The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1915-07-30
URGES UNIVERSAL
MILITARY SERVICE
ROOSEVELT IN SAN FRANCISCO,
SPEAKS DERISIVELY OF "PRO-
FESSIONAL PAClFISTS."
PRICE OF UNPREPAREDNEsS
Colonel Declares Some Day United
States May Have to Pay on Ten
fold Greater Scale Same Price
Belgium Paid.

San Francisco, July 23.-Theodore
Roosevelt delivered two addresses at
the Panama-Pacific exposition, one on
military preparedness which was Wig
prous IN tone, and the other q brief
personal talk to 'the men on the line, ;"
soldiers, sailors and marines, at tho
Enlisted Mems club
He held both willingness and abil.
ity to be soldiers to be desirable at
tributes Of good citizens. He told the
enlisted men: "A man afraid to fight
Is not fit to VOTE" and "A mother who
Is not willing to raise her boy to be a
soldier is not fit for citizenship"
Before the address at the clubhouse
ne planted poplar tree, following the
custom Of prominent persons part!ci.
patlng In the exercises at the exposi-
ton.
War and Peace" was the topic OF
Colonel Roosevelt's main address.
A big audience gathered in tho
Court OF the Universe to hear him.
he spoke from a high platform that
made him visible to all in the great
court
For Universal Military Service.
i firmly believe that there should
be universal military service for our
young men on the Swiss model" said
the former president at one point in
his speech.
AT another, referring to the price
which Belgium had paid because OF
her unpreparedness, he said:
Some day or other 1t may we'll be
that we shall have to pay on a tenfo)d
greater scale the same price for ex-
actly the same reasons; and, If such
should be the case, remember, nv fel.
low countrymen, that whereas the
case of the Belgians excited warm,
our misfortunes would ex.
cite nothing but scorn and contempt;
for rich, powerful, boastful people
invited the ridicule of all mankind if,
whether from sheer Stiffness and short
'lghtedness or from soft timidity. or
rom gross and greedy devotion to
ne material benefits of the moment. il
fails to prepare itself to defend its
own rights with it's own strength"
China Too Proud to Fight.
Colonel Roosevelt spoke derisiyely
u "elocution as a substitute for &C.
1on,' and in his arraignment of those |
Who stood in the way of preparedness
or war he said the professional paci-
lists, the peace-at- any-price, non-resist-
nee, universal arbitration people are
eeking to Chinafy this country-to re-
luce it to the level of impotence to
Which old China sank" The average
'hinaman, he said, had taken the view
hat China was too proud to fight"
md I'm practice made evident his
earty approval of that abject paciflst
ong,,1 Didn't Bring Up My Boy to Be
Soldier"
With all OF his old-time vigor, Col
mel Roosevelt denounced the all-in-
lusive arbitration treaties, which the
United States had entered into and
aid that in declining to apply their
rinciple in the case of the Lusitania
here had been evidence of national
hypocrisy or else an utter reckless.
ess OF folly in making promises. 1t
'as necessary to repudiate the prin-
iple in the Lusitania case, the COL
Ael agreed, but "a shameful thing to
ave put ourselves in such a position
hat it had to be repudiated"
The United States had treated The
lague conventions as mere Scraps
paper, he said, when the demand
as made to show that our sigma
Tres meant something