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§§301-302]

THE FLAG AND THE CITIZEN

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That the Imperial German Government and the German people are adjudged criminal aggressors together in the war they have brought on and now wage.

WAR AGAINST GERMANY.

That the United States Government cannot wage war on the Imperial German Government.

That the American Nation wages war on the German Nation. That until the German people ceases to carry out as its own the criminal purposes of the Imperial German Government, the American Nation will carry on war to end the criminal conduct of the German Nation.

That this Nation does not desire to wrest from the German Nation measured atonement for its losses and its lost lives.

That there can be no reparation for its wrongs, that there can be no restitution of its innocent dead.

That the American Nation grounds its war upon knowledge of criminal acts which the German Nation has committed against it and upon foreknowledge of criminal acts which the German Nation will commit against it, if ever powerful enough to commit them.

That the American Nation does not dwell aloof from the rest of mankind and that its war on the German Nation is not of single aim.

PROTECTION OF CIVILIZATION.

That this Nation recognizes its own civilization as an inseparable part of the living treasure and fabric of the inoffensive civilization of the world.

That this Nation recognizes the German Nation as a presentday destroyer of peace-loving civilizations.

That this Nation harkens to the warning of the German Nation that it has the right to attack any civilization for the necessitous advantages of its own.

That this Nation harkens to the claim of the German Nation not only to the possession of such right, but to an obligation to implant even though by force its civilization in any part of the world by displacing any other civilization.

That this Nation takes highest cognizance of this supreme proclaimed mission of the German Nation either to destroy or to mold by its civilization all the civilizations of the world and to make of the planet one Prussia in fulfillment of the purposes of the Deity as confided to the German Nation and as to be executed by the German Nation.

That this Nation believes all non-predatory civilizations now existent to have an equal right to exist and believes the continued and combined existence of them all to be best for the richest development and completest happiness of mankind.

WAR TO OVERCOME WAR.

That this Nation does not lay aside peace and take up war of first choice.

That this Nation looks upon war as a state of barbarism.

That this Nation looks upon civilization as peace as an onward movement of liberty and enlightenment, of inter-related profitable activities and peace.

That nothing but war can overcome and put an end to war. That when barbarism with war attacks civilization at peace, civilization has no weapon with which to defeat barbarism but the weapon of barbarism.

CONSCRIPTION.

That this Nation in grappling war as its weapon has need of vast military forces to win victory.

That a nation is not a mere population, but a body of citizens organized under its laws as its units of usefulness.

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That in a free nation universal obligatory service is not different from universal voluntary service; obligation is recognized as just and natural and disappears in consent.

That no naton could endure whose citizens reserved the individual right to decide whether and how to serve.

That disloyalty is refusal of the service required.

That the treatment to be meted out to the citizen who refuses to defend the nation when at war should be the refusal by the nation any longer to defend that citizen; should be deprivation of all his rights under its laws, the withdrawal from his property and business and from his home and from his life of the safeguards of its government, of the shelter of its institutions, of the protection of its police, and of any foothold whatsoever for him on its soil. Defend or be not defended.

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CIVILIAN SERVICE.

That every smallest garden shall be recognized as a corner of the desert battlefield.

That every furrow made by the plow shall run into the soldier's trenches at the front.

That every barbed blade of wheat shall be a spear.

That every bandage for a wounded youth shall be part of the garment of destiny to stanch the ebbing blood of the wounded, the better, world.

MILITARY SERVICE.

That the pick of the Nation shall gather into camps to train for the armies, shall flock to the seashore to await the building of the ships.

That the crowded ships shall carry the armies to other landsshall sail away with them from their native land to the rescue of other native lands which are fighting also for their land.

That many shall limp back mangled, many shall grope their way back sightless, that many shall be borne back in their long silence as dust to their country's hallowed dust.

That the fate of many shall never be known, only that they fell fighting.

That there shall be Victory.

That Victory shall be the Victory of these Dead.

That now is the beginning of the gathering of the nations

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ORIGINAL UNPREPAREDNESS

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together about the entrance to their long futureward common road, safe to all, unsafe to none.

That as they move onward they shall begin to mingle, ever peacefully.

That as they move forward and mingle more and more with the quiet overflow and interflow of their friendly peoples, they shall ever be drawing nearer to the goal of all human endeavor, of all human hope, when races shall melt into the human race, when nations shall behold their barriers leveled and lost in their one country, the world.

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K. DOCUMENTS AND EXTRACTS ILLUS

TRATING THE CHAPTER.

(1) [§303] Our Unpreparedness at the Start of the War. BY J. BERNARD WALKER (Editor of the Scientific American)

(February 22, 1917).

The Navy as it exists to-day is made up of ships in full commission and of ships not in full commission. Of the former we have 224, of ships not in full commission we have 127. The ships in full commission are those which are fully officered and manned and are either under orders or liable to orders for service without previous notice. The ships not in full commission are those maintained at a Navy Yard and kept ready for use on short notice. They have reduced complements of officers and men. Under this head are included ships “in commission" and "in ordinary," which have complements of officers and men sufficient to enable them to be properly cared for.

COMMISSIONING LAID UP SHIPS.

Ships out of commission have no personnel on board and repairs may be done upon them or not, as the Department sees fit.

