CHAPTER VI

Paying the Piper in 1918, and After

During 1915 and 1916, the "pacifists," the traitors, the German spies and propagandists, the foes of preparedness, and the men in high places who were afraid of that bad element, all combined succeeded in keeping this nation from arming itself in its own defense. Perhaps God can forgive that mentally or morally deformed mob for the colossal injury it inflicted upon America; but there are millions of Americans who never will.

"Pacifists" pervaded Washington, and were a constant drag on the President. Pacifists and fools browbeat Congress, in those two fatal years! And the rest of the nation was so generally asleep that President Wilson dared not move in an aggressive way, because only 2 per cent. of the people were ready to back him up.

Lindley M. Garrison, Secretary of War, was awake, even in 1914. He demanded a real army. When it was denied him, he resigned in disgust and despair, and went upon a private shelf.

Admiral Bradley A. Fiske was awake, even in 1914. He demanded preparedness to fight; and especially a great force of aeroplanes. He became so insistent and troublesome that he was forced to accept retirement, -just when the nation most sorely needed his expe

rience, his judgment and his counsel. Who was chiefly to blame for that?

General Leonard Wood was wide awake, in 1914, in 1915 and thereafter. He, too, demanded an army, and equipment for a real war.

The fateful great drive of Germany is in progress against the British and French on the blood-stained fields of Picardy, in March, 1918, four full months before we can, by any possibility, place enough American soldiers in France to count heavily in that struggle for a final victory. The Germans now are laughing at us, and are striking before we can get there in force! For this the pacifists and the Sleepy Ones are to blame.

IF the Germans break the Allied line this Spring, the blame will be divisible between the rotten-hearted Bolsheviki of Russia and the million times blamable "pacifists," traitors and sleepy fools of the United States of America. We are telling truths that to the guilty ones will be unpalatable, but this is only the warning breeze that precedes the howling hurricane.

If the Germans break the French or British or Belgian lines this spring, it will not be the fault of any of the men I have mentioned, nor of Theodore Roosevelt, the noblest Roman of them all; or of the late Major Augustus P. Gardner, Senator George P. Chamberlain, the New York "Tribune," "Times," "Sun," "World" or " Herald "; nor of the Providence “ Journal,” nor the American Defense Society, the gallant Aero Club, Emerson McMillin, the U. S. Navy League, the U. S. Army League, nor the American Rights League. We have steadily watched the signal smoke as it rose from the camps of all the above. Whatever happens to

66

distressed Europe or Sleepy America, the men and the influences named above will be free from blame.

Whenever a sentry sleeps on duty, or a workman on his job, as sure as death and taxes, some one pays a price for it. Sometimes it is the sleeper himself; sometimes it is his comrades; and again it may be men who are far away.

When Chicago slept on a lot of anarchist propaganda, in 1886, at the Haymarket bomb massacre seven of her policemen paid the price, with their lives; and four anarchists were hanged. When the city of Johnstown, Pa., did nothing about the dangerous dam above it, the whole city paid the price of that slumber. New Orleans endured the Mafia until her Chief of Police died on the altar of slothfulness; and then the Mafia paid.

The greater the body of men sleeping on duty, the greater is the price to be paid for it; and the innocent suffer far more than the guilty.

Thus far no one has attempted to post our books, and figure up the loss to us and to the world from the awful sleep of this nation in 1915 and 1916. This is a good time to see how that account stands down to date. The task is by no means so impossible as it may look to those who are willing to think about it! Let us spread our facts upon the table, face up, and see what they teach us.

By January 1, 1915, the European war had progressed far enough that we knew what modern, up-todate Germanic warfare was like; but we had not the faintest conception of the power of German spies and lies and treachery among ignorant people. We had known before the war that France was putting thought

and great effort into her field artillery, and was really strong in that arm. But had that fact led sleeping America to copy her ideas and her methods? Not at all. Our army had only the most trifling beginning of a really adequate equipment of field artillery. We knew heavy field artillery only by hearsay; for we had none of it!

Even the Lewis machine gun, used in 1914 by the Belgians against the Germans with such deadly effect, and for three years by the British, had been turned down by our stupid and over-wise Ordnance Bureau! Thanks to various causes, even the Navy ordered no Lewis guns until 1916, and the Army procured none until late in 1917.

Our Ordnance Bureau has much to answer for regarding the Lewis machine gun, and General Crozier's explanations and excuses are not in the least satisfactory to the people of this country. The Man-in-theStreet thinks that if that weapon was good enough for the Belgians and the British, from 1914 to 1917,— as it undeniably was and is, then it is plenty good enough for us; and we should have ordered 10,000 of them in 1916.

On January 1, 1915, it was known:

That we had no up-to-date field artillery worthy of mention;

That it takes a year to make a 15-inch gun, of any kind.

That our stock of new-model Springfield rifles was frightfully small;

That the National Guard was practically unarmed, save with obsolete Krags;

That we had no aeroplanes;

That America did not know how to produce engines for war aeroplanes;

That our submarines were mere toys in size, and we had mighty few even of those;

That our "army" of first-line troops amounted to only 45,000 effectives, and that it takes a half a year to raise, equip and train a new army of even 500,000 men.

Finally, we know that the war would be a long war,

waged with frightful loss of life and national wealth, and that the chances of our being drawn into the whirlpool were as 9 to I.

It was the cue of our Congress to do in the winter of 1915 a large portion of what finally was done in the summer of 1917,- two and one-half years later! We need not then have provided billions of dollars for loans to the Allies; for at that time they did not need financial help from us; but in the name of common sense and wakeful prudence, we should have gone right to work to arm this nation to the teeth, and equip it to fight, and fight as a great nation should.

But we did not do any of the things we should have done. We slept, and in our short intervals of wakefulness we read the war news from Europe, laughed or blinked at Representative Augustus P. Gardner, of Massachusetts, then turned on the other side and slept some more.

It is easy and safe for any one to pose as a post-mortem philosopher. The whole world is very wise and judgmatical, after the event.

Now, in order to demonstrate my right to say things