The Washington herald., 1915-01-31

horrors of invasion in case of war with
any of the great powers?
! 1T is now such an old, old, thread
bare story. that it no longer needs
( repetition that our standing army is
a mere corporaTs guard; that our mill
tia could stand before a trained army
just about as long as a small boy could
! stand before a John L. Sullivan, while
! our navy is absolutely inadequate to
defend our coast cities or to secure the
country against invasion.
Draws a Fearful Picture.
/ What could we do? How could W.,
flee? Where could we fee? We simply
could not flee. Most of us have doubt =
/ less thought that IL war should be de-
clarcd, we would seek safety in the in
/ terror. But Immediately war is de-
! clared all the railroads and all auto
mobiles will be commandeered for
military purposes. All banks will
close. All securities will be rendered
worthless. and we, reduced to penpi-
: less hobOes, will be compelled to stay
right here and face the music
: New York will be asked to pay a
ransom of a billion dollars. Every city
on the Atlantic seaboard will be bled
! TO the last dollar of tribute that it can
/ be forced TO pay under threat of de-
!
can citizen, with more manhood in him
than discretion. will resent a name
less indignity and kill some military
blackguard, who will Immediately be
avenged by burning his town and
cOrrallinG the people out in a bunch
and shooting them down with machine
guns.
This is no Overdrawn picture The
thing has actually been done in the
present war.
Invaders always live off the in
vaded country. 1t is considered more
important that they should live. and
live Well. than that any one else should
live at all. If there is enough left
after the invaders wants are supplied
for the people to live on. well and
good. If not. then the people must
starve. Not only must the invaders
have food and clothing and the bare
ueCessaries of life, but also they must
have luXuries. They must have cigars
and cigarettes, wine, women and song.
When our country is invaded we
shall not only have to furnish food
clothing, cigars and cigarettes and
wine for the armies Of the enemy, but
also our wives and our daughters and
our sweethearts will be commandeered
to supply the women and song 1t is
not unlikely that some of us, my gen.
tlemen friends, will be forced to see
wife or daughter or sweetheart name
lessly maltTeated to crafty the brutal
lust % an invader, and lose our own
life for a blow on the scoundrcTs jaw.
UnleSs-aye, there's the rub-unIess
this whole country awakens to its dan
ger and rises up as one man and de
mands prompt and adequate defensive
measures for the protection of this
country.
WR May Re
As this saving thing is not likely
to happen, the other thing is likely to
happen, and the entire country east of
the Alleghanies will probably be Bel
giumized with fire and the sword, dep
redated, degraded and desolated by an
invading army within a very short
time after the European war is over
Take map of the United States
and a pair of cOmpasses and strike a
circle, with a radius OF a hundred and
sixty miles around Peekskfll, N Y, as
the center, and in that circle will be
found 90 per cent of the arms and am
munition works, military stores.
smokelesS powder works, torpedo
works, torpedo-boat works, arms and
armament works, of the entire coun-
try. together with the principal coal
fields of Pennsylvania. Within this
circle will be included not only New
L VI n Dul dlSO the city OF boston on
the east. and the city of Philadelphia
on the west, and all cities between
The conquest of this area will not
be a work of months, or of years, but
only of a few days, and the thing will
be done before we shall have time to
mobilize the available fighting forces
we have, much less to enlist and train
and arm a citizen soldiery.
This vital area is the solar pleXus of
Nd Of
thousand trained men landed on our At
lantic seabOard will be able to capture
this entire area and subdue the pOpulace
as easily as the police force of New York
can subdue a rioting mob.
What will happen then? Well, the
things which will happen to us will go
little against the grain of the free-born
American citizen.
Prom what has been done I'm the pres
ent European war, We can foresee what
will likely be done to us. The enemy
may annex the captured territory, just
as Belgium has been annexed by Ger
many, and then. not only will we all
be taxed to support the war, put also
we shall be conscripted to fight in the
ranks OF the enemy against our own
people, and we shall all be put to work
with an exceeding busyness operating
our smokeless powder factories, our
=.
to turn out war materials for the
enemy.
Many a well-born young American
gentleman will be set to digging coal
for them. These very things have
been done to the Belgians, and they
will be done to US. These things are
not new as war measures. They are
common practices, as old as war ITSELF |
The Age of Mechanics.
This is an age of mechanics. an age
wherein man-made mechanism more |
and more replaces hand work. Every
where In our industries OF peace we
have seen labor-saving machinery re-
place the labor of human hands.
To-day all the men OF the world |
could not do by hand all OF the worlds
ploughing and sowing and reaping and |
carrying OF the worlds food TO mar 7
ket; and all the women Of the world