Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1917-02-22
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GEO. WASHINGTON GUIDES
FOREIGN POLICY OF y. S

We are forbidden to sail our ships or to
travel where we will on the high seas un-
der penalty of being sunk without warning
by submarines. The German government
draws lines across the ocean, which is
free TO all, and says to America: Thus
far shalt thou come but no farther. Now
we recognize the restrictions of a leciti-
mate blockade and the penalties of ear
rying contraband; these are fixed bv the
law of nations. But apart from these lin
%ltations American ships and American
passengers have a right to 90 where they
will on all the seven seas.
Are there any who meekly advise us
to forego our rights in Difference TO the
German challenger Would Germany, | ask.
forego her rights if in her place America
without any warrant of law had set aside
ia vast tract of ocean for %ruinous depre-
Idatlons on the m of ~neutrals and
ruthless attack on the lives of noncombat-
ants, Could any great nation survive,
ought any great nation 10 survive, which
cravenly yields its rights at the summons
of the aggressor? The same law which
-udidittt~ III TlEUiS 10 ttTTllOTldI waters
authorizes Us to sail freely on the high
seas. If belligercnts are permitted To ex-
clude us from the oceans, why should they
not also appropriate our territorial waters
or even march their armies across our
frontiers! The surrender of one national
right weakens and imperils every other.
Come what may our nation must defend
lis rights. And with united hearts and
re>olute determination the American peo-
pie stand behind President Wilson: and
they will not tolerate either the PARALYSIS
of American shipping or the murder of
American citizens"
There i 4 third feature of Washing
tons craftsmanship which j. especially in
>tructivc at the present time" DIR. Schur-
man also pointed out. Il mean his advo-
cacy of military preparedness and his gen
eral attitude to the question of peace and
war.
Though Washington was a great gen
cral and fought a victorious war for ma
tional independence he was no %glorifier of
militarism. On the other hand he was
equally removed from pacifism. He re-
earded war "a one of the inevitable feat
urc> OF national existence. Listen To the
wise words he addressed to congress in his
FIRST speech after reelection:
81 cannot recommend to your notice
measures for the f%uIfillment of our duties
10 the rest of the world. without again
pressing upon you the necessity Of plac-
ing ourselves in a condition Of complete
defense, and of exacting from them the
fulflllment Of their duties towards Us. The
United States ought not to indulge a per
suaslon, that, contrary 10 the order of
human events, they will forever keep at n
distance those painful appeals to arms,
with which the history of every other ma
tons abounds. There is q rank due 10 the
United States among nations. which will be
withheld, If not absolutely lost, by the
reputation of weakness. If we desire TO
avoid insult, we must be able to repel it
4 we desire TO secure peace, one of the
most powerful instruments of our rising
prosperity, il must be known that we are
It all times ready for war;
'In this passage you nave Washington's
whole philosophy of peace, war and pre-
paredness. Nothing truer or wiser has
yer been written, and Washington's words
IRE a true and wise and applicable today
as they were when he uttered them in 1893.
Undoubtedly there have been MANY
changes in the century and a quarter that
las since elapsed. Communications by
sea and land nave greatly improved, inter
curse with foreign countries has increas-
ed, international relations nave been null
1plied. But human nature i substantially
unchanged, and national ambition and ri
aires, stimulated by greater prizes, are
more intense and perhaps more explosive
han ever before. Whatever be the future
prospects of the human race, We have not
yet reached that stage Of rational and
moral development in which justice, right
,ousness, and public law can dispense with
the sanctions of physical force.
1T l. a painful situation for America,
dedicated a. she i to peaceful industry,
democratic government, and the promotion
of the general welfare. War j. a contra
iiction of these high aims. Yet there l.
no gainsaying the truth of Washington's
words: III We want to secure peace W,
must be at all times ready for war; In
deed the saying is truer now than ever
before. For war today i conducted on
such a colossal scale, and makes use of
such a vast and multiform organization
of economic and industrial as well as mill
tary instrumentalities, that a nation un-
prepared to defend itself might easily be
s~ubjugated before it had time to organize
faction. Could Washington, therefore,