Contrasted with the Congress of 1917, it does not seem like the same body. And, really, it has changed to a very great extent. In the elections of 1915 scores of the Sleepy Ones of Congress were replaced.

To-day that fatal Congress of 1915 carries a terrible lesson into the pages of history. It points with a hundred fingers to the dangers of the Sleepy Fit. That particular kind of human frailty has caused many and many a good life to go out in smoke and flames, amid falling walls.

At this fateful moment, when tremendous responsibilities rest upon Congress, the President and his Cabinet, it will serve a good purpose to hold up as a Horrible Example the Sleepy Congress of 1915.

Promptly with the assembling of the third session of the 63rd Congress, in December, 1914, Representative Gardner began a series of efforts to arouse the House of Representatives to the awful military unpreparedness of the United States. Mr. Gardner believed, just as a few other men believed, that the chances were as 9 to I that in one way or another our country would be drawn into the great European vortex. But the 63rd Congress was absolutely impervious, and the heedless men won every contest.

By December 1, 1915, it had become clearly apparent, from the new system of deep and labyrinthian trench warfare inaugurated all across France from Switzerland to the sea, that the war would be a long one. Kitchener had predicted three years as its shortest limit, and called for an army of 2,000,000 men.

The utterly weak and defenseless condition of the United States on land was so appalling, and so dangerous, that it should have aroused every reading and

thinking citizen in our land. The great length of time required to enlist and thoroughly train new armies, to build new and modern artillery, and to arm and equip 2,000,000 men with weapons and clothing, was,— or should have been,- as well known as the difficulty of flying across the Atlantic Ocean. All the world was supposed to know, even in 1914, the paramount importance of powerful field artillery and machine guns by the thousand, in all kinds of land and air fighting. The quick smashing of the steel cupola forts of the Belgians at Liege and Namur by the Austrian Skoda guns of 16-inch caliber was, in December, 1914, well known history.

Even at that time there was no excuse for shortness of sight or stupidity of thought. The roar of the "big Berthas" of Essen and Skoda were enough to awaken the dead; and they should have awakened every man in Washington who held a position of responsibility.

We know that in times of peace it is the regular thing for the average Congressman to try to represent and reflect in his acts the views and the wishes of his constituents. Ordinarily, that is what Congressmen and legislators are for; but in all times of trouble the highest duty of every Congressman is to be the brave and thoughtful Leader of his constituents. Throughout a long series of quiet and peaceful years, it would have been useless to talk about an army of 1,000,000 men, because the necessity to use it was so remote, and the costs and charges it would involve were so great, that no peace constituency would have approved it. In those piping times no Congressman could be expected to propose military preparedness on an enormous scale. The whole nation was so sound asleep

to that necessity that the idea would have been ridiculed. It was therein that the great American citizen was sodden in slumber, and utterly unresponsive to the calls of the War Department demanding a standing army of reasonable size, and other forms of at least half-way preparedness.

But, in the face of great emergencies, all ordinary unwritten laws of human conduct are changed. It is the rule of the world that at such times the responsible party must grasp the baton of leadership, and ignore his regular instructions just as far as may be necessary for the public good. A general may safely disobey orders if it becomes necessary to do so in order to win a battle.

Every great emergency calls for leadership. In war times the Red Tape of peace must be slashed to bits. The admiral and the general can not postpone action until they can report to headquarters and receive new instructions. They must act! The member of Congress can not always wait to hear from his constituents before he votes. Still less can he pause in an emergency to inform his ignorant constituents of the new situation, educate them, and then ascertain their views. He must step out and be a Leader, regardless of the consequences to himself! That is what every sensible voter at home expects of him; and it was therein that so many men failed miserably in 1915–16.

One of the finest and most effective speeches ever made in a deliberative body was made some years ago in the Mexican Congress, by a member who felt that in conscientiously supporting the cause of right he thereby would insure his own political downfall. He began with these memorable words:

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Gentlemen, I rise to sacrifice ambition to honor!" It is a pleasure to record the fact that that gallant offer of a self-sacrifice appealed so strongly to the Mexican sense of honor that a complete revolution of sentiment rendered it unnecessary.

The eruptions and detonations of the European war volcano in 1914 created a new and terrible situation, which called for new alignments of thought, new initiative and new leadership. The 63rd Congress should have taken the very same steps that were taken in the winter and summer of 1917 by the 65th Congress, in the raising of a great army by universal and compulsory military service, and in providing money for its equipment.

But alas! in 1915 the great American citizen was sodden in slumber. America was then a nation of sleepy and blinking sloths, not wakeful Men! There was no general call to Congress to get busy with preparedness, regardless of cost. Instead of backing up Mr. Gardner, a good man in Congress who was awake, we, the people, and to a vast extent the press also, silently permitted him to be laughed at, ridiculed, bullied and browbeaten, until all his efforts went for naught. His one tactical error was in demanding a Congressional investigation of our unpreparedness and our needs. As pointed out by Col. W. C. Church, the awful weaknesses of our national defenses were abundantly set forth in the annual reports of Secretary Garrison and Secretary Daniels.

The treatment of Mr. Gardner, the Man Who Saw, was to Congress and to the individual American citizen a shame and a disgrace. It was even worse than the long indifference of England to the advice and ap

peals of Lord Roberts for a real British army. It is not for me to point out the cost of England's sleepiness.

At this point I am going to yield to the temptation to insert a bit of history in which the writer attempted to play a part. It is not to adorn a tale, but solely to furnish an illustration and point a moral. It relates to the drowsiness in 1915 of the National Security League, an organization that now is awake, and is a power for good in the promotion of patriotism.

I was in at the birth of that organization, and I hailed its appearance with keen satisfaction.

"Here, at last," I thought, "is a group of wideawake men who will do great things toward arousing Congress and this sleepy nation."

Realizing very acutely the fact that national preparedness for war could come only through Congress, at the very first meeting I called attention to the fact that the session of Congress then sitting would end on March 4, and that in order to make any impression on that body, quick and forceful action by the new organization would be necessary. At the second meeting (December 22), a Committee on Legislation was created, and I was named as its chairman. Immediately I proposed the adoption of a brief platform of foundation principles on which my Committee could at once appear before Congress, and labor for preparedness legislation.

I offered a resolution to the following effect:

(1) That it must be admitted that our national defenses are inadequate to the needs of the nation; (2) that the public welfare demands large increases in the army, navy and militia, in airships, coast defenses, reserve rifles, machine guns, cannon and ammunition;