Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-03-01
Bringing the War Home

TT WAS inevitable during the present war
i epidemic that our national temperature
should rise a degree or two above normal,
even though we managed to escape the actual
fever. OF course, says every one, rolling his
eyes and crossing his hands, it is earnestly
to be hoped that the United States will not
be involved in the war. But the hoping is
not earnest enough to keep a good many
from talking about our duty toward this and
our responsibility toward that, and our ma
tional pride, until the thermometer goes up
another degree.
There Is also to be considered the rather
voluble school that holds that having the
largest army and navy In the world is the
best precaution against being drawn into war,
in spite Of the object lesson which England
and Germany have just furnished on this
point.
AS the first glamour and strangeness of
war wear off the magazines devote an In
creasing amount of space to articles on ma
tional defense and domestic phases OF the
situation. Across the February cover of
Worlds Work is printed in big red letters,
"A Manual of National Defense"
Not only entertaining, but broadly philo-
sophical, is an article on our relationship to
the war and our best means Of keeping out,
by Morgan Shuster in the Century. Mr..
Shuster, who is perhaps most famous for his
brief but brilliant career as Treasurer GEN
eral of Persia, maintains a neutral attitude
in his article ~:
Whether one knows 1t or not, he has be-
come brutal since this war. Just as slaughter
house employees become brutalized by their
work and its sights, SO must any person be-
come so who reads the war news for a con-
siderable period of time. "
The fact seems to be that while excessive
militarist sentiment and unreasonable mill
tary and naval preparations on the part of
a number of rival nations and races may
actually provoke and bring about a vast ca
lamity within the briefest imaginable time,
the admitted inability of a nation successfully
to resist unwarranted attack will neither
eliminate the dangers nor mitigate its suffer-
tngs In the hour Of national peril.
If not by disarmament, how then shall
peace be sought? Treaties. conventions and
even the accepted law Of nations have been
shown to be inadequate to preserve peace,
They are not self-executing. Indeed, many
treaties and declarations have proved and
are proving a fruitful source of discord be-
tween both benligerents and ~neutrals. There
seems to be only one hope, and this is edu-
cation in its broadcast Standardization which
will give to every person what Doctor But
Ter has called the international mind"; edu-
cation which will bring us to understand and
realize the aspirations and ambitions OF other
races and peoples, just as experience of hui
maj nature in the case of an Individual en-
ables him to realize and make allowance for
the foibles and idiosyncrasies of his fellow
men, National honor must become as sensi-
tive as individual honor. II must be con-
sidered just as wrong for a nation, alleging
its own welfare, to violate its own solemn
obligations. as for a man who had made a
contract TO break it on similar grounds.
In the meantime, each nation should main
tain defensive forces proportionate to its size
and wealth.
This last paragraph, with which Mr.. Shu-
ster closes his article, rather puts It up to
the United States as to what is proportionate
TO its size and wealth. And this is Just the
question which others are asking. In How
Big an Army Do We Need2' In the Worlds
Work, George Marvin writes (2);
Speaking generally, the great nations OF
Europe can easily mobilize and embark their
forces within one week after the declaration
OF war; and from the time of leaving their
home ports 10 days may be considered as the
time required TO cross the Atlantic.
Briefly stated, aside from the naval part
Of the problem, the solution which the United
States must be ready to furnish Is TO meet
successfully the following invading troops,
either singly or together;
100000 men on 10th day canada and Mex
ico).
1000 to 5000 European troops on At
lantic coast, 18th day.
100000 Asiatic troops on the Pacific coast,
9th day.
BQ0.eoe men on the eth day.
The land forces of tie United States consist
q the regular army and the oFganlzed mi-