New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1916-01-26
Wednesday Jan. 26, 1916.

In the Preparedness Of Its People
Lies the Strength Of
A Notion.
A house divided against itself can
be the only possible result of the pre- sent
agitation for national military prepared
ness. Already two distinct camps have
formed themselves within the ranks of
the present party in power-the advo-
Gates of larger and stronger army and
navy on the one hand and the pacifists
on the other All else seems to have been
lost sight of by the so-called statesmen
of our nation. A we'll defined and care
fully studied program for and against
military preparedness seems to have
been formulated and is being carried out
by them regardless of the consequences
and irrespective of the wishes of the
common herd of citizenry, who in the
first place are responsible for the destiny
of this nation. Planks and platforms
of much promise of three years ago, born
of the fertile brains of these same men,
evidently have been cast aside as useless
and worthless timber, for no other rea
son than to profit (in military way) by
the lessons now taught by the nations at
war in the European arena. Great
newspapers of the land, edited in great
many instances at the behest and order
of interests who stand behind the pre-
paredness program, have touted the po-
licies of the administration in vain ef-
fort to arouse the masses to at least lend
sympathetic ear to a program of murder
of their fellow men in the name of pa
triotism and national honor
These same newspapers prattle of the
lessons of preparedness taught by the
present European struggle. They point
to Germany's power of resistance against
seemingly overwhelming forces as an ex-
ample of preparedness against attack;
they point to England's lack of organi-
cation in time Of need, and to Russia's
harmless maneuvres because of bureau
cratic misuse of power. They draw from
these lessons, errors and abuses a pic
ture of America in time of war and visual
lize their drawing by graphic descriptions
of what would happen should foreign
foe invade our lend. The ineficiency of
our army and navy is laid open for the
world to see and our coast defenses are
made to appear as mere houses of cards
to collapse within themselves at the ap-
proach Of foreign fleet.
Is it possible, we ask, that the enor-
nous sums annually spent for these
have been wasted and have left no more
visible traces of preparedness than the
chaff cast upon the waters of a virulent
sea? Is it possible that the millions
spent for the training Of our officers and
soldiers has been so much money thrown
away? The cry of preparedness has
not been raised in the years of peace of
the two decades. Is it possible that the
statesmen of this nation are willing to
try to make the masses believe that the
past expenditures for preparedness were
mere experiments to bigger end? Are
these statemen willing to try to make US
believe that greater navy and larger
army will furnish a better inducement
for enlistment than that now depicted
upon the alluring posters displayed in
every federal building? Would they
make us believe that the American youth
tary and offer his services to the country
in time of peace, just because the manu-
facturers of arms and the inventors of
armor plate are vieing with each other
in the matter of force and resistance?
We cannot believe that true Americans,
who still respect the fundamental princi-
Piles of government upon which this
nation was founded, will be deceived by
the glitter of gold braid or the prospect
of high carnival when by strategy or
force an enemy has been overcome. If
the present administration is sincere in
it's propaganda for a larger navy and
army, then it has not taken the masses
into it's confidence as to the true state
of affairs of this nation in relation to
foreign powers. If diplomatic intrigue
has inveigled this country into the meshe:
of foreign entanglements the fact is not
known to the masses and they should
be enlightened if that be so. But to
ask for national preparedness of a med
resistance, with untold millions already
s ,ent for like purpose in past years
without ocular results, is the height o.
folly and brazen attempt to make
American people like something they
h I'VE no stomach for.
We stated at the beginning of this
article that this nations strength lies il
the preparedness of it's people and thai
IT,