Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-01-27
For Universal Training

During the session senator Duhtdh
u. Fletcher of Florida, Walter 1. n
per of Detroit. Hermann Hagedon'
Jr, of Fairfield Conn, Miss Grace
Parker of New York and Charles Ma
gel of ST. Louis, formerly secretary OF
commerce and labor, took occasion TO
declare emphatically their allegiance
to the cause of universal military
training and service.
Letters were read from Theodore
Roosevelt and Governor Edge of New
Jersey, expressing the same view.
Mr.. Hagedorn expressed the keynote
Of the congress when he declared that
education toward citizenship was the
vital part of any national prepared
ness, the only hope of abolition OF war
I'VE must build up the army and
navy" he said, but force must be the
servant of the spirit or it will be the
master. There can be no partnership
there. An alert democracy must stand
behind the army and navy an inner
wall of enlightened and vigorous cltl-
zcnship."
He assailed the American education
al system as calculated to produce men
indifferent to national affairs.
RooSeVeitS Letter
In his letter, Col. Roosevelt charac-
terized the Hay bill, which sought to
| federalize the national guard as sec
ond line of defense, as being las TOOL
| ish and unpatriotic Il bit OF tiint-lock
LEGISLATION as was ever put on the stat
ute books"
| Outlining his views as to the army and
navy. the former President said the navy
should be second only to that of Great
/ Britain, which nation had greater nect'
of n navy. For the army he urged reg
| MAR establishment of 25OoUo men unoer
the direct control of a general stan ana
the adaptation of the Swiss universal ser
vice system to American needs.
"Re it remembered" he wrote, 'that
such a force as that for which ask
while very powerful for defence would
| he almost worthless for aggression.
| Col Roosevelt paid his respects TO
those who preach the ignoble cult OF
the professional pacif1st, the peace at any
price man, and added; I'VE nope ui''-
mately the day will come on this earth
| when wars will cease. But at present
| that hone seems as far in the future as
| Tho realization of that other hope that
como dav IN the future all crime will
cease" The text of the letter foiio"s'
January 10th, 1917.
NV Dear Mr. Mcnkcn:
AS il is unfortunately Impossible for
me to be present in person, | desire in
This letter to express my heartiest
GOOD wishes for the success of your
meeting and my belief that the move
ment in which you are engaged is one
of the really vital mOvementS-lndeed
at the moment it is l think the really
vital movement-for the ultimate hon
or and welfare of this country
We need, more than anything else
In this country, thorough going Amer
icanism-for unless we are Americans
and nothing else, we are not nation
at all-and thorough going prepared
ness in time of peace against war
for if we are not thus prepared we
shall remain a nation only until some
more yirile nation finds it worth while
to conquer us.
The work of preparedness-spiritual
and material, civic, industrial and mil
itary-and the work of Americaniza-
ton are simply the two paramount
phases or elements of the work of con-
structive patriotism which your Con-
gress has gathered to foster. There
can be no real preparedness in this
country unless this country is thor
oughly Americanized; for only patri-
otto people will prepare; and there can
be no deep national feeling for Amer
lea until we are all of us Americans
through and through.
Americanism means many things: 1t
means equality or rights and. there
fore. equality of duty and of obligation.
1t means service to our common
country 1t means loyalty to one flag,
to our flag the flag of all of us. 1t
means on the part of each of us re-
spect for the rights of the rest of us.
1t means that all Of us guarantee the
rights of each Of us. 1t means free
education. genuinely representative
government, freedom Of speech
and thought, equality before the
law for all men, genuine political
and religious freedom, and the democ-
rafting of industry so as to give at
least a measurable equality of oppor-
tunity for all, and SO as to place be-
fore us as our ideal in all industries
where this ideal is possible of attain
ment. the system of cooperative own
ership and management, in order that
the TOOL users may, so far as possible.
become the tool owners. Everything
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