The Republican journal., 1917-02-22
PREPAREDNESS.

To THE EDITOR OF The JOURNAL:
preparedness? Hon. Claude Kitchin, M.
c., leader of the House, tells US that ii !
has been created by representation
by the Seven Seas Magazine" organ
of the Navy League. Tons of literature
have been poured upon the people, vivid !
ly portraying our dangerous condition.
when Admiral Fletcher, the highest ac-
tive officer in our Navy, has expressly
declared that we already have a Navy
superior to any other nation in the world
except Great Britain. Admiral Badger,
ex-commander of the Atlantic fleet, a
member CT the General Board of the
Navy, declared that no one had ever
heard him say that Germany had Navy
superior to ours. In spite of the jingoes
of war traffickers, our Navy carries 284
guns IL inches and over, while Germany,
which has the next largest Navy aside
from Great Britain, has only 1874. A g.
inch cannon costs $4,000, and $1,000
every time it is fired. The best cost
three times that amount. Two years of
Wilson's administration eXpends twice
as much as the last two years of Taft
and eight million dollars more than
Roosevelt's entire four years. Ten years
ago our largest battleship cost little
more than 5 million dollars. The next
DIRE adnaught will cost IA million, and
later ones will cost IS to 20 million
This preparedness craze has increased
our Naval appropriations more in sim
gle year than Germany increased in the
fifteen years previous to the European
war, and 5000, 000,0 more than the
combined increase of all the nations in
the world for the five years preceding
that war. This craze was worked up
in the face of the fact that we were
already expanding from 20 to 30 millions
every year more than any other nation
except Great Britain For the ten years
previous to the European war we ex-
pended on our Navy over $500, 900, 900
more than Germany Or any other nation
except Great Britain.
Our hve-years naval program calls for
an increase of 500, 900, 900 every year
over our former expenditures. Our
army four-years program doubles our
former annual army appropriations,
calling for $780, DOC. 900 each year more
than we have been appropriating for
this purpose. This is the most Stupen-
dous war preparation ever made by any
nation in time of peare. 1t calls for 70
percent of all the revenue collected by
the nation The handspring which STIR
red the peaceful face of the deep and
reused this nation to put on the face of
militarism in its November issue of las
year, advocated wars of conque It like
Rome of old
Is this the kind of leaders that the
American people would follow? Here
are their words: "There should b. no
doubt that even with all possible moral
refinements, it is the absolute right of a
nation to live to it's fullest intensity, to
expand, to found colonies, to get richer
and richer by any proper means, such as
armed conquest. Such expansion as an
aim is an inalienable right, and in the
case of the United States. it is par
ticular duty" This sounds strangely
like more out of the same dish that
Bernhard scattered in Germany during
the few years previous to the European
war. The same medicine is liable to
operate the same in America as it did in
Europe. Warships are the most useless
things on earth. Germany has fleet
less than one third as strong as the AL
lies, but has nothing to fear from their
superior strength. Ii superior Navy
is of no avail when only 200 miles away,
why need America get the nightmare
when they have no enemy within 5000
miles and need not have one anywhere?
All battleships now in existence should
be engaged in the carrying trade and
never another one built. The best way
to teach peace is to practice it.