We have been measurably a free people. If we were under the necessity of
supporting vast military and naval establishments we should be that no
longer, no matter how completely we adhered to our democratic political
system and ideals. It is not Kings, but what they do, which burdens
countries, and the most burdensome, act of any King is to load his
country up with non-productive, threatening, and expensive war
machinery.
The Real Peril.
I fear that the American people as a whole have visualized only
slightly, if at all, the real peril involved in this contingency; but I
cannot feel otherwise than sure that soon they must awake to the great
danger that militarism and navalism may be imposed upon them through no
fault of their own.
American impulses trend away from armament toward peaceful development
along industrial lines, but even now political leaders in Washington
begin to see what may be coming. The propositions which already have
been made for considerable increases in our naval and military forces
may be regarded as only the forerunners of what is to be expected later.
My sympathies and interests, in other words my patriotic sentiments, are
definitely American.
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