Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-06-10

gar, unheroic, a gigantic dogfight in
the worlds front street.
Conflict and Preparedness.
in the world conflict of ideas pre-
| paredness counts as surely as in the
conflict of brute forces. All over this
land today there is clamor and call
for military efficiency, for naval ex-
pansion, for the preparedness of the
United States to defend its people, and
its possessions and its honor against
| assault from without or betrayal from
! within.
las Canadian that agitation gives
| me neither surprise nor alarm. An
| American army, be it never so formid-
! able, or an American navy, be 1t never
| SO powerful, could have in it no mem
! ace for Canada or for the Canadian
! people. The Great Lakes will never
/ be stirred by the keel of any ship OF
! war. The open pTairfes vii! never
answer to the tread of an enemy army
! from either side. Our civilized democ-
racy on both sides is our defense, and
! our hundred years Of undisturbed
peace is our pledge for a thousand
: more.
] characterization Of Ideas.
But when at the war fronts of the
worlds mind the conflict RACES over
/ the ideas of liberty. democracy and
| internationalism, there are no dividing
| lines between these two nations. Your
West Point and your training camps
/, and your military posts are yours, and
yours alone; but your universities,
your colleges, your institutions 10.
mental discipline and moral educa-
ton, are ours too. Every school in
the United States that puts premium,
on high thinking. that makes truth
its supreme objective, and character
its great achievement, and holds honor
above success and sends out into the
activities of this republic men who
can not be bought and who will not
lie-that school serves Canada as
surely as it serves the state in which
it stands.
Every college in which manhood is
priced more highly than money, in
which personality is gloried in rather
than endowments. from which leader
ship goes into the life centers of this
nation and returns not again until 1t
touches the life currents of the world ,
that schools can not be shut in by
any geographical lines or confined to
the range of any national flag. Your
army and your navy are yours. but
your leaders Of thought your teach
ers Of truth, your masters of ideas be-
long to all the world. Every mans
fatherand is to them native coun-
try, and every foreign country Is 10
them fatherland.
Americas Readiness Of Mind.
Preparedness? Yes, if America is
to play any worthy part in the gigan-
i -, a @cft tyh
the world long after the war of forces
has spent itself it is high time Amer
lea made ready for that inevitable I
struggle.
But the readne,s for which | plead !
on this occasion and in this presence !
is the prepa richness of the American
mind, the preparedness Of the Ameri- !
can conscience, the preparedness of !
the American will
Better, infinitely better. to go into |!
the war at the battlefrontS of Europe !
and on the high seas with an army
and navy weaker and worse equip |
ped than the most alarmist accuser Of
American unpreparedness in his wild
est nightmare ever dreamed. than to
line up III the world conflict of ideas
with an undisciplined national mind,
irresolute national will. These are
the Verdun battlements of your ma
tons life Surrender them 70 the
enemies of truth and freedom and |
honor. and, no matter what happens
TO your battalions and your battle
ships, your nation will have lost its
soul.
Plea For the College.
and with all Americans, in this time
OF national fear and international
peril, is not 80 much for or against the
preparedness policy for navy or
army AS a Canadian that is not my
business. In that national controversy
I am neutral.
But Canadians also are Americans.
On US as on you rest the North Amer
lean obligations for our common inter-
nationalism. To US as to you in the
new day of the new world the desc
lated war nations will look for leader
ship in those policies and programs
that make for international peace
From us as from you must go out
that gospel of good will and that law
of international service in which is
the hope Of Europe's redemption, and
the world.
From the World Standpoint.
TT is from this world standpoint,
and for this world purpose. l make
my plea on behalf Of the schools and
colleges and universities of all this
nation. Especially do I plead for those
smaller colleges in which front place
is made for personality, and whose
output is not only trained intelligence
but also character built four-square.
"All over the land l touch those col
!eges from which have come in the
past, and are still coming, leaders of
the thought and purpose and achieve
ment Of this American nation. There
today is being nodded the nation of
tomorrow. There, in those class rooms ;
and corridors, are being fixed the
standards of private citizenship and
the measures of the nations honor for
the new world that will emerge out
of the blackness and weller of war.
Americas achievements in the
world of nations tomorrow will be the
expression and embodiment of ideas
inspired and set free in American col
/ leges today. In the world conflict OF
| IDEAS the schools are your strategic
fortresses. Hold them today, and the
liberty the democracy and the inter-
nationalism Of North America, in
spred by the teaching and the per-
sona1ty of the international Christ,
will make the christianized interna
tionarlsm OF North America the en-
sample and the dynamic of political
thinking among all nations of the