Had England been ready, the war might never have been.

Even France was not fully prepared as to equipment, and it is believed by many military experts that if General Joffre had had an adequate supply of munitions, the battle of the Marne would have been even more decisive and the invaders would have been driven back to their frontiers.

Possibly half of the tragedies of history are due to military unpreparedness and in no way has the solemn warning of Solomon been more strikingly illustrated: "Where there is no vision, the people perish."

Unless the movement in America for military preparedness is sustained by the same spirit of patriotism, unity, and efficient co-operation as was shown in the mobilization of France in August, 1914, then any reform in the United States will be sporadic. Sooner or later men will quarrel with increased taxation, and the immediate possibility of war not being apparent, the present movement may unhappily prove to be one of these temporary agitations, quickly begun and as quickly abandoned in Congress when it has served the purpose of self-seeking politicians.

Unless, therefore, the American people can feel the necessity of adequate defence, and each citizen

feels that it is a matter of civic obligation, as in Switzerland, to co-operate in some form for the defence of the nation, then the movement will lack motive power, and after being a "nine days' wonder" will be defeated by lack of public interest.

Again to quote Solomon: "He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy."

Can a great patriotic people, as the American people are, justly proud of their past, exultant in their present condition of unequalled prosperity, and confident of their future, lack that spirit of intense civic patriotism, without which no nation could possibly do that which France, England, and Germany have done in such a remarkable way in the year 1914?

The answer cannot be given by reference to a glorious past or to material prosperity. There is much more in the "vision" of a people than in trade statistics or census enumerations. Unless the men of America shall have the same spirit as France to defend their existence as a nation, then they will be as a people that having no vision will sooner or later, even if they do not utterly perish, suffer humiliation such as they have never yet known.

America's difficulty in having this vision lies

in the fact that it is naturally insular in spirit. It thinks in the terms of a nation situated between two great bodies of water; and as the water that flows about the British Isles has profoundly affected the temper and policy of that people, the obsession of these two oceans, stretching to the east and west, has created in America the consciousness of being an island remote from possible attack and surrounded by an impregnable moat of water.

This sense of insularity is intensified by its being "cribbed, cabined, and confined" by the political traditions of the eighteenth century. The tradition of its supposed isolation is almost as potent today as it was when Washington was President. America fails to see that it is the very heart of the world, wedged between the Occident and the Orient, and that the sea, which was once such an impassable barrier, is now an open, unobstructed pathway over which the marvellous fleets of war could freely pass.

This parochial view blinds many Americans to the obvious fact that their nation not only will, but already has, been sucked into the maelstrom of this titanic conflict. While it may not become technically involved in the present war before it ends, yet it is already involved so far as it is a war of conflicting ideals. From the hatreds, pre

judices, feelings, antipathies, and interests that are the birth of these labour pains of humanity America cannot escape.

The author will later in detail discuss the influence upon America of the application of Washington's doctrine of neutrality. If he were alive today and were the President of a nation of one hundred millions of people, the most powerful potentially in the world, would he counsel such a parochial view and condemn his people to a policy of perpetual isolation? To reply affirmatively is to attribute to the immortal spirit of Washington a lack of forethought and courage which his whole career entirely belies.

The superficial character of scholastic education in America is one cause of this want of vision. In its elementary schools a few basic facts of American history are taught, and they are always facts that are pleasing to its national pride, and that is almost all that the average man learns of his country's history. Take the ten leading colleges of America, and select the ten brightest students from the senior class, and then ask these one hundred boys a very vital incident of American history: "How did aid first come to America from France?" Probably not five per cent. could answer the question correctly. And yet if it had not been for that

aid from France the revolution might have ended in a fiasco. Nine out of ten men would probably reply that it was Dr. Franklin who first secured help from France. Long before Dr. Franklin ever reached Paris the colonists had been given secret aid from the arsenals of France with the connivance of its government, then nominally a neutral. The man who first suggested to his nation the idea of helping the colonists in this manner was Beaumarchais, the witty author of The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro.

How many Americans, as they sing the Star Spangled Banner, recall the humiliating chapter of American.history, with which this stirring song of patriotism is connected? A few days before had occurred the rout of the American Army at Bladensburg.

An American general, who was then in command and who was made the subject of a court-martial inquiry, testified that he was able to bring into the field only about 6000 men, all of whom were militia except about 400 regulars; that he could not collect more than half his men until a day or two before the engagement, and 700 did not arrive until fifteen minutes before the engagement began, which was a little late; that the commanding officers were unknown to him,