The daily Alaskan., 1918-07-08
EDITORIAL
SUPPOSING-

in the right, and so sure that our national strength, when it is fully exerted, will give us the victory, that We rarely or never consider the possibility of defeat. that wise! The race S, not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. ..
 Suppose that the event should turn out other than we wish. sup pose the Allied armies are so decis- lively defeated on the western front that they are forced to surrender and that the Kaiser dictates a German peace and enforces it. So large a contingent of American troops might be captured that we should have to accept humiliatlng terms and pay an immense indem- nity to buy back their freedom. And even if Germany should win with out hayng many American hostages in it's hands, this country, although still unconquered, would face a per manent enemy. We should not sui fer immediately from any demands that Germany might make upon us, because we should not meet those demands, and Germany could not enforce them. But we should have no more than a temporary respite. A Germany victorious in this war would be sure to attack Us sooner or later. It long ago marked our country as it's next victim. We can not guest what the preteXt would
 De, but Germany would find one.
 Could We make a successful re- sistance Assuredly. But we should not delude ourelve as to the thor oughness of the preparation that we should have to make. The contest would be one to determine which na tion had the greater sea power. The conditions would favor us. The enemy would have to send it's war vessels and it's transports three thouand miles to reach our shores. What German submarines have done to the seacraft of the Entente our own submarines could do in destroying an invading armada.
 Nevertheless, a hostile army might effect landing. Therefore We should be called upon not only to defend our coast cities with heavy artillery and stout Qualifications but to create, train and keep in state of instant readiness an army large enough to reduce to a minimum the chances of invasion and the injury that would accompany landing.
 Meanwhile, we must not forget that. if the Kaiser held England and France by the throat, we could hope for no help from our allies When Germany should translate into deeds it's contempt for the Monroe Doctrine, We could count on no as sistance from abroad in warding off blows aimed primarily at our neigh bors, but quite as much at ourselves Canada might be invaded and over run and could offer no resistance; we could be attacked from any one of a hundred points on our northern border. Moreover, our peril from within, from alien en- emies, great as it is now, would then be multiplied tenfold.
 To what does all that lead? Sim ply to this: that, unless We win this war, our destiny will be to become a great military and naval country, compelled by constant danger of attack to require universal military service, to submit to onerous tax ation, and to maintain estab- lishments comparable to those which we condemn in Prussia. We could never be free from apprehension Of embodiment with the world enemy or exempt from the losses, the hor- TOTS and the expense of war when our unrelenting foe should choose to assail us,