Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-09-06

unite. and we must bid against three.
Then all nations. following immutaDie
law. will Join and unite against us, ana
we must build against the world. ! men
we will read our history in the fali Oh
Rome and the defeat of Napoleon at
Waterloo. Then we will pay the PEN
atty in blood and treasure and human
life for transgression Of the law OF
justifiable force and might, as every
warning nation of the past has paid It.
Then we will reap the harvest OF
false military policy and defend by IN
vasion. as Europe is today reapfng IL IN
death, desolation, and destruction.
Defense Is the first law Of nature, en-
incident 10 life itself. Defense Is the
first and highest duty encountered up
on men and nations. Defense. full,
adequate and complete defense, is the
measure of human responsibility ana
upon which our national life, our free
institutions, and our liberties depend.
Defense is the true principle OF mill
tary preparedness. Defense without
rivalry in the arts of bloodshed and
warfare. Defense without contest for
world power or control of the seas. De-
Tense while assuring the world of our
friendship and peaceful relations. De-
Tense, full, adequate and complete de
tense, while maintaining security and
protection against invasion. Defense
while holding ourselves acceptable and
unprecedented before the world and al
ways ready and willing to lead the way
to peace and final disarmament.
But while defense is the measure OF
our duties and possibilities for pro-
lection, it is the limit to which ma
tons may prepare in arms and arma-
ment. Thus far may nations go in
force and might but no farther.
While the past is crowded with the
annals of conquest, subjugation, and
the triumphant might, defense is the
one military position which nation
can assure and maintain before the
world today.
Moral law is as immutable as nature
or the orderly development of life, and
our civilization hes advanced until de-
Tense is left the one and only military
policy which a nation can maintain
without mourning the penalties OF
transgression.
The want Of adequate defense may
expose US to the danger of attack from
one power, but preparedness beyond
defense in violation of moral law will
menace us from all nations and jeop-
ardize our very existence.
But our policy must be more than
must be defense in act and deed and in
all our preparation and accomplish
ments for war. 1t must be defense so
clear, so open, so apparent and con-
elusive to the world that no nation can
distrust our motive or mistake our OBJ
1ect, purpose, or intent We must build
only for defense, provide only for de-
tense, and look only to maintaining a
policy consistent with defense. Then
other nations can not justify the taxa
ton of their people to increase their
navies against us. Then We will not
!, be compelled to build so great navy
to defend ourselves against them. Then
the navies of the world will stop at de
tense. Then the criminal folly Of mil
itary rivalry will be at an end.
If Germany had prepared only for
defense against invasion, Belgium
would have never been violated and
laid waste.
If France and England had prepared
only for defense against invasion, then
| Germany could have never apprehend-
ed an invasion of her soil and begun a
war to ward off an attack from them.
AS an inva sion, we are told that ii is
impossible to arm for defense without
arming for aggressive warfare, and
that no such line of demarCation can
be drawn in military preparedness.
| This is not true. Whenever we pre-
pare to convoy and transport troops
to a foreign land, whenever we build a
navy of itself, in mid-sea or on a for
eign shore, sufficient to overcome a
navy in home ports, that is aggression.
But whenever we prepare a navy not
of itself alone equal to other nations,
but in conjunction with mines along
our coast, our submarines for harbor
protection. our sea Notifications, our
aeroplanes. and our land forces. alto
gether greater than the naval power
any other nation can send against us,
that is defense. We do not need a
greater navy than others for defense.
Germany's navy is only equal to one
half that of England's navy and it is
! less than one-fourth the size and
strength of the combined navies of the
allies, yet no warship of the allies has
ever invaded or bombarded the Ger
man coast. Thus, acting in defense, in
conjunction with mines, submarines,
Notifications, and land forces, the navy
of Germany is able to ward off the at
tscks of vast and superior naval force,
equal in strength of more than four
times that of her own, and so should
this nation prepare a navy adequate
for defense but not aggression.