Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-08-26
ROOSEVELT
RAPS POLICY
Of WILSON
Has Tamely Submitted to See.
ing American 1itizens
Murdered a..
PLATTsBURG CAMP
RECRUITS ADDRESSED.
Calls Civilian Camps Schools
of Civic Virtue and
Efficiency

Plattsburgh, N. Y, Aug. 25.-Theo.
dore Roosevelt in an address tonight
at the military instruction camp here,
declared that for thirteen months the
United States had "played an ignoble
part among the nations" in that it
had "tamely submitted to seeing the
weak, whom we had covenanted to
protect, wronged," and had seen our
own men, women and children murder
ed on the high seas without action on
our part ,-sl a.
The former president condemned
the government for having mot taken
the smallest step in the way of pre-
paredness to defend our own rights"
Germany, he condemned as utterly
brutal and ruthless in it's disregard of
international morality" and declared
that it "wculd be base abandonment
of morality" for American manufac-
turers of munitions of war to refuse
to make shipments "for the use of
the armies that are striving to restore
Belgium to its own people"
Munition makers who refuse to
make such shipments should be put,
he said on "roll OF dishonor." He
added that they should be encouraged
$50 that we may be able to hold our
own when the hour of peril comes to
US in our turn"
His speech follows in part:
Free citizens should be allowed to
do their own fighting. The profes-
sional pacificist is as much out Of
place in a democracy as is the polt-
room himself; and he is no better citi
zen than the poltroon. Probably no.
body of citizens in the United States
during the last five years have
wrought so efficiently for national de-
cadence and international degrada-
tion. as the professional pacificists,
the peace-at-any-price man, who have
tried to teach our people that silly
allinclusive arbitration treaties and
the utterance of fatuous platituies at
peace congresses are substitutes for
adequate military preparedness.
"0ur I9noble Part"
"Under the conditions of modern
warfare it is the widest nonsense to
talk Of men springing to arms in mass
get in mass and how to use the arms
to which they spring. For thirteen
months America has played an ig-
noble part among the nations. We
have tamely submitted to seeing the
weak, whom we had covenanted to
protect, wronged We have seen our
own men, women and children MUIR
dered on the high seas without action
on our part During this time our ma
tion has not taken, the smallest step
in the way of preparedness to defend
our own rights. Yet these thirteen
months have made evident the lament
able fact that force is more dominant
now in the affairs of the world than
ever before; that the most powerful
of modern military nations is utterly
brutal and ruthless in it's disregard Of
international morality, and that right
ly futile.
Urges Preparedness.
The government has not paid one
dollar toward your direct expenses.
1nasmuch as we as a nation have
done nothing whatever for national
defense during the past thirteen
months the time when during all
our history it was most necessary
to prepare for self.defense, it is we'll
that private individuals should have
tried, however !nsuff1cie1tly, to pro-
vide some kind of substitute for prop
er governmental action. The army
officers and enlisted men have put all
good Americans under fresh debt by
what they have done in connection
with this camp; and we owe much to
the private citizens who have advanc.
cd the money without which the camp
could not have been held. But you
men have had to buy your own uni
forms; you have had to spend money
in fifty different ways; in other words,
you have had to pay for the privilege
of learning how to serve you- country.
"This means that for every one man
like yourself who can afford to come
here there are hundred equally good
American citizens, equally patriotic,
who would like to come and are un-
able to. It is undemocratic that the
young farmer, that the young hired
man on farm, that the hard-working
clerk or mechanic or day-laborer, all
of whom wish to serve the country as
much as you do and are as much en-.
titled to the benefit of this camp as
you are, should be enabled to attend
such a camp. They cannot attend it
unless the natior does as Switzerland
has done and gives the opportunity for
every generous and right-thinking
American to learn by say six months
actual service in one year or two
years how to do his duty to Che coun-
try, If the need arises-and the Ameri-
cans who are right-thinking should be
made to serve anyhow, for democra-
cy has full right to the service OF its
citizens.
Military Efficiency.
Camps like this are schools OF civ.
ic virtue, as we'll as of military effi'
Continued on Page Four.)