ntically the same moral ideals, precepts and obligations
that bind individuals must be held sacred by the state, otherwise it
becomes a pirate among nations, and it will inevitably in time be hunted
down and destroyed as such, however great its apparent power. Nor do we
as a nation share in the belief that war is necessary and indeed good
for a nation, to inspire and to preserve its manly qualities, its
virility, and therefore its power. Were this the only way that this
could be brought about, it might be well and good; but the price to be
paid is a price that is too enormous and too frightful, and the results
are too uncertain. We believe that these same ideals can be inculcated,
that these same energies can be used along useful, conserving,
constructive lines, rather than along lines of destruction.

A nation may have the most colossal and perfect military system in the
world, and still may suffer defeat in any given while, because of those
unseen things that pertain to the soul of another people, whereby powers
and forces are engendered and materialised that make defeat for them
impossible; and in the matter of big guns, it is well always to remember
that no nation can build them so great that another nation may not build
them still greater. National safety does not necessarily lie in that
direction. Nor, on the other hand, along the lines of extreme
pacificism--surely not as long as things are as they are. The argument
of the lamb has small deterrent effect upon the wolf--as long as the
wolf is a wolf. And sometimes wolves hunt in packs. The most preeminent
lesson of the great war for us as a nation should be this--there should
be constantly a degree of preparedness sufficient to hold until all the
others, the various portions of the nation, thoroughly coordinated and
ready, can be summoned into action. Thus are we prepared, thus are we
safe, and there is no danger or fear of militarism.

In a democracy it should, without question, be a fundamental fact that
hand in hand with equal rights there should go a sense of equal duty. A
call for defence should have a universal response. So it is merely good
common-sense, good judgment, if you please, for all the young men of the
nation to have a training sufficient to enable them to respond
effectively if the nation's safety calls them to its defence. It is no
crime, however we may deprecate war, to be thus prepared.

For young men--and we must always remember that it is t