The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-04-27

ROOSEVELT WOULD FIGHT
colonels Sons Would Also Be Found
in the Ranks.


in the Ranks.
ifvster Bay, L. l., April 26.-Colo-
h~ StaIaore ROoseylt gave out a
staten IiBpday night in which he
held Presi~ sts'lson and his advis-
ers guilty of against the ma
ton in failing to pl pare the country
against the emergency of war with
Germany or aHv other world power
The Colonel said:
Men are saying that they stand be-
hind the President or by the Presi-
dent. wish to speak for the men
who in the event of war will stand in
front of the President and between
him and the foreign enemy; and who,
therefore, will stand between danger
and the men who are behind or beside
the President
These are the men who will go to
the war at once il there is war with
Germany, or with any other great
power, and who feel, as ! do, that we
would far rather go to war unprepared
than see our women and children mur-
dered with impunity and the honor of
the flag stained.
But it is wicked thing that the
folly of our rulers, in obeying the be-
hests of the peace-at-any- price people
and Of the apostles of anti-prepared-
ness, should make the sacrifice either
useless or else needlessly and appall-
ingly wasteful in blood.
In the event of such war my four
sons will go, and one. and perhaps
both, of my sons-in-law: will go
myself; the young kinsfolk and friends
of my sons will go; so my words are
spoken with my eyes open.
1t is of small consequence what hap
pens to us of the older generation; but
when ! think of the young men my
heart grows bitter that their fine and
gallant young lives should be sacri-
feed, not to the nations need but to
the nations folly.
would far rather see them dead
than see them finch from their duty
when the honor of our people is con-
cerned. But if we now go to war these
young men and all their fellows will
die in thousands of fever and dysen-
tery and lung trouble in the camps,
because we have not prepared in ad-
vance, because they and those who
would lead and care for them have not
been trained in advance.
They will be butchered needlessly in
battle because we have failed to pre-
pare masses of artillery and machine
guns and motor trucks, and shells and
aeroplanes. and have failed to provide
and train the men who shall manage
all the formidable and delicate mech.
anism of war
Twenty-one months have passed
since the great war began, and during
all this time We have not prepared in
even the smallest degree in order. II
possible, to avert war from us; or, II
| 1t would not be averted to wage II
efficiently and successfully
The pacifists and anti-preparedness
| people have had their will and our
rulers at Washington have bowed to
them and left us helpless, and with
blind faulty they said they did this
in the interests OF peace.
When will our people learn that the
| peace of unpreparedness is the peace
of cowardice and folly, and may al
any time lead to overwhelming dis
| aster?
| Fourteen months ago we notified
Germany that if she did whatever
since she has done and continued Il
do, we would hold her to a strict ac
countability. Such language could on
| ly be justified il Immediately and il
thorough-going fashion we had ben
our every energy to the task of pre-
pairing and therefore showing that We
meant what we said and that we pos
sessed both the will and the power K
make our words good
Such course would not have in
creased, it would have greatly di
minished, the chances of war. But ",
sat supine. We took not one step Il
prepare. Naturally Germany did no
treat us seriously; we misled her.
New, fourteen months afterward
we say that we were serious. If Ger
many now does as we wish. it will. a.
have said before he proof positiv,
that Germany would have prompt.
yielded If fourteen months ago we hat
so acted that Germany knew we mean
what we said, and in such case, there
fore, our rulers at Washington viii
have been proved responsible for tn
blood of the thousands of peaceful
men, women, and children who hav
been killed,
If she does not yield, we are the
faced with a crisis for which, durin
twenty.one months, we have failed t
prepare in even the smallest degree.
The failure of our rulers at Wash
ngton to prepare during these twer
ty-one months, when even chill
ought to have seen what was in
pending, has represented folly so el
treme that in its effort it was a Grim
against the nation.
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