I know that bullies thrive best in an atmosphere of
meekness. As long as this military system lasts you must discourage the
mailed fist by showing that you will meet it with something harder than
a boxing glove. We do not think it good to admit into the code of the
twentieth century that a great national bully may still with impunity
squeeze the blood out of its small neighbours and seize their goods."

We need not fear militarism arising in America as long as the
fundamental principles of democracy are preserved and continually
extended, which can be done only through the feeling of the individual
responsibility of every man and every woman to take a keen and constant
interest in the matters of their own government--community, state,
national, and now international. We must realise and ever more fully
realise that in a government such as ours, the people are the
government, and that when in it anything goes wrong, or wrongs and
injustices are allowed to grow and hold sway, we are to blame.

Universal military training has not militarised Switzerland nor has it
Australia. It is rather the very essence of democracy and the very
antithesis of militarism.

"Let each son of Freedom bear
His portion of the burden. Should not each one do his share?
To sacrifice the splendid few--
The strong of heart, the brave, the true,
Who live--or die--as heroes do,
While cowards profit--is not fair!"

Many still recall that not a few well-meaning people at the close of the
Civil War proclaimed that, with upwards of two million trained men
behind him, General Grant would become a military dictator, and that
this would be followed by the disappearance of democracy in the nation.
But the mind, the temper, the traditions of our people are all a
guarantee against militarism. The gospel, the hallucination of the
shining armour, the will to power, has no attraction for us. We loathe
it; nor do we fear its undermining and crushing our own liberties
internally. Nevertheless, it is true that vigilance is always and always
will be the price of liberty. There must be a constant education towards
citizenship. There must be an alert democracy, so that any land and sea
force is always the servant of the spirit; for only otherwise it can
become its master--but otherwise it will become its master.

XIII

OUR SOLE AGENCY OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE, AND INTERNATIONAL CONCORD

The consensus of intelligent