The Washington times., 1915-07-22
Tells Throng At Fair Country Is
CriminaIIy Remiss In Pre-.
paredness.
DEMANDS ADEQUATE ARMY
Urges Universal System Of Mill.
tary Service on Model Of
Switzerland.

SAN FRANCISCO. July se.-rheo-
dore Roosevelt delivered two ad-
dresses at the Panama-Paclhc Exposi-
tion-one, vigorous in tone. on military
preparations, and the other briel'
personal talk to 1.-The men on the line.
soldiers, sailors and marines. at the
Enlisted Mems Club.
The colonel held both willingness
and ability to be soldiers to be de-
s!rable attributes Of good citizens. He
told the enlisted men "a man afraid to
fight is not At to vote" and q mother
who is not willing to raise her boy to
be a soldier is not AT for citizenship"
Before the address At the clubhouse he
planted a poplar tree.
war and Peace was the topic OF
mense audience gathered in the Court
of the Universe.
Colonel Roosevelt was escorted from
his hotel by a squadron OF the First
cavalry and various military and
public officials. He was given a Presi-
Dental salute Of twenty-one guns by
duced by Governor Hiram w. johnson
Of California, his running mate for the
Presidency on the Progressive ticket
In 1912
Urges War Preparedness.
"1 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 her
unpreparedness. he said:
'Some day or other 1t may we'll he
that we shall have to pay on a tenfold
greater scale the same prices for exactly
the same reasons: and. If such should
be the case. remember. my fellow-coun-
trymen. that whereas the case Of :he
Belgians excited warm sympathy. our
nnisfortunes would excite nothing but
scorn and contempt; for a rich. power
full. boastful people invited the ridicule
Of all mankind il. whether from sheer
Stiffness and shortsightedness. or from
soft timidity. or from gross and greedy
devotion In the material benefits Of the
moment. 1t fails to prepare itself to de-
fend it's own rights with Its own
strength"
"elocution as a substitute for action"
and in his arraignment of those who
stood in the way Of preparedness for
war he said the professional pacifists.
universal arbitration people are seek
ing to Chinafy this country-to reduce 1t
to the level Of impotence to which old
China sank" The average Chinaman.
was too proud to fight" and 'fn prac-
tice made evident his hearty approval
of that abject pacifist song, 1 Didn't
Raise My Boy to Be Soldier.
With all OF his old-time vigor. Colonel
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
been evidence Of national hypocrisy or
else an utter recklessness Of folly In
making promises. 1t was necessary to
repudiate the principle in the Lusitana
case. the colonel agreed. but "a shame
full thing to have put ourselves In such
position that 1t had to be repudiated.'
The United States had treated The
Hague conventions as mere "scraps Of
paper" he said. when the demand
was made. to show that our signatures
oi>ant something
Culpably Remiss.
I'VE have been culpa
criminal ally-remis as a nation in not
preparing ourselves. and II. with the
lessons taught the world by the dreal-
sui tragedies or the last twelve
months. we continue with soft COM
placency to stand helpless and naked
before the world. we shall excite only
contempt and derision il ana when
disaster ultimately overwhelms u.s.
PREPAREDNESS against war does not
:1-sriably avert war. any more than
flre department in a city will invari-
ably avert a fire; and there are we'll
meaning foolish people who point out
this fact offering an excuse for
rnpreparedness. 1t would be Just as
sensible If. after the Chicago fire,
Chicaro had announced that 1t would
abolish lis fire department as for our
peopln to take the same view as re-
CARDS military preparedness. Some
years ago l was looking over some
very old hcW Wspapers contemporaneo, 8
with the early establishment of paid
fire depart m ents in this country, AMI,
to my anus ement, ! came across a
letter which argued against q paid fire
department upon the ground that the
knowledge of is existence would tend
to meks householders careless and
therefore would encourage fires.
Greece was not prepared for war
when she went to war with Turkey a
store OF yeals ago. But this fact did
not stop the war. 1t merely made the
was not prepared for war with japan
with the allies who marched to Peking
fifteen y,urs ago.