The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-06-14
ROOSEVELT DEPLORES
FAILURE TO PREPARE
Peace at -Any-Price Propaganda Has
Done Great Damage to the Moral
Fibre of the American
People.

dofe Roosevelt, In speech when ne ue
livered here to-day at the celebration o
the semi-centennial of the statehood o
Nebraska, criticized the national polio,
of the United States for failure to pro
test promptly against German ruthless
ness and brutality, deplored nationa
failure to prepare for the war PLEADED
for undivided loyalty to the American
flag, denounced the pacifsts, and aske'
for generous support and for the use o
r the Red Cross in caring for American
troops on European battlefields.
I'VE permitted our national policy
he said, TO be swayed by the nationa
devotions and national antipathies Of
men who exercised the rights of Amer
lean citizens but showed themselves
traitors to America by the way in which
they prostituted our citizenship to the
interests of Germany or to their hatred
J of England.
at would be impossible to overstate
the damage done to the moral fibre oil
our country by the professional paeifist
4 propaganda, the peace at-any price prop
uganda The professional pacifists dur
ing the first two and half years of the
war have occupied precisely the position
of the copperheads during the time OF
| Abraham Lincoln.
"The fact that sheer cowardice was
more potent than the love of peace was
proved by the fact that the leading pa
cifsts dared not condemn a single spe-
cific act of wrong doing when such act
was committed by the powerful and
brutal foe they most feared-Germany.
They clamored for neutrality between
Germany and Belgium. They denounced
war in language which reflected as heav-
| lily on the fathers who were defending
their wives and daughters from outrage
as upon the aggressons who systemati-
cally practiced rape and torture By
their failure to protest against. the in
human torture of the poison gas they
made it necessary hereafter to accept
this as an ordinary instrument of war
fare; just as, by our failure to take i'm
mediate action in connection with the
murder of innocent non -combatants by
submarines, we committed an offense
against humanity the effects of which
cannot be completely eradicated by any
subsequent action on our part.
"All this meanness and abandonment
of duty was championed by the profess
sional pacifists on the plea that thereby
we should be kept out of war And by
their political pressure they prevented
us from preparing and kept us utterly
unprepared, on the ground that prepared
ness invites war; their motto was Safe
ty first not Duty first They cared
nothing for righteousness. They cared
nothing for humanity. They cared moth
ing for our national honor or interest.
All they asked was peace that would
permit us to get all four feet in the
trough while we strove to distract at
tention from the squallid baseness of our
materialism by the shrill elamor of a
sham sentimentality.
And nevertheless we have not been
kept out of war. Our avoidance of duty
simply invited such cumulative repeti-
ton Of insult and injury that finally
war was forced on us. IL merely resulted
in our drifting into war stern foremost,
in a condition of such complete unreadi-
ness that we owe an ignoble safety ex
clusively to the protection of the ex
hausted nations to whose help we have
announced that we intend to come.
"From this time on let us insist on an
absolute and undivided Americanism in
this land untempered by any self -allegi
ance to the countries from which our
ancestors may severally have sprung,
and untainted by any unworthy national
animosity towards any other country.
Let us prepare ourselves spiritually, eco
nomeally and in all military and naval
matters-including as permanent pol
icy the policy OF universal military
training and service-so that never
again shall we be utterly unready, as we
now are, to meet great crisis. Finally, |
in the present war, war for liberty
and democracy against the ruthless mill
taristic tyranny of the Prussianized Ger
many of the Hohenzollerns, let us as
speedily as possible train our giant, but
our soft and unready strength, so that
we may use our hardened might to bring !
the slaughter to a real and final end in |
the only way honorably possible by Sc
curing for ourselves and our allies the |
peace of justice based on overwhelming |
In his appeal for support for the Red
Cross, Colonel Roosevelt said;
THE most important thing is to send |
abroad at the earliest possible moment
a great fighting army. Second only to |
the army in the work of winning this |
war comes our Red Cross. Indeed the |
Importance of this work is so great that |
the president of the United States has
set apart next week-from June 1926
as a period for sacrifice and unselfsh /
a week in which the whole
American people will be asked to join in
raising funds to enable our Red Cross TO
perform its vast and indispensable du-
ties in this war.
"The president has also commissioned /
several of the ablest business men of
the country as a war council of the Red
Cross. to administer this service on be-
half Of stricken world This war conn
I'll tells us. that fund of Sl00,000,000 Il
must be raised at once in order to meet
even the most urgent needs.
Here, indeed, is a summons to every
American. II is an enormous sum of
but what comfort can we take in
that or any other sum of
money If it is needed to relieve the suf
fering of our own sons or the sons of
our allies who are fighting for all that
makes life worth living.
Unto our Red Cross without stint
should be poured heartfelt offering of
that we are permitted to
DIN in this great service to all mankind.
Dur soldiers and sailors viii do their