New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-02-07
to Protect Citiz

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: 1--WE have already and unnecessarily
wasted a whole year of the time granted TO
rs By kind Providence TO prepare for the
trials which may we'll await us in the near
future. when il was virtually crime to
waste single hour
This summarization OF the neglect OF ma
| tional defences given in a letter by Charles
J. Bonaparte. ex-Secretary Of the Navy
raises the question, what ais the coun-
trv?" New and unmistakable signs Of ma
tional perils from without are appearing day
by day; yet there is no general uprising OF
men on village greens or city squares form
inc into companies and drilling for the de-
fence Of their homes.
What has happened in the last year has
shown that America without adequate de-
fences against invasion has been living IN
FOOLS paradise. We have been lulled into
dangerous repose by the erroneous reflection
that the days of war had passed and the
possibility of an invasion of the United States
vas a myth. Blinded with prosperity, made
cfeminate By the enjoyment of Injuries
which have come to Us from ordinary indus
try in land Of extraordinary opportunity,
we have weakly seized upon every sounding
phrase TO let our national defences shrink.
In families it is often only "three genera
tions from shirt sleeves TO shirt sleeves -
that is to say. the grandfather, as young
man, made money by the development Of his
strength and ability, and his sons were there
fore released from the necessity Of intense
exertion, and in consequence, the virilty
o, the line grew weak in the second genera
ton The grandsons, still further enervated
| by the ease of their fathers, spent the last
Of the fortune, and, without the strength or
ability of their forebears, were compelled TO
start TO work at the low level where the
grandfather began.
A comparative study of history will show
that in the rise and fall Of nations there are
cycles Of time which correspond to the three
generations mentioned, and that always the
decline has been preceded by the era of great
wealth, Of many servants the days in which
pleasure rose to the height of national in
stituton
/ We are wealthy, but we are weak in that
the average man has come to regard per-
sona part in the defence of the nation as
something that can be delegated to another,
forgetting for a moment that this great life
we are living in the United States has been
not merely handed down to US. but was pre-
pared for us only at the expense Of several
wars BY men who were mentally strong
enough to stand for right. and if need be, 70
die for it. If our forebears had been peace
at-any-prce men what would our country be
to-day? Whose serfs would the peace-at-
any-price men Of to-day be?
The timid peace-at-any-p thought.
whether secretly held or publicly proclaimed.
| IS an unbeatable symptom Of national de-
cline. Its adherents are the logical. soft by
product of great national wealth. men who,
whether personally rich or in modest cir
cumstances, are so weakened by the case
with which an abundance of the good things
Of life are gained that they have lost both
vision and perspective.
The complexity Of our national life has
obscured our vision Endless diversions have
weakened the current Of public thought. We
ere all specialists in something, and We turn
over to other people everything else needful
for sustenance and wellbeing We have
been doing this so long it has been bred in
the bone. and national defence is BY routine
left 70 somebody else. with, however, this lin
iita,ion-there must be no development of the
militarstic.
/ But the delegation of power and the lirli-
tstion Of authority granted by public opin-
ion clash. II the one prevails the other can
not prevail. So that we come 20 second