The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-10

Continental army fails. the United States will face some form of comnul- sorry military service.
 In what many men in official life characterize as the most remarkable report ever made by a Secretary of War. Mr. Garrison passes quickly over the widespread routine activities of the War Department and devetes practically all his words to the sub jeet of military preparedness, the need for which he sums up by saying:
 s'So long as right and wrong exist in the world there will be an inevit- able conflict between them- The rightdoers must be, prepared to pro- teet and defend the right as against the wrong.s'
 Unsparing in his arguments in ans war to those who would have no in crease In the eountry's military pre- paredness. Secretary Garrison declares that the American people must view their responsibilities and measure up to them and then goes on to take up the various arguments of the opposf= ton separately,
 sThere are some who do not feel free to base their conduct upon a consideration of facts or conclusions of reason. because of their interpreta- ton of Divine injunction,s he says. stThey do not believe in resistance to physical foFees and those whose con- sciences are so convinced surrender life and all that they cherish and love at the behest of the aggressor. This attitude ceneerns the individual, and him alone. It cannot be made the general rule or conduct under our form of government without depart ing from the basis upon which our government is founded. One is iHn- peIIed to query upon what proper con sideration there is haaeds any distine- ton between the right or necessity or desirabilfty of using mental force to repel error, moral force to repel evil. and physical force to repeI wrong It would seems if reason were applied. that in each instance the situation IS identica1s and that if we should properly pr epare our minds to be BtRena so that we can reject evil, we should likewise make our physical force strong in order that we may maintain the right as against those who would physically impose the wrong upon us.
 There are others eoncerning whose clarity Of vision we are not advises and eoneefning whose soundness of reason we are not informed, because the attitude which they take is ad-' mittedly not based upon either vision or reason. They are those who pre- diet that waR will never come to this country and assert that therefore .UL'SA<[ul4QL WILL. EeSE67NJ LlGISLOt are Hnwfse and needleFs. Since WaFs have come upon nations frofn Ehe earliest data Of recorded history to this mo- Hent, there is no basis of fact for such a position but an acthal demon stFatien of the nnn-existenee of such basis. We were early warned that there Feuld be wars and rumeFs of wars and that nation wonld rise against nation and lein gdenl against Kingdom and the end was not yet; and that prediction has been fully certified There is no basis and no foundationi to conclude that this great evil has been elifninated, and it therefore must be treated as are all ataer existing evils and must be pfepared again Surely, as between resting upon pre- diekI0H or upon preparattpn wi sdonn would not hesitate.
 There are others amens us who are t0a intelligent and clear si gbted not ta see the facts and to realize their. significance, but who counsel inactien Because they naistrust themselves and the natien. Those to whom now Fe- fer do not believe in the doctrine of nensresistances they do not rest upon the prediction that an evil which his existed since the world began has ceased to exist and been abolished and should not therefore be considered as one to be prepared against; they even point out our potentialitY of force, but they counsel against any prepa- ration thereof. They base this coun- sel upon the expressed fear that if we Dqssess force. we will be induced to uEa if when we should not This position ignores the responsibilities which we have undertaken and which we must maintain at any seIf-sacrifice. 2 It Ignores the fact that if nations which possess force are likely to use 1t when they should not, some nation l. e. 1t against us when it should not. It assumes that our nation may not be trusted with force for fear that it may misuse it.
 ssThe eyes of many are blinded to fact and their minds closed to req son by an aphorrence of what they term tmilitarisnn,. with out any actual conception of just what this means or how it should affect the proper eonsid efation of the subject. Those who really fear nailitarism, or, more accurately stated, those who dread real Fnflitarism. should be the strongest ad- Veeates ef reasonable preparation. The latter is the preventive of militarism. If they unWisely defeat reasonable preparedness. they leave the country in condition where the inevitable re- suit of defeat, humiliation or acute apprehension will be hasty and iH-ad- vised provisions as to armament far Dey6Aa aAyEafn8 WAiG4 calm reason and wise provision would deem neces- sary,
 There will be those who assert that the proposed policy opposes the traditions of the people and runs counter thereto. This is mere asser- ton it is not the fact, and in truth the fact is to the contrary. The pro posed policy is exactly in keeping with our traditions,
 There will also be those who will express regret that the policy herete-, fore pursued. of lack of proper nlili- tary precautions. is to be departed from because it has been invaluable as an example to the rest of the world and we should not remedy the lack because we would then cease to he such an example It should be ab- served first, in considering this point