Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-08-26

| TO which they spring. For thirteen
months America has played an ignoblc
| part among the nations. We have
! tamely submitted TO seeing the weak
whom We had covenanted5 to protect
wronEed. We have seen our own men,
/ women and children murdered on the
nigh seas without action on our part.
During this time our nation has not
taken the smallest step in the way of
preparedness to defend our own rights.
Yet these thirteen months have made
evident the lamentable 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 its disregard of international moral
ity, and that righteousness divorced
from force is utterly futile.
PAY FOR PRIVILEGE
OF SERVING COUNTRY
The government has not paid Il dol
lar toward your direct expenses In
asmuch as we. as nation. have done
nothing whatever for national defense
during the past thirteen months, the
time when during all our history ii was
most necessary to prepare for self
defense. 1t is we'll that private indi-
viduals should have tried, however in
sufficiently. to provide some kind of
substitute for proper governmental
action. The army officers and enlisted
men have put all good Americans un-
der fresh debt by what they have
done in connection with this camp, and
we owe much to the private citizens
who have advanced the money. with
out which the camp could not have been
q RI Int
your own uniforms; you have had to
spend money In nifty different ways;
In other words, you have had to pay
for the privilege of learning how TO
serve your country.
This means that for every one man
like yourselves who can afford TO come
here there are II hundred equally good
American citizens, equally patriotic,
who would like to come and are un-
able to. 1t 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 rs you do and arc as much en-
titled to the benefit of this camp as YOU
arc. should be unable 10 attend such
a camp. They cannot attend il unless
the nation 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 the country il
the need arises-and the Americana
who are not right-thinking should be
made to serve anyhow, for democracy
has full right 10 the service of its cit
liens.
Camps like this are schools of civic
virtue. as we'll as of military efficiency.
They should be universal and obliga-
tory for all our young men. Every
man worth his salt will wish to come
to them. AS for the professional
pacihsts and the poltroons and college
sisSics who organize peace-at-any-
price societies and the mere money
Getters and mere money-spenders. they
should be made to understand that they
have got TO render whatever service
the country demands They must be
made to submit to training in doing
their duty Then IL, in thc-'evcnt OF
war, they prove UNIT to fight, at any
rate they can be made to dig trenches
and clean Kitchen sinks. or do whatever
else Il debauch OF indulgence in pro-
iessional pacihcism has left them iii
to do. .
BEST POSSIBLE ANTIDOTEs
TO HIPHENATsD AMERICANISM
Camps like this are the best posi-
bic antidotes TO hyphcnated American
ism. The events of the past year
have shown US that in any crisis III.
hNphcnatcd American is AN active force
against America. an active force for
wrongdoinS. The effort to hoist two
flags on the same nagpolc always
means that one flag is hoisted under
meath. and the hyphcnated American
Invariably HOSTS The flag of the United
States underneath. We must all he
Americans and nothing else.
There exists no finer body Of Amcri-
can citizens in this country than those
citizens OF German birth or descent
who are III good faith Americans and
nothing else The professional
German American has shown himself.
within the last twelve months to be
an enemy 10 this country as well as
to humanity. The recent exposures OF
the way in which these German Ameri-
cans have worked together with the
emissaries of the German government
often by direct OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES the
integrity of American institutions and
against America doing its international
duty should arouse scornful indigna-
ton in every American worth calling
such. The leaders among the profess
sional German Americans have preached
and practiced what comes perilously
near to treason against the United
States.
Under The Hague convention il was
our hounden duty to take whatever
action was necessary to prevent and.
II not to prevent then TO end, the hid
cous wrong that was done to Belgium
We have shirkcd this duty. We have
shown spirit so abject that Germany
has deemed II safe to Kill our women
and children on the high seas. AS for
the export of munitions OF war, ii
would be a base abandonment OF moral
ity to refuse to make these shipments
Such refusal is proposed only TO favor
the nation that sank the Lusitania and
the Arabic and committed the crime
against RclSium--the greatest intcrna-
tonal crime committed since the close
of the Napolconic contests century
&c ~, nj,