together. Why cannot representatives who can make the terms of peace be kept together to continue making terms of continuing peace? Nothing can be more important than the continuation of peace. Nations can never understand one another by holding aloof from one another. Medical men of different nations get together and understand one another. So do musicians. And astronomers. And chemists. But the most important part of our civilization, political organization, has not a single international body. No wonder we do not understand one another politically. And that's the reason we prepare to fight; that's the reason we do fight and then do not know what we are fighting about. Is there anything so silly?

Is it possible that I have been writing above the understanding of the ordinary mind? Certainly these things are so simple as to be plain to any school boy. But perhaps I must talk about "preparedness" in the ordinary way.

Defensive Preparation.

Everybody is talking about "preparedness"; and the administration has ready for Congress a plan by which our ordinary army and navy appropriations of $250,000,000 per year shall be expanded to $450,000,000 per year for the next ten years, the program including fighting ships of the largest kind (some of them cost $17,000,000, their maintenance is very expensive, and in ten years they are out of date), and a largely increased standing army. And they say that this is to be only defensive preparation. Then why the big ships and the swift ships?

Remember, we are not in the European maelstrom. We have 3,000 miles of natural protection on one side, and 5,000 miles on the other. True, enemy navies could easily cross this water, but they would be at a decided disadvantage. Even as close as England and Germany are to each other, England's big ships have made no record to be proud of in this war. They have been in hiding, as a rule, and the small craft have done the real service. England's big ships have not even prevented Germany's big ships from raiding England's coast several times. The small craft have rendered the monster ships almost obsolete, except in an open sea fight with other big ships. And soon they must yield even there to the air craft and small water craft that can be carried by the huge ships. A single serious wound below the water line will sink the biggest warship afloat as easily as the same wound would sink a 'wasp" fighting ship. So if we really mean protective preparedness, we do not need any more of the huge kind of fighting ships, nor battleships nor fast cruisers. need simply to protect our ports with good forts, supplied with modern ordnance, and plenty of fighting air craft and light fighting water craft of the various types. And we should wait till this war is over in order to get the full benefit of its experience, in order to decide what best to do.

We

As to our army, there is no German army in northern Germany, where Germany's only coast line is. All the British navy cannot land a single soldier there, and it isn't on account of Germany's battleships. They are also in hidingchiefly in the Kiel canal. It is the little fellows that do the effective protecting. Then why should we spend lavish millions for huge fighting ships, to hide when there is danger, and degenerate into uselessness in a few years? If our ports are as effectively protected by small craft and other

means of protective defense as the northern coast of Germany is (in which large ships are not a factor, or a negligible one, if any), why should we need to increase our army?

Who is Guilty?

I have before me the literature of the National Security League. It gives our coast defenses a very "black eye." Indeed, it is a severe attack on, and condemnation of, the past management of the protective branches of our government. See the following, taken from its literature:

According to official government reports there are barely 30,000 mobile troops in continental United States. These are distributed among fifty-two widely scattered posts, which would make it impossible to mobilize quickly at any given point. This small force is short of officers, ammunition and equipment. Furthermore, it has no organized reserve.

Our National Guard, with a few exceptions, is far below its paper strength in men, equipment and efficiency.

Our coast defenses are inadequate, our fortifications insufficiently manned now, and without adequate organized reserves.

Our navy is inadequately manned, and has no organized reserve available in the event of war. It is not having sufficient target practice. Fast scout cruisers, battle cruisers, aeroplanes, mine layers, supply ships and transports are lacking. Do You Realize

That we have no military or naval policy?
That our coast defenses are wholly inadequate?
That we maintain useless navy yards?
That we maintain useless and obsolete army posts?
That the congressional "Pork Barrel" still remains
the basis for army and navy appropriations?

It seems to me that the answer to this is, not more money," but what have you been doing with the immense amounts of money that we have been giving to you every year? The facts, as you present them, give us ground for a claim for damages. We have been defrauded, and left, as you say, to the mercy of other countries. Somebody has been guilty of incompetency or worse-treason is the word that comes to mind when we compare our $250,000,000 per year with the above charges by the National Security League. Even if we did need more money for defense, the first thing to do is find a better means of spending it for the purposes intended than we have had in the past. And it is time to stop the $250,000,000 per year until we can find competent and reliable hands to put it into, so that it will be used for the needed purposes.

Our coast lines have not changed. Our ports are not new. They were created before Columbus discovered America. Our port cities were not built yesterday. They were the first cities built in this country. The need of coast protection against foreign enemies, if it exists at all, is no new thing. If those having charge of the spending of our huge military and naval appropriations have not provided for protective defense, let us stop the appropriations until we find assurance that the appropriations will be used for the needed purpose, honestly and competently. Let us answer the cry for more money with no money, until the black past has been cleared up the black past as shown by the literature of the National Security League.

Think Clearly.

Some bright morning when your mind is fresh,. balance yourself firmly and think for yourself. You know that our possible enemies in Europe have been murdering one another for over a year and they are (Continued over next leaf.)