The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1918-03-01
MARTIN GLYNN TRIMS THE
UNDERTAKING. CRITICS OF
THE ADMINISTRATION


Theodore Roosevelt may indulge
himself in all the weird Juggling Ian
guage that pleases his fancy; he may
insensate himself in such inspiration
al riot of emotional frenzy as may
give fire to his tongue and flare to his
imagination; but the fact remains I'm
deniable, ineffaceable, irremovable
that in two years of antebellum days
Woodrow Wilson did more to put oui
army and navy on a footing OF wal
than both William Howard Taft anC
/ Theodore Roosevelt did in the whole
II years of their supine reign.
During these two years prepared
ness for a possible war was pushed by
President Wilson as fast as the senti
ment of the country would permit anC
quite as fast as even the most violent
of his present-day critics then deem
ed expedient or polite
Suddenly. however, conditions Great
ed by the autOcratic dogmatism OF
Germany disregarding areaties and
throwing promises to the winds
hurled us into the seething whirlpool
of war Then the very men who had
been at the helm of the ship of state
for IS years, the men whose policies
had weakened the army and navy, be
gan to howl because we could not
equip a million men over night and
put them in the trenches of France in
a day They forgot the experience OF
England; they forgot the experience
of France they forgot their own neg
lect of our martial strength; they for
got everything but their own personal
advertisement and their own political
advancement
Mythology tells Us that Minerva
spr4ns fulI-armei fra me mind of
Jupiter, ana aor!aonloH5 critics lie
manded that the +ed states viii
tie ~r 5c o. III. ar 80 soma
sort OF prestidIgitori4 form
a million civilians into luA-trained
soldiers between the sinking and the
rising of the sun What these critics
had failed to do in 16 years, they in
sist that Woodrow Wilson should do
in Is days The wind listeth in the
night the dew falls, the stars come
out, the moon works her magic charm.
and behold at dawn a full-grown mush-
room whitens the lawn where at sun
ser only an embryonic stalk snuggled
in the grass This is the kind Of mar.
vel, this the kind of impossible leger-
demain that Col Roosevelt and his
school demand should be duplicated
in our military world They demand
hat an invincible army be created
overnight out of wind. and dew, star
light and moonshine But they fail
% furnish the necrOmatic art where
With to ram into a night the task Of a
decade
And his miracle 100 they demand
r the teeth Of the hoary-headed truth
hat from -he days of Washington.
franklin. ana Adams This nation has
at its face against militaristic
'oiicv a large army d potential mill
Dry establishments has been the ghost
laf has given this country sIeepless
lights for 100 years-a Fictitious
most perhaps 0ur nevertheless d
host hypnotic ia is influence ami
wesome in lis sway And tie navy
Do has been hatnpered By a short
ghteded sentiment of the great IN.
erior part Of the country whose con
,ressional representatives persistent-
y opposed large naval appropriations
rom fear Of retrenchment against The
Hometown projects o9 their own
larire heaths For this ingrained re-
)ugnance 10 a big army an adequate
lavv neither republicans Of to-day or
he democrats of To-day are 20 biame /
The fault lies at he door Of the pre-
dominant sentiment Of the nation
since 1916 And as we have sown !
% to-day we read
Gen Winfield Scott one Of tneI
worlds greatest soldiers. compressed
IN historic situation in a nutshell
when he sand Republics are never
prepared for var