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Show ROOSEVELT AND IE METHODISTS What the Peace of Cowardice Means toPeople of the United States. New York, April 27 Theodore Roosevelt urged the doctrine of preparedness pre-paredness upon a large number of Methodists gathered here tonight at Hie annual banquet of the Methodist Social Union of New York and referred re-ferred to the latest phases of the relations re-lations with Germany and Mexico as showing that "timidity and weakness invite war. instead of averting it " "I have a right to speak to you for peace," said the colonel in declaring that he abhorred a wanton and unjust war "I was picsident seven &nd a halC yens. This nation during all that time never for one moment permitted per-mitted anv power to wrong this country coun-try or to wrong Americans either In their perso'i oi property or to make us recreant to our dut to others, and j yet during those seven and a half' vo.irs not one shot was fired by anv man in American uniform aga'ns" n fore sn foe and not one American "tin. vom?n or child was slain by renrosp'itaiives of any foreign nation "r those old Methodist chcult riders who sniead Methodism had considered peace the chief of all earthly goods they would never have gone west of the Alloghenles. If Peter Cartw'rlghl and his fellows had feaied to face trouble, if their eat for the Talth had been 'ess than their diead of disturbance, there would not have been a single Methodist church wesjof the AUeghenies. Thej be-'leved be-'leved in keepmg the pace But hv hellved even more in keeping the faith. They strove for the peace that comes thiough righteousness There were not only good Methodists ;or-d Phrlstirns but t liny were sound stalwart American pati lots The i new that theie is a peaco which N the peace of coward'ee, and that the nrnnn nf ' rnwartlipo bppnniPR ill the end the peace of death They knew what the peace which comes through i he abandonment of duty, through shi inking back when th forces of p"il advare. through putting ea-e "nd material well beipg and soft sentimenta'ity above stern devotion to unplepnt duty may mean, and in all probability will mean, the !os3 of evcrj thing that makes life livable to normal men and women "China has sought peace through helplessness through refusal to prepare, pre-pare, through inability to hold her own. ?.nd China now scs half her territory in the possession of alien nc. ers and Is not pei her own mas fpr In the territory w hicii slie retains nnd is a menace Instead of an aid to world peace. It is of course, true that 'rained strength in either man or na-Mon na-Mon ma j be an instrument for wrong-lolng wrong-lolng but this Is merely to say whit 's true of every other attribute, what s jut as true of oratorical power, of egal ability, of business ability, of o 'rained and educated brain in anv profession But we do not pray that our sons should be either fools or weaklings in order that they may be saved from the temptations incident to the possession, of courage and In telligence and s'rength On the con 'rary we p-av that they shall be strong and brave and wise; and we srlvpo implnnj. in thm that spirit f service to God above through the sen See of ir?n on this earth which I -hall make tlipm me thoir strength "f bedv and of mind aright And all j 'h's should be just as true of a nation "If douring the few years prior to the war of IS 12 the American people had been willing to build a fleet of 20 battleships and to have those battleships battle-ships manned by crews thoroughly trained to handle them, and if they had been willing to piovide n thor-1 oughly efficient army of oven 10.000 men thpro would have been no war of 1S12 at all We would have obtained ob-tained peace, and would have peace with self-respect, we finally had to j HBML lji.il war uecause tor me uozen years previously we had surrendeied ourselves to the guidance of the pro-1 fessional peace prattlers and had soucht to obtain ppace without self i respect and a result we forfeited our self-respect and also endured three yeain of the suffering of war without the reward of successful war Refusal to make ready, and trust In peace piattle pioduced the war, and also pio-duced pio-duced our failure in the war "Wo can Vlay tho greatest part on behalf of peaco that any nation has ever yet plajed We can play it not by treading in the rootstops of China, not b.v showing that we have lost the Iron that was m the blood of our fathers, not by peimltting Ameiic.i to become a jangling knot of Old World nationality wheie the descendants of the old stock are too feeble either to stand up for themselves or for anyone any-one else. We can take our pel ma nent place as a great nation only If we realize that we are a separate na tion, akin to but distinct fiom all tho people of Euiope and if we loyally and with proud endurance of the labor of pieparation and effort, do duty to oui selves and to others. "This means that our lives must not primarily be devoted to the greedy achievement of purely mateiial well-being well-being and of ease and self-indulgence: It means that we must not sui render our bouls to the guidance of that specie of bentimentality which eats like an acid into the nigged stiength of character: It means that with toll, and forethought and self-sacrifice -we must prepare this nation in things ln dUBtrial, things social and things military, mili-tary, In the body, in the mind, and above all In the soul, so that in (he mighty days It may stand equal to the mighty days. "We are at the moment engaged in a little war in Mexico, a futile little war which may at any time burst out Into a general blaze, which cannot possibly result In any real settlement of the situation. "We are also engaged because our nation failed to do its duly from tho outset in Mexican waters, In an international contention that has failed repeatedly and continuously. con-tinuously. Nearly a hundred Americans, Ameri-cans, some of them women and children, chil-dren, some of them soldieis of the United States, were killed or wounded on American soil by Mexicans on different dif-ferent occasions before the raid at Colulmbus took place. If, the very first time such an incident occuned, we had acted with instant decision and crossed tho border not within two or three days, but 30 miutcs afterwards, after-wards, had inflicted immediate punishment on the offenders, there would never have been a repetition of tho offense. Certain foolish pacificists at home would undoubtedly have been laekadaiscal over the action but it would have saved hundreds of lives" |