Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-04-20

near Asia as now; Asia in fact being a
pra ctlcally unknown continent. To-day We
have one hundred million people and the
great Pacific coast to defend. whilo the
purchase of Alaska has brought us into
contact with Asiatic Russia, and the Beh-
ring islands place us in touch with Japan.
We have the Hawaiian Islands. the Phil
ippines and the Panama canal to est ahlsh
us as world power. The Panama canal
places lis in touch with the continent of
South America, we must look after Porto
Rico and. although Cuba is independent,
we have the right of entry there to settle
internal disturbances and must regard
closely that country's welfare
Professor Taft then devoted some
time to the consideration of the vari
Gus problems presented by Mexico,
which he characterized as an interna-
tional nuisance, but said that it was
giving us n valuable lesson in our I'M
preparedness. II Intervention became
necessary 1t would take fully 100000
soldiers to tranquilize Mexico. for the
coming of an alien force into their
midst would stir UP the people OF
Mexico, no matter how altruistc the
purpose was said to be, particularly
as the treatment of the Mexican peo-
pie by some of their leaders has not
been such as to cause them to put
much faith in the promises of man.
The history of the Monroe doctrine,
which. said Professor Taft. like the
poor is always with us, was outlined
at some length, from its establishment
in 1923 in opposition to the establish
ment of the doctrine of monarchical
n he n a
south of us, until the time came when
II was paramount issue to us to
keep the European nations out so that
we must protest the transfer OF any
territory to other powers. He dwclt
upon the establishment of Maximilian's
empire in Mexico during the period of
our Civil War and of the significance
of It's collapse when we sent force
OF 100000 veteran fighters under the
command of General Sheridan to the
border and France quickly withdrew
her troops
The Monroe doctrine should not be
abandoned, said the speaker in most
emphatic fashion. 1t has kept Eu-
rope out OF these southern countries
ever since It's establishment. and the
direct result of their coming can be
seen in the partitioning of Asia and
Africa. In addition to these results
the establishment of European colonies
in the countries near the Panama canal
would be very dangerous to our con-
troll OF the canal if we should become
involved In any difficulties with the
mother countries. II an issue arises
where we feel that 1t would not 10 to
emphasize it, we can contest our
selves with a protest. but we should
never abandon it. Our attitude to-
wards some of our smaller southern
neiEhbors should be that of big
brother. said MI. Taft, citing particu-
larly our intervention in Santo Dom
lingo.
In concluding the subject of our for
eign relations. the speaker emphasized
our relations with Europe at the pres
ent time We felt that at the begin
ming OF the war we could conduct our
selves as neutrals and have any diff
ficultiAs which might arise settled by
international law. Both groups OF
combatants have, however. violated in
ternational law. England by the seizure
of our vessels and Germany by sinking
neutral vessels without warming so
that at any moment crisis may arise
In our relations with these powers. In
view OF all of these circumstances, it
is our Christian duty to so prepare
ourselves as to remove from all pow
ers the temptation to attack us.
, WHAT OUR DEFENCES ARE AND
WHAT THEY SHOULD BE.
Despite the lessons of our history,
oTn
Of 1913 we did not fight a single bat
! tie on land on which we can look back
with any satisfaction. except the bat
tie of New Orleans. which was fought
after the treaty of peace was signed
There were a number of naval battles,
in reality naval duels in which our
vessels gained great credit Both sides
were unprepared at the beginning of
the civil War the North more than the
South, but at the end We had a strong
army for few years We then en-
tered upon a period of greater mate
rial prosperity than the world had ever
SEEN but our army became reduced TO
1000 men and we would not have kept
these If they had not been needed to
hight the Indians during the opening
up of the West
our navy and our coast defences
gradually came into the same condition
as the army. When President Cleveland
and Secretary Oney We're Instructive
England that she must arbitrate the
questions between British Guiana and
Nenezueia, We had one single gun mount
ed at Sandy look for coast defence.
Measures were taken after that to i'm
prove our coast defenccs until they are
now the best branch of our national de-
Fences. Additional coast defences are
needed at Chesapeake bay. but Balti-
more, Washington and New York are
well defended. and In year or a year
ana n haif our entire coast defence could
De made as good as any In the world.
The spanish war did not teach us much
OF lesson since Providence kindly pro-
Viued us with an opponent who was the
only nation In the world more unprepar red
than ourselves, We gained the feeling
that We could prepare for any emergency
over aisht, Measures We're adopted by
the general board OF the navy after this
war which. If lived up to, would have
given us an adequate navy, but they
were never carried out.
Professor Taft then gave his ideas of
what constituted adequate preparation
We should have as "A first line of defence
navy strong enough to defeat the navy
of any power capable of mobilizing and
sending against us within a month or
SIX weeks an army of from 10000 to $780,
600 trained soldiers. and our coast de-
fences should adequately protect our
coast cities that they could not be