The Washington times., 1936-09-23

and higher faith.
We fought that war for 10
months. AS the price of our faith.
of our belief that 1t was a war
to end war, we paid the lives Of
SIS, 900 young men. We saw 200,-
900 other young men torn by shot
and shell, blinded, gassed or made
invalids for life.
DISLLUSIONED
The American people don't want
war. They hate war. We will do
anything reasonable to keep out
of war. The cost in money from
the pockets of our people was
more than twenty billion dollars.
The war ended in the flush of
triumph and the glow Of hope for
a new order in world affairs. But
disillusionment came fast. 1t came
within a year. at Versailles, when
the VictorS squabbled and quar-
relied for the spoils and laid down
such terms to the vanquished as
have kept the world in turmoil
ever since.
Nineteen years old Is our dream
that war could end war; that the
lion could lie down with the lamb;
that swords could be beaten into
ploughshares; that the instinct
to strike and kill could be eradi.
Gated by faith and fair dealing
hope!
What do we find today? We
find the great powers armed and
prepared for war as never before
in all history. Nearly six million
men are under arms, two million
more than in 1914. War factories
everywhere are laboring full time,
turning out rifles, machine guns,
heavy artillery, poison gases.
Europe, indeed, is an armed
camp-not one armed camp, but
a dozen armed camps-whose
threatening beacon fires loom
redly across a terrified landscape.
We know not at what moment
the spark Of provocation may fall
into this vast powder magazine.
With these indiSputable facts in
mind, who can honestly quarrel
with our new program of national
defense? It is, indeed, colossal
program. This country today is
spending more money on its Army
and Navy than ever before in time
Of peace.
Congress has appropriated six
hundred and eleven million dol
lars for the maintenance of the
United States Army, and five
hundred and forty-nine million
dollars for the maintenance of the
United States Navy. Soon the
United States Army will number
one hundred and seventy-five
thousand highly-trained men in
active service. Behind them will
stand a reserve force of 300, 900.
We will very quickly have a fight
ing force Of almost five hundred
thousand men.
NEEDED FOR DEFENSE
On the seas, the United States
has as many fighting ships as any
navy in the world. although a pro-
portion of them have passed the
age Of maximum usefulness. But
our Navy is rapidly growing
stronger. No good American could
i; reasonably protest against this
preparation for defense, this in
Surance of our national wealth.
Our Army and Navy will never
be used for aggression. It will
never be hurled against any foe,
unless that foe should strike us
first. But in the state of the world
today, it would be worse than stu
pidity, it would be downright in
sanity in these perilouS years, to
, remain unarmed and defenSeless
against a world which seems bent
on war, and which, unhappily, has
no good will toward us.
AS long as European nations
could borrow our money, and
thereafter, as long as they thought
the debts might be forgiven and
. cancelled-debtS that are not war
debts, but represent the billions
borrowed by Europe after the war
was over-they were willing to
enter with us into treaties which
they had never the slightest in
tention of keeping. Our dream Of
world peace is true and sincere.
But as long as the rest of the
world leans toward madness, its
eyes red with a lust for war, its
. mouth filled with the challenge of
battle, Sneering at treaties and
!. scornful of peace, we, the United
States of America, can adopt for
our own motto that ringing
phrase: Speak softly, but carry
a big stick" that phrase which
was uttered by one Of the trueSt
. and greatest Americans who ever
drew the breath of life, Theodore
Roosevelt.
Copyright, 1886. by King Features
- Syndicate, Inc,