Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1916-05-04

ing the last three years more
of our citizens have been killed
by Mexicans, Germans, Austrians
and Haitians than during the en-
tire Spanish war"
We Cant Leave Our Rights %
Others.
The whole anti-preparedness
case of pacifists like Mr.. Butler
and Mr.. Jones stands on the as
sumption that we can safely leave
our rights, interests and national
safety to the sense of justice of
foreign nations; that always all
of these foreign governments
will look at American rights, lib
critics and interests as we look at
them.
This is analogous to saying that
an American citizen need never
defend his interests in an Amer
lean court Of low. That no one
will ever sue him unless by his
conduct he invites suit. That if
he has large property interests he
need not spend money for legal
defence, because he can safely and
confidently yield his judgment and
his sense of justice to the sense
of justice Of every other man and
woman living in his judicial jur-
isdiction.
President Butler and Senator
Jones say, in the first place, that
none Of the other nations of the
world will attack us if we are
neutral and do not attack them,
and, in the second place, they
will not have the strength or the
resources to attack us when the
European war is done.
Not one of the belligerents will
be able to attack any other coun-
try for a generation if it wanted
to-" says President Butler. Even
the most military of European
states, at the end of this war, will
find itself as Serbia and Bulgaria
found themselves after the long
struggle in the Balkans"
There Will Be Plenty Of Fighting
Punch Left.
That was an unfortunate illus
tration for Mr.. Butler. Since it
was uttered Bulgaria, the coun-
try which he thought exhausted
in the Balkan war, exhausted for
a generation, has plunged into
the greater fray as an ally of the
central powers.
The exact converse of that rea-
soning is true. AS Major General
Wood told the senate military
committee recently, there isn't
going to be any weakness abroad
after this war is over. You will
find that more male children will
have been born than have been
killed or injured"
Japan has been in three wars
in the last dozen years, and is
better prepared than ever.
"A century ago Quoting from
The Valor of Ignorance') Europe
complacently the self
devastation of France. The mon-
archy had been murdered; the no.
bility guillotined; commerce was
ruined; manufactures destroyed;
AID PREPAREDNESS
the countryside was tangled
thicket presided over by half
starved and tattered people. The
wealth of the nation had gone up
in the bonfire of the republic.
little sallow man took
hold of these famished people,
this nation devoid of commerce,
manufactures or revenues, and
with its poverty conquered the
whole Of incredulous Europe,
Napoleon"
Take the Wonderful Rise OF Japao
Take more recent instance,
Japan. Only few years since,
on some mountainous islands, a
people little known fought among
themselves with weapons as prim-
itive as those Of the siege Of Troy.
Their entire revenues were less
than those of an American city,
the cultivable land of the whole
empire less than one-h half the area
of Illinois. Suddenly they also
rose up, and, with the perennial
power of poverty, in less than one
decade disemboweled the two
vainest and vastest empires on
earth, causing the whole world to
whisper in old and stale wonder
at this new sun that rose with the
suddenness Of an unknown comet
out of the eastern sea-"
Opponents of preparedness ask
this nation to lean on broken
reed, for surely this war affords
sufficient proof that the pacifist
belief that a peace-seeking coun-
try is immune from attack is a
shattered reed. The case of Bel