really great extent, irresistible. Sentimentally the people whom he reached woke up and surrendered to him; but for all that, they did NOT at that time issue adequate war orders to Congress! The President's least responsive audience was in Topeka, (according to the New York "Tribune "), and the least responsive element was the Kansas farmer! Farmers who were interviewed at Topeka said they would "fight in a minute if our country were invaded; but we won't go a step farther!" They were not interested in any national honor question that goes outside the boundary lines of continental United States." How is that for sodden and disgusting slumber, in 1916, the second year of the war? 66 I venture to say that no one bit of testimony before Congress ever had a wider influence for evil, or was more universally or more jubilantly used by the enemies of preparedness high and low than one furnished by General Nelson A. Miles. It went into the public records early in 1916, at the very time when the home enemies of our country were most active, and it was like putting a dagger into their hands to be used for the Kaiser. Read on the next page what was widely circulated by the disloyal" Union Against Militarism," of Washington and New York. Up to this date the whole seacoast of Germany has been absolutely impregnable against the attacks of the British fleet. Now I ask this question: Will any man, or any intelligent American schoolboy over twelve years of age, now venture to assert that in 1914 Germany could not have landed 500,000 troops at any one of fifty different points between Boston and Fortress Monroe, as fast as they could be Major General Nelson A. Miles, U. S. A., retired, testifying before the Committee on Military Affairs, at Washington, Feb 8, 1916, said: 66 Having had much to do with the placing and construction of our fortifications, and inspecting every one along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, as well as having had an opportunity of seeing all the great armies of the world and many of their strongest fortifications, including the Dardanelles, I am prepared to say that our coasts are as well defended as the coasts of any country, with the same class of high-power guns and heavy projectiles, and I have no sympathy with the misrepresentations that have been made in the effort to mislead the public. "If 500,000 men could by any stretch of the imagination be loaded into 500 ships and all landed on our shores at once, the expedition would be abortive. If we could not raise enough men and train them to annihilate the invaders before they could be reënforced, I would leave the country and find another nation to which to declare allegiance." loaded into boats, without being touched by a "fortification" of any kind? We have in round figures 5,000 miles of seacoast to defend. I leave the reader to figure out for himself what General Miles' statement is likely to cost America and our allies, through delayed preparedness, before this war is over. CHAPTER V The Slumber of the Mid-western Farmer For a considerable period, amounting practically to the whole years of 1915 and 1916, the cold-footed attitude toward preparedness of the farmers of the Middle West caused the President and his cabinet grave concern. The Socialist Labor element of that region said: "This is a capitalists' war. Now let the rich do their own fighting!" The farmers of the West stood pat, and said next to nothing. Their reported attitude toward the second Liberty Loan, even in the face of unparalleled prosperity on the farm, caused the N. Y. " Evening Sun" of October 22, 1917, to publish the following editorial. I commend it to the attention of every American farmer who is not fully awake at this hour. THE HAPPY PLOWBOY "The happy plowboy was a figure of humble virtue dating from the eighteenth century, a period of indescribably wicked conservatism and tyranny. In this more fortunate day, the plowboy's tool is more or less supplanted by the steam plow, and his whistle has now become the honk-honk of his automobile as he drives blithely about the country looking after his fences, patronizing the president of his bank and consulting with his fellow plowboys, or farmers,' as they call themselves, touching the most eligible market |