The weekly soliphone., 1917-05-31
ENCLAND'S LESSON
 FOR UNITED STATES
Col. Roosevelt Declares Contest With Napoleon Was as Child's
 Play by Comparison.
(By Theodore Roosevelt)

ID ihG thS "c'iN ''''' " lseen The vast size of the armies Ithe tremendous slaughter, the loft ness of the heroism shown ant lthe hideous horror of the brutalitief Icommitted, the valor of the fighting linen and the extraordinary ingenui- Ity of those who have designed ant built the fighting machines, the burning patriotism of the peoples who defend their hearthstones anc the far-reaching compleXity of the plans of the leaders-all are on q scale so huge that nothing in past history can be compared with them
 The issues at stake are elemental The free peoples of the world have banded together against tyrannous miitarism and government by caste It is not too much to say that the outcome will largely determine, fer daring and liberty-loving souls whether or not life is worth living. | A Prussianized world would be as | lintolerable as a world ruled over | by Attila or by Timur the Lame.
 It is in this immense world crisis that England has played her part; a part which has grown greater month by month.
 ENGLAND AWAKENED ON BRINK We have suffered or are suffer ing, in exaggerated form from most | (not alb of the evils that were eating into the fibre of the British character three years ago-and in addition from some purely indigo nous ills of our own.
 If we are to cure ourselves, it | must be by our own eXertions; our destiny will certainly not be shaped | for us, as was Germnay's, by few 1 towering autocrats of genius, such as Bismarck and Moltke. The fact that England, when on the brink of destruction gathered her strength and strode resolutely back to safety, is a fact of happy omen | for us in America, who are now | just awakening to the folly and Iselfishness and greed and soft slackness that for some years we have been showing.
 As in America, so in England, a lsurfeit of materialism had produced lack of high spiritual purpose in the nation at large; there was much confusion of ideas and ideals, and also much triviality, which was especially offensive when it mas queraded under some high-soundinG name. An unhealthy sentimental 1 Ity-the antithesis of morality has gone hand in hand with a lpe- lculiarly sordid and repulsive mate rialism. The result was a soil in which various noXiOus weeds flour , ished rankly, and of these the most ,noxious was professional pacifism
 The professional pacifist has | festered in the diseased tissue of almost every civilization; but it is only within the last three-quarters of a century that he has been a serious menace to the peace of jus tice and righteousness. In conse- quence, decent citizens are only be- ginning to appreciate the base i'm morality of his preaching and prac- tice, and he has been given entire | ly undeserved credit for good in tentions.
 | GERMANS HIRED PROTESTS. | In England, as in the United States, domestic pacifism has been the most potent ally of alient mili- tarism. At first, this service was rendered without pay. The silly creatures of both sexes, who com posed the majority of the leaders in the professional pacifist move ment, were actuated by sheer tim. idity or by an uneasy thirst for self advertisement or by sheer puzzle, lheadedness.
 But gradually these dupes fel under the sway of more sinister and more powerful intellects. IT both England and the United States of recent years some of the pacifist leaders have been such merely be Icause their predominant character istic could not be prayed out O. them with mortar; but other! were hired by Germany. In tho United States, pro-Germanisn | (which is merely another name fol one form of anti-Americanism) Ina, been the main prop of the pacifis |agitation for nearly three years.
 In England as the researches O
 Miss Boyle O'Reilly have shown Herman influence is the central an, lguiding feature of every importan Ipacifist association. In both coun Itries, professional pacifism of ultr; ltype has shown itself profoundl.
 unpatriotic. The damage it ha
 done the nation has been limited
 only by it's weakness and folly
 those who have professed it hav Iserved the devil to the full exten
 which their limited powers permit
 ted
 There were in Enpland-iuSt a