The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-04-22

IN WASHINGToN'S TIME

The people who cry out against the
ordinary precautions taken by the
government to safeguard the country,
and call such efforts "militarism," de-
ploring the tendency towards war and
trying to get the young men of the
republic to pledge themselves that
never, under any circumstances, will
they consent to bear arms or take
part in any war, are probably proud
of the fact that America is free
country, and that here there is op
portunity for every one to pursue
happiness according to the dictates of
his own conscience. They should be
told, however, that the kind of doc
trine they preach was once before
prevalent in this country, and that
but for an extraordinary series Of
accidents the practice of pacifism
would probably have left US domi-
mated to this day by foreign power.
We say probably" but perhaps the
word certainly" would be better; for
it is not likely that the accidents
would happen again as they did in
making the effort for freedom sue
cessful.
The whole story is told in Wash
ington's message to congress, written
after the war was won. The general
showed that if the people and con-
gress had acted with full regard for
the men who were making every sac
rifice for liberty, the war would have
ended very soon, and all the hard
ships and losses of the prolonged
campaigning would have been es-
capped. He wrote: "Had we formed
permanent army in the beginning,
which, by continuance of the same
men in service, had been capable of
discipline, we never should have had
to retreat with a handful of men
across the Delaware in 1875 tremb-
ling for the fate of America, which
nothing but infatuation of the enemy
could have saved; we should not have
remained all the succeeding winter at
their mercy, with scarcely a suffi-
cient body of men to mount the or
binary guards, liable at every moment
to be dissipated if they had only
thought proper to march against us;
we should not have been under the
necessity of fighting at Brandywine,
with an unequal number of raw
troops, and afterwards of seeing Phil
adelphia fall a prey to a victorious
army; we should not have been at
Valley Forge with less than half of
the army, destitute of everything, in
a situation neither to resist nor re-
tire; we should not have seen New
York left with handful of men :.
we should not have found ourselves
this spring so weak as to be insulted
by five thousand men, unable to pro-
tect our baggage and magazines, their
security depending upon want of
enterprise in the enemy; we should
not have been the greatest part of
the war inferior to the enemy, in
debted for our safety to their mac
tivity, enduring frequently the morti-
ficatien Of seeing inviting opportuni-
ties to ruin them pass unimproved for
want of force, which the country was
completely able to afford; and of see-
ing the country ravaged, our towns
burnt, the inhabitants plundered,
abused, and murdered with impunity
from the same cause"
Lack of system, weakness of the
form of government and disloyalty on
the part of a considerable part of the
population were all contributing
causes to the product of this near
disaster, but the main cause was the
prevalence Of pacifism, and the lack
Of the sentiment that was needed to
support war of defense. There had
been no preparations for the war, and
after the war began there was no
warlike sentiment that upheld the
revolutionary movement. Washing
ton triumphed in spite of difficulties
that would have discouraged another
man, and he himself declares that it
was victory won because of the alb
solute incapacity of superior force.
According to the latest preaching
VI NOTWITHSTANDING, we are IOI 10 nave
an army, the young men are to take
a pledge not to serve, military equip
ment and training are to be aban-
doned, and we are to retrograde to
the situation described by the great
man of the Revolution. 1t has been
well said, however, that it is possible
that we shall not find a second Wash
ington to save US from the enemy,
and it is also quite possibl. that the
new enemy may not be so 'infatu-
ated" with town comforts and gale
ties as were the British and the Hes
SLAMS under Clinton
Unless the pacifists are willing to
preach poverty as the proper condi-
ton for a people and slavery as the
natural state, they have no right to
ask that there shall be no resistance
to aggression; and if that is true,
they have no right to ask that there
shall be no army and no preparation
for war. We do not want war, and