Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-07-01
FIVE DISTINGUISHED
MEN ARE HONORED
President Benton's Words to Governor Gates and
Messrs. Vail, Hepburn, Angel and Orion
Are Gems of Thought Angel Orator
200 at Corporation Dinner

plunge us into tn seething cadron Of
world politics Does it follow that We
must have larger navy aud a great
army. new colonies, subsidized mer-
camille marine and all that goes with
these things, and must We play the inn
perial game" The pacihcists give mega
tive answer, hut few of us believe that
we can drift along as in the past, free
from entanslements with nations beyond
the seas. Antl-imperialists are against
any further acquisition Of territory and
our little Americans all for inten-
I sive development. Thus far our philos-
ophy has happened to coincide with our
selishness. but what will result when
| it does not
One should always he Justly suspicious
Of q military caste hostile to our
democracy. We have heretofore prosper
ed through our splendid isolation and the
| intervention Of Providence at critical
periods In our national ufe There will
ALWAYS he separate nations and We have
no thought Of denational7ng ourselves
| lnterns tional police and disarmament are
| possible and the form of governments
may change. hut democracy is not in
danger, though our ideals ne r'enaced
o.
We now hnd ourselves confronted With
! the problem ~ our commercial interests
| Protection finally means military prote"-
| tinn We have lea armed that interna tionAl
| law can he set At naught and We must
! know that an adequate army and navy
| can re hest established in times ~ I,eace
! The price of a navy that would rank
among the first OF those Of the world
powers would he utterly staggering for
| how fast can We go in comna rson 70 the
! naval growth Of other nations The pro-
duction Of trained officers is necessary
! There is the German conscript system
whereby every man is soldier. our
methods have heen like those of Great
| Britain with a small standing army a a
! nucleus for expansion into a defensive
| force when occasion demands. The lesson
| 0f 1914 will not he wholly lost il We come
to realize our unpreraredness. Organized
labor and our agricultural interests are
both hostile to military establishment
| y sympathetic understanding of other
lnationalties is needed. The fatal blunder
of Germany is her complete failure to
understand other peoples and the ia nit Of
her diplomacy lies in its inability to esti-
mate, correctly the inherent patriotism IN
'i'e HdN'ollhi HedlI OF tnOSf nations with
whom she Is now at war. As result she
is enraged at Relgium at not calmly ac-
cepting the inevitable as she sees il. at
Great Britain for coming 10 the aid of
the devastated little nation and her anger
reaches to German Americans because
they side with their adopted country and
not with the fatherland
The job before us is not a purely
: iD1e 1tuI Ipr,,, ,a1t 1te,,,
menace and we must learn to under
stand the feelings Of the foreigners
who come to our shores We are very
apt to dislike the Armenian who does
business a block below us and the
Greek who is block above, but our
feelings toward them can he called
pure affection as compared with the
! regard that each has for the other
We have regarded the labor of which
the immigrants are capable as prod
uct for us to exploit. hut we must
reed lsnize that We have much to learn
: from them in order to Justify our dom
inant Institutions and uphold our ideals
of democracy
To YOU, young men and women. who
60 out to-day from these classic halls
wonderful future opens with all It's
opportunities to aid in the uph oldng OF
our national ideals and in the solvine
OF the stupendous problems that con