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Show HOW TO BE LET ALONE Ever since the day George Washington, Wash-ington, in liis farewell message, advised ad-vised against entangling alliances it lias been the desire of the American people that they be let alone to. work out thdir own destiny. They Tiave not always been permitted to do this. In I lie first part of the nineteenth cen-tury cen-tury Great Brilian so mistreated our sailors and our ships at sea that we had I-0 fitfht to protect them. A little more than a hundred years later the Imperial German government so violated the rights of American citizens citi-zens and American property on the high seas that again we were compelled com-pelled to go to war to defend Ameri- can interests. On each occasion we were attacked attack-ed and maltreated because it was thought that we could or would not defend ourselves. Great Britian in 1812 looked down upon our minature navy with contempt. It took the exploits ex-ploits of our naval heroes of that , period to correct this impression and to assure our being let alone to ply our business on the high seas. The German government had been led to believe by a false showing of American Ameri-can pacifist sentiment that we would endure anything rather than fight in 1917. Again it took a display of American Am-erican fighting qualities to correct the impression and to assure our being let alone for another generation genera-tion at least. The point to be emphasized is that in each case we were mistreated because be-cause it was believed that we could not or would not defend ourselves. When we proved that we could and would we gained the respect of the entire world. Now across the Pacific there is China, a big country which wants to be let alone too. But China has been abused and will continue to be abused because of this same belief that she cannot protect herself. If China had a navy which could fight like the American navy did in 1812, or if she could equip an army capable of taking care of things as the American army did in 1918, then the rest of the world would decide that it might pay to let China alone to wor out her own destiny. Both America and China want to be let alone. Uncle Sam is let alone and treated with respect because he has proved that he knows how to defend de-fend himself and punish bis enemies. China is not let alone and is not treated with respect because she cannot can-not defend herself. The mistaken pacifists in America would reduce us to the helplessness of China. They say that such an example ex-ample would induce the rest of the world to follow our example. But China bas not been able to induce anybody to disarm. Her liedpless-ness liedpless-ness is a pitiful but. eloquent warning warn-ing to the United States. If we want Europe to regulate our business and overrun our territory all we need to do is disarm until we have become as harmless as China. The American field for exploitation is evert richer than the Chinese prospect. |