Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-07-29

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the main he dwelt upon the urgent
necessity for national preparedness.
Il think this is land of peace" he
said, "a republic of peace-loving men
and women, and l think we have in
our minds no greater hope than that
this country of ours shall always be
the conserver of our own peace and
the preserver of the peace of all coun-
tries. Yet we stand to-day face to face
with the bloodiest contradiction of the
principle of peace in the worlds his
tory. No man less than a consti-
tutional and criminal optimist can fail
to see that we live in the midst of suf-
ficient apprehension and danger and
that we are not any more exempt from
war than any other country is exempt
from war.
Most Helpless Nation
I'VE have the same conditions sur
rounding us that surrounded Europe.
We have policies, principles, interests
that may move against us at any time.
We have the Monroe doctrine, the
Panama canal. and above all, the
threatening question of our competi-
tive commerce to make it possible that
we may at some time be submerged in
war ourselves. We are at this mo-
ment engaged in a diplomatic contro-
versy with the central nation of the
great war. We are engaged with no
less seriousness or earnestness with
England in the great question of her
interference with neutral ships and
the destroying of our trade.
Yet in view of these entirely pos
sible eventualities we are, with the
single, solitary exception of the re-
public of China. the oldest, the largest
and the most helpless nation in the
world, the least prepared nation for
XEn In o1 f1aA
history of these times has been written
it will be set down as one of the mar
Vels of the age that a nation so virile
in its force and so tremendous in its
development has been willing to stand
still for so long a time in a condition
OF unpreparedness to defend itself
within the last two years we have
been absolutely compelled to discredit
any statement in regard to the navy
which came from the Secretary of the
Navy-the executive head of the
United States navy.
only recently has he justified him.
self for his years of sleepiness by nam
ing the board of experts that will set
tie our difficulties if Congress appro-
PIRATES the money, and we must all
urge Congress to do that
What England Could Do
"A navy is the first defense of ma
tions. Nations with great navies have
never Deen successfully assailed and
have never been overthrown. Eng
land. with the greatest navy in the
world has not been attacked by a for
eign enemy in 1000 years
''1f we should enter into war with
England to maintain our self-respect,
or for any other reason, England, with
her great navy, might come to our
shores and batter to pieces all our har-
bors, destroying property that cost
more than 100 or 1000 navies such as
our own cost The Queen Elizabeth
might batter down the defenses of
Sandy Hook and the armies following
lay all our eastern seaboard under
tribute.
I'VE are face to face with the great
est emergency this republic has ever
known.
Delegates were sent to the second
Hague conference to exhaust every re-
source of their brains and their dipIo-
macy to construct such treaties of
peace as they could devise. They met
In session four long months, and when
that convention ended the representa-
tives of every nation on earth had
signed treaties for peace. Yet before
the backs of the delegates to the sec
ond Hague conference were turned
this world was sunk in the bloodiest
war in history. Those are the treaties
On which Bryan hangs his irridescent
dream. They are scraps of paper in
deed, profitless in the sight of men.
ard pitifu1 in the sight of God. Peace
treaties will not preserve the peace of
the world. Nothing less than pre-
paredness will preserve the peace of
the world.
I'VE need an army for the national
defense and, above all things "a navy