions of modern
warfare it is the widest nonsense to
talk of men springiEg to arms in
mass unless they have been taught
how to act in mass and how to use
the arms to which they spring We
have seen our own men, women and
children murdered on the high seas
without action on our part. We have
treated elocution as a substitute for
action. During this time our nation
has not taken the smallest step in the
way of preparedness to defend our
own rights; that the most powerful
of modern military nations is utterly
brutal and ruthless in its disregard
of international morality, and that
righteousness divorced from force is
utterly futile.
Not a Dollar for Camp Training.
1.-The government has not paid a
dollar for this camp. Inasmuch as
we as nation have done nothing
whatever for national defense during
the past thirteen months, the time
when during all our history it was
Tense, it is we'll that private indi-
viduals should have tried, however in
sufficiently, to provide some kind of
substitute for proper governmental
action.
On Hyphenated Americans.
Camps Ike this are the best pos
sible antidotes to hyphenated Ameri-
canism The events of the
past year have shown that in any
crisis the hyphenated American is an
active force against America, an ac-
tive force for wrongdoing. The effort
to hoist two flags on the same flag
pole always means that one flag is
hcisted underneath: and the hyphen-
ated American invariably hoiSts the
flag of the United States underneath
We must all be Americans and moth
ing else
There exists no finer body of
American citizens in this country
than those citizens of German birth
or descent who are in good faith
Americans and nothing else.
The professional Germe n-American
has shown himself, within the last
twelve months to be ar enemy to
this country As well as to humanity.
The recent exposures of the way in
which these German-ATner icanS have
worked together with the emissaries
OF the German government-often by
direct CORFU tiOn-agaiIS the integ-
rity of American institutions and
against America doing its interna-
tional duty, should arouse scornful
indignation in every American worth