Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1916-02-04
TELLS REASONS
FOR PREPAREDNESS
Continued From Page One.

number OF fghtlng men, put the num-
Der of men who are ready to fight.
Some men are born troublesome,
some men have trouble thrust upon
them, and others acquire trouble. I
think I belong to the second class.
But the characteristic desire of Amer
lea is not that she should have a
great body of men whose chief bust
ness is to fight, but a great body of
men who know how to fight and are
ready to fight when anything that is
dear to the nation is threatened. You
might have what we have, millions
of men who had never handled arms
Of war, who are mere material for
shot and powder If you put them in
the field, and America would be
ashamed of the ineficiency of calling
such men to defend the nation.
"What we want is to associate in
training with the army of the United
States men who will volunteer for a
sufficient length of tibe every year
to get the rudimentary acquaintance
with arms, the rudimentary skill in
handling them, the rudimentary &C.
quaintance wit hcamp life, the rudi-
mentary acquaintance with military
drill and discipline and we ought to
see to 1t that we have men OF that
sort in sufficient number to consti-
'tute an initial army when we need an
army for the defense of the country"
He spoke of the many points where
the people and the activities OF this
nation-"the sensitive places of our
life''-touch the European struggle,
and added:
1.-THE difficulties of the worlds az
fairs accumulate. 1t was, of course,
evident that this was taking place
long before the present session of
congress assembled. But only since
the congress assembled has it been
possible to consider what we ought
to do in the new circumstances of the
times. Congress cannot know what
to do unless the nation knows what
to do and it seemed to me not only
my privilege, but my duty, to go out
and inform my fellow countrymen
just what I understood the present
situation to be.
Not Hurrying Congress.
II do not wish to hurry the con-
gress or the United States. These
things are too important to be put
through without very thorough sift-
ing and debate, and am not in the
least jealous of any of the searching
processes of discussion. That is what
free people are for, to understand
what they are about and to do what
they wish to do. only il they under
stand what they are about. But 1t
is impossible to discuss the details of
plans in great bodies. unorganized
bodies OF men, like this audience. for
example. All that can do in this
presence is to tell you what I know
Of the necessities of the case and to
ask you to stand back OF the execu-
tive authorities Of the United States
in urging upon those who make our
laws as early and effective action as
possible"
And toward the close he declared
emphatically:
1.-THE United States is not in love
with the aggressive use Of power.
1t despises aggressive use Of power.
There is not a foot Of territory be-
longing to any other nation which
this nation covets or desires. There
is not privilege which we ourselves
enjoy which we would dream of de-
nying any other nation in the world.
II there is one thing that the Ameri-
can people love and believe in more
than another it is peace, and all the