Der Deutsche correspondent. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1841-1918, 1917-03-28

1 y
universal training and to drill
| hundreds of thousands of men as
officers, soldiers and sailors; to as
semble and to equip submarines
and dirigibles and aeroplanes; to in
struct thousands Of aviators; to run
every gun plant and munitions plant
night and day; in short, to enlist,
! drill, officer und equip great army
! and the most efficient sea defense
! possible, we cannot be more than a
| fourth day fully prepared to meet a
| possible attack Of a victorius Teu-
tonic combination by this time next
! Spring
BY working night and day, like
beavers, we can hope to get in shape
In year to make good our defense
| through another trying year Of pre-
paration, and that is the best we
| can do.
And what shall be said Of the
! counsel that we spend this presious
\ time, not in preparing our own de-
| fense, but in actually stripping our
country of its men and money!
Why, it is lunacy- stark, staring,
bahbling idiocy.
We are amazed to hear men who
ough to have more sense advocating
| this policy men, for example, like
Mr. Handing not Mr.. Warburg, Of
! the Federal Reserve Board, senti-
mentally proposing that we begin
| by giving away a billion dollars Of
the money we shall SO desperately
need to make good our own safety.
A public official possessed of such
mental machinery as that ought to
take ii in haste to a repair shop
This is no time for silly senti-
mentalism. This is a grave and
terribly serious time, that calls for
the exercise of the most anxious
thinking and speaking on lines of
common sense.
Flag-waving heroes and oratorical
blood-drinkers and sentimental ex-
nloiters may have their usos-but
they are only in the way OF business
like preparedness.
There are no flags nor drums on
modern battlefields. The wars of to-
day are fought with machinery and
mathematical calculation.
The business of making war is
just as rnethcdical as the business of
making farm machinery or the
business Of building railroads, or
any other business.
II we do not prepare for the war
that threatens IN A BUSINESS
WAY, we win be beaten, and brutal
ly and bloodily beaten at that.
The orators and writer's who
picture proud ex-Pl esidents riding
gayly though the theatre Of Euro
pean war at the head Of flag-decked
American tropps, while innumerable
bandr blare forth the mingled an
thems of America. and England and
France, are simply fools.
They have no more conception Of
what this horrible trade of whole
sale murder BY machinery, this mod
ern warfare, really is than child in
its crib.
The have no more conception OF
what the frightful and furious and
tremendous conflict we may soon
have to face really viii be than have
the poor creatures who are shelter
ed In the homes for the feeble-mind-
ed
We should be false to every obli-
/ cation Of an American journal and
false to our citizenship in and our
loyalty to this dear land Of our
birth aur our affection If we did
not warn you, countrymen, Of the
deadly danger OF this propaganda
which would persuade us TO strip
Gun country bare or its defenses
and waste upon foreign battlefields
and in behalf OF foreign govern
ments the money we SO urgently
need TO prepare for war and the
! lives OF our young men, who should
be massing to defend our own flag
and to preserve our own land from
invasion and defeat and bloody sub
jugation.
We urge you--every man and wo-
man Of you to make your own
voices heard in loud opposition to
such preposterous propositions.
We urge you to make your voices
heard by the President and by the
| Congress.
And we say to the President, with
| all due respect for his high office,
that we will greatly err il he does
not plainly speak his opposition to
this lunatic war programme.
And to the Congress we appeal,
! in the name or the American people,
that 1t Loyalty and boldly and inn
movably oppose and resist every
| proposal to put dollar OF American
money or single American soldier
! at the disposal OF any foreign Gov
ernment until this country Of ours
has been put upon a ground OF inn
pregnable preparedness for it's own
| defense.
The man who, in this time OF
I danger and unpreparedness, pro-
poses or votes to strip our own land
| Of SO much as an ounce Of It's poor
| and inadequate present means Of de-
fense is nothing short Of d fool and
Is more dangeours than secret trail
tor or an armed enemy
| If we should indeed commit our
selves to such incredible folly, the
| day will come when the land viii
rue that folly in blood and tears,
and when every man who had a part
in planning or hand IN executing
| this treason to our own safety Will
be the object Of universal execration
and may be fortunate if an OUT
ragged and infuriated people do not
swing him at the end Of revenge
full rope
we repeat that this proposal to
strip our land Of its money and it's
tt~ ,xyno Nopc for tho 111p af