The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1916-04-15
"WILD CRY" OF PREPAREDNESS,
FICTION, SAYS HENRY FORD


COUNTRY AS ANTASTIC"-ADVISES
AMERICANS TO KEEP COOL AND
TAKE FICTION AT ITS OWN
WORTH /
Henry Ford, millionaire auto manu-
facturer, and fnancier of the recent
peace mission to Europe, inserted full
page paid article, entitled Humanity
and Sanity" in The Chicago Tribune, on
April II, in which he strongly attacked
the advocates of preparedness.
We herewith present the following ex-
tracts, which certainly deal with the
subject in hand, in very able and lucid
manner:
"For months the people of the United
States have had fear pounded into their
brains by magazines, newspapers, and
motion pictures. No enemy has been
pointed out. All the wild cry for the
spending of billions, the piling up of
armament, and the saddling of the
country with military caste has been
based on nothing but fiction.
"For, Americans should realize that
the fantastic stories of the invasion of
the country and it's quick conquest are
the work of fiction writers. 1t is good
rule to keep cool and take fiction at it's
own worth. =
eve have seen this come true at the
Dardanelles. The greatest battle fleet
in the worlds history, backed up mag
nifcent army in that landing. They
faced no such great guns as our coast
forts have. Yet for a year this army
and navy struggled and the soldiers
never got beyond range of the naval
guns. Then the attempt was abandoned.
The jingoes refuse to remember such
recent shattering of their fictions, and
try to make you forget it, too.
''They refuse to remember that Eng
land during the present war, with ab-
solute control of the sea, required 33
days to move 10000 troops, u1aeqatipped,
from one friendly port, Quebec, to an
other friendly port, Southampton. Yet
they tell you glibly of 100000 enemies
landing on our shores almost overnight.
y j. x
THE NAVY LEAGUE FOR DEFENSE ?
"The Navy League has been spending
large sums to tell Americans that it is
organized for the defense of the coun-
try.
"The Navy League is deceiving the
country, and it's own official organ, the
'Sevem Seas magazine, proves the de-
ception.
con page 13 of the September, 1915,
issue, appears the true gospel of the
Navy League.
eve read: The true militarist be-
lieves that pacifism is the masculine and
humanitarian is the feminine manifes-
tation Of national degeneracy.
World empire is the only logical and
natural aim of q 1aGtion.'
'Here we have the philosophy Of the
Navy League, which thus sustains the
ideas of it's munition-making founders.
Brutal, lawless, avaricious, but ever
making the common people pay the bills
in life, limb, money and waste.
"The munition makers fear the end
ing of the war. They have built vast ad-
ditions to their factories, not temporary
structures, but great buildings that in
dicate not only hope but determination
that this war shall continue, that other
wars shall follow and bring their bloody
profits with them. If they cannot force
more war they can at least, they believe,
tie up this country for huge munition
contracts And they, and their tools, are
preaching fear to get those contracts.
And this treason, masked as patriotism,
has deluded many who have not thought
and will not think.
Remember the warning words of
George Washington, in his farewell ad-
dress to the American people: Cult
vate peace and harmony with all nations.
Overgrown military establish
ments are, under any form of govern
ment, inauspicious to liberty and are to
be regarded as particularly hostile to re-
publican liberty
QUESTION OF RIGHT
"The men who voted against tabling
the prOpOsal of Senator Gore and Con-