In the event of war, only ships in full commission would be immediately available, and of these the most important elements are the battleships, of which we have 14, made up of 13 dreadnoughts and 1 pre-dreadnought; destroyers, of which we have 38; and submarines, which total 38. Less important ships are the armored cruisers, of which there are 3, with eight second and third class cruisers, and 18 gunboats. In the way of auxiliaries we have in commission only 3 transports, 4 supply ships, 20 fuel ships and about a dozen other auxiliaries of the more important type.

Under the head of "ships not in full commission" we have 13 second line battleships of the pre-dreadnought type, 33 destroyers, 5 submarines, and various vessels of less importance in modern warfare, 7 armored cruisers and 17 torpedo boats of moderate speed.

At the outbreak of war there would be an immediate call for putting all existing ships in full commission, and the Secretary of the Navy states that in the effort to do this the Navy would find itself short of 938 officers, 8,049 regulars, and 23,330

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reserves, after using 9,000 militia and 463 fleet reserves. states further that the shortage will increase for each new ship commissioned in 1917 and 1918, and that the three-year program alone will call for 29,127 additional men.

MUST HAVE MORE MEN.

Now this extremely serious shortage in personnel has resulted from the fact that in the past we have authorized the ships without authorizing a corresponding number of officers and men to man them.

I am convinced that the only satisfactory way to remedy these conditions is for Congress, when it provides for new ships, to provide also for the officers and men required to man them at the rate of so many per each 100 tons of displacement.

The New Navy which we are about to build under the wonderful three-year program has been won from Congress mainly by the efforts of the people, and I believe that of all popular efforts to this end, none has been so effectual as the propaganda of the National Security League. The program calls for what is practically a new navy, totalling no less than 156 ships, and including 10 battleships, 6 battle-cruisers, 10 scouts, and a large increase in our destroyer and submarine fleets.

This brings us to the question of the present status of the Navy in respect to ships under construction. Of the dreadnoughts contracts have been let for 9 ships, three of which are about 65 per cent. completed, two have recently been started, and four, being the first of the three-year program, have been let and are about to be laid down.

UNIVERSAL TRAINING FOR ARMY AND NAVY.

I have spoken so far as Chairman of the Navy Committee of the National Security League, but in closing I would like to add a word or two on the most important feature of the situation as it affects the Army. To my mind, for the Army as for the Navy there is just one possible solution of the problem of getting men, and that is the institution of universal military service and training, and I say this without in the lease disparaging the patriotic work done in the years gone by by the individual officers and men of the National Guard. It is my conviction that the whole history of this system, from the war of the Revolution down to the recent fiasco on the Mexican border, has proved, above everything else, that it is in efficient and unjust. There have been many indictments by military men and others of the voluntary system, and none has been so severe as that contained in the recent report of the present Chief of Staff, General Hugh L. Scott.

The way in which the country has risen to the suggestion of military service has been at once one of the most surprising and most satisfactory results of the present movement for preparedness. When the various speakers for the National Security League came together to discuss results, almost without exception they stated that the mere tentative mention of universal service to their audiences throughout the country brought immediate and enthusiastic applause. Evidently the American peo

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MAINTAINING A FLEET

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ple are ready for this drastic change in our military policy; and if Congress is in close contact, as it should be, with the mass of the people, and the needs of the country it will lose no time in giving legislative approval to this movement.

(2)

[§304] Maintenance of the Fleet.

BY CAPTAIN A. P. NIBLACK, U. S. N.

LINES OF DEFENSE.

The first line of the national defense is diplomacy, which, for safety and to avoid misunderstandings, should be in the hands of skilled if not specially trained men. Due to our geographical position, our second line is the navy, which must ever be prepared to act on the offensive as its chief value lies in mobility and initiative. The third line is the sea coast and other fixed defensive, with a mobile land force to protect the land approaches. From its mobility this third line is essentially defensive. The fourth line is the regular army, which, like the navy, is essentially offensive. The fifth line is the trained reserve, and that we have not. As patriotic and as self-sacrificing as are the individuals who compose the militia, no thinking person, with knowledge of the facts, can count the militia as a trained reserve. For all that it is, we should, however, be deeply thankful. The sixth line is the reserve of equipment— guns, ammunition, clothing, food and fuel-together with the manufacturing establishments to turn out whatever additional is needed, from a button to a battleship. Untrained men, as a war asset, are like ore in the mine, cotton in the bale-simply a valuable raw material. The dear old lady who is represented as singing "I did not raise my boy to be a soldier" is quite right, and she was wise not to undertake it. It takes several years of special training to make a soldier, and it is the duty of the general government, and not even of the various States, to undertake this. She had her work cut out for her getting him through the mumps and measles.

USE OF MONEY.

We are prone in this country to regard ourselves as a rich nation. My experience with rich people has been such that I have come to regard mere riches as a severe test of character. Money is certainly not a war asset until it is actually invested in the creation of war material and trained personnel. It is, however, a good thing to use in paying war indemnities, and in that respect we have an attractive bank account. Money not spent in preparedness for war, if no war comes, is not necessarily money saved, for, unhappily, the ideas which spring up like weeds around the noble aspirations of universal peace always tend to sap, strangle and kill the national stamina and deteriorate the national character, whereas the recognition that every citizen owes spontaneously his services to the country in time of war (and hence in time of peace in preparation for war) is an asset independent of national wealth and infinitely more valuable. Except China (and it is almost too late for her to lock the stable door), Great

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