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Show Nations Must Safeguard Themselves MR. CHARLES ELIOT, president emeritus of Harvard, proposes a naval alliance with all H the entente powers and for the United States to H join a peace league of faith-keeping nations, and H. thinks our country is not ready for radical mili- Hl tary changes. H Professor Eliot's order of mind always leans H toward a compromise when trouble exists or is H threatened. H The European war has supplied the world H with a great many object lessons. One is that M the disposition of most nations is to be faith- M keeping until it looks as though an advantage B could be gained by breaking faith and then a de- V bate is sprung at once. Another object lesyon that i has been furnished is the accentuating of the wis- I, dom of Washington's injunction to "in time of H peace prepare for war." H Another lesson which is most pertinent makes H clear the wisdom of the Nevada saloon keeper's H remark in self-justification, when arraigned for H keeping a disorderly house. Said he, "When I H opened my saloon I promised the best citizens of H the place that it should always be a peaceable, H t quiet place, and I am going to keep my word if I H have to beat to death some blankety blankety un- H regenerate son of a gun every quarter of an hour." H Certain facts are plain to the dullest eyes. No H formidable enemy could attack us without com- Hj ing from three thousand to five thousand miles j to do so. HI That makes clear at a glance that wo should HI have an ample fleet to, entertain them were they H to come; an ample fleet and coast defenses, and HJ both the fleets and fortresses should always be prepared for immediato business. Each state should have an ample state guard and these state guards should alwuys bo ready for business and the government should see that ample material to enable them to do effective work should be kept in depots so arranged that railroads could bo engaged to hurry both the men and supplies to any needed point. Military training should begin at once in all the advanced graded schools and in all the high schools, with annual maneuvers under "United States officers. This kept up for ten years would greatly improve im-prove the efficiency of the coming generation for all the works of peace, and would scatter throughout through-out the republic some millions of young men who would be ready for service at a moment's call; the knowledge of which fact would cause all the world's bullying powers to think twice before undertaking any raids upon us. Of course, the army and navy departments would keep up with the advances in the means and instruments for killing men which might be made and should keep experts in invention, in science and mechanics constantly busy along all those lines. The expense of all this ought not to be relatively rela-tively very great, nothing at all to compare with what the cost of war would be if sprung upon us while unprepared. Moreover, it would reduce the danger of war quite 90 per cent As for alliances. They were once thought to be good things to ward off wars and so were peace-covenants between nations. The present European war shows that agreements among nations na-tions count for little except where there is a power behind them to enforce them. |