Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-28
WILSON INVITES
WAR BY TIMIDITY
ROOSEVELT SAYS
Indecision and Unpreparedness
Cause Loss of American
Lives

New York. April 2S. = Theodore
/ Roosevelt urged the doctrine of pre-
/ paredness upon a large number of
Methodists gathered last night at the
annual banquet of the Methodist Social
Union of New York and referred to
the latest phases of the relations with
germany and Mexico as showing that
/ umldlty and weakness invite war in
stead of averting it," He declared he
abhorred a wanton and unjust war
and continued:
Il have a right to speak to YOU for
peace. l was President seven and a
nan years. This nation during all that
time never for one moment permitted
any power to wrong this country or to
1 wrong Americans either in their person
oI property or TO make us recreant to
our dutN to others: and vet during
! those seven and a half years not one
| shot was ired by any man in American
/ UNIFORM against any foreign foe and
not one American man, Woman or
chlId was slain by representatives of
any foreign nation
Americas Place in the Sun
we can play the greatest part on
| pehalf OF peace that any nation has
/ ever yet played. We can take our per-
| manent place as n great nation only il
/ we reallze that we are a separate ma
] 'ic''' amin W bul ulStl0Ct from all the
! people OF Europe. and if we Loyalty and
with proud endurance OF the labor of
! preparation and effort do duty to our
| selves and to others.
Thls means that our lives must not
primarily be devoted to the greedy
achleNement of purely material we'll
/ being; it means that with toll. and
/ forethouGht and self-sacrifice, we must
prepare this nation in things indus
trial, things social and things military
/ in the body, in the mind and above
all in the soul, so that in the mighty
! DAYS 1t may stand equal to the mighty
days.
we are at the moment engaged in
/ a httle war in Mexico a futile little
| war which may at any time burst out
! INTO general blaze, which cannot pos
sibly result in any real settlement of
the situation. We are so engaged be-
| cause our nation failed to do its duty
. from the outset in Mexican matters
Jailed repeatedly and continuously.
Nearly hundred Americans, some of
them women and children, some OF
them soldiers of the United States,
were killed or wounded on American
soil by MeXicans on different occasions
before the raid at Columbus took place,
Lack of Decision Cost Lives
II, the very first time such an incl
dent occurred, We had acted with in
slant decision and crossed the border
not within two or three days, but
thirty minutes afterward, had inflicted
immediate punishment on the Offend
ers. there would never have been a
repetition of the offense Certain
foolish paciffcists at home would un-
doubtedly have been lackadaisical over
the action, but it would have saved
hundreds of lives.
After years of these experiences in
Mexico and repeated killings of our
people In our own territory along the
border, our preparedness is such that
this mighty nation has not been a bile to
grapple efficiently with the situation
created by the raid of a bandit chief
who had been beaten by his fellow
bandit chiefs when they quarreled
among themselves. In any event prepa-
ration could not possibly have pro
duced more trouble than has been
produced in Mexico by the policy this
nation has actually pursued.
so II is as regards Germany. Four
teen months have gone by since as a
nation we informed Germany that we
would hold her to strict account
ability If she did what she said she
would do as regards submarine war
fare. Germany did not believe that
we meant what we said and for four
teen months our actions showed that
we did not mean what we said and
strict accountability turned into four
teen months of conversation on our
part.
Still No Preparedness
1 when we made that declaration we
should have understood exactly what
1t meant and the obligation IL i'm
posed upon us. 1t was a declaration
so serious that mere severance of
diplomatic relations would have hardly
made it good, and of course il could
only be justified by immediate and
thorough-going preparedness on our
part. Yet for fourteen months after
making that declaration and with out
rage after outrage committed against
us, we have not prepared in any shape
or way to make good our word.
And now we find that the lack of
preparedness, the lack of decision and
fortitude on our part have resulted,
not as our pacifist friends insisted, in
increasing the likelihood of peace, but
in bringing us to the verge Of the
gravest possible crisis.
'If we get peace now. 1t will be
proof that firm decision fourteen
months ago would have saved the lives
of many thousands of noncombatants,
including many hundreds of women
and children who have perished on the
high seas because our actions rightly
made other nations believe that we did
not mean what we said"