The Cordova daily times., 1915-05-24

| lnNOlNeu III war, anu no sound reason can be adduced which would justify sane man in concluding that isolation alone spells safety. Furthermore, our isolation is geographical only. No ma tion dwells unto itself alone. Mod eTn conditions have caused the inter- ests of nations to be as correlated as | those of families who have intermar- ried. The interests of many of the large nations today are inextricably interwoven with those of some or all of the others.
 Nor can sure reliance be placed up- on our lack of aggressive intention, our freedom from covertousness, or our tendency toward righteousness. The conflicts and struggles in the spiritual and the physical spheres are not always or often between the un- righteous and the unrighteous, or be- tween the covetous Evil preys upon virtue, the unjust upon the just, and the covetous upon those whose posses sions they covet.
 "Self-respect, without which man is an invertebrate animal, requires that we should be prepared to protect that which we cherish, which not only in cludes our material possessions, but that intangible something which makes us a distinctive nation in the eyes of the world Some one has very finely said that it does not matter so much what happens as the courage with which you face 1t; and very often he consequences of conflict, abhorrent as many of it's incidents are, have brought forth some fine, hitherto un- developed strain in a people and made them worthier to contribute to the progress of civilization.
 Another obstacle to the proper consideration of the subject is potent. though perhaps in many cases un- conscious. It is the question of ex- pense or cost. Men set aside for mili- tary service, while so serving, and money spent for military material are assumed to be wasted; and this con- sideration causes many to turn aside from a further consideration of the subject
 "It goes without saying, of course, that unnecessary expenditure in any line is waste; but 1t is equally true that a necessary expense, whatever the tangible return therefrom may be, is not waste.
 "In a general way, most govern mental expentures produce no tangi- ble profit; they are not like the ex- l penditure of the individual citizen that
 ~oduces something that he sees and can handle or can identify and assess | its value. Governmental expenditures are, so to say, overhead charges which he community contributes from the pockets of all so that each, by reason of such expenditures having been made and the result thereof, may pursue his daily vocation with it's at tendant profit. The expense and cost of government is largely, composed of maintaining executives courts and legislatures, and those who guard the life and the property and the health of the citizen. There is no identifiabIe return for such expenditures; the cf. tizen cannot carry an item on his books which represents the return to him therefrom. But even slight con. sideration will convince that every governmental expense is justified which is found necessary to provide those things which government must provide.
 Among those things which the national government must provide among those things which the found CTS of our Republic decreed should be provided by the national government is the common defense. Whatever therefore, is necessary to provide foi the common defense, must be done at whatever proper cost.
 There need be no fear, therefore that the people will shrink from any proper expense attendant upon proper measures of common defense after common agreement has been reach ed"
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