_

Now what are we doing to meet this responsibility? On the one hand, we
are performing a great work for peace. Many of our statesmen, business
men, and laborers, united in a common cause, are exerting a tremendous
influence in behalf of arbitration and disarmament. On the other hand,
we are spending more on our military establishment than any other
world power;[3] we are building more battleships than any other
nation;[4] we are no longer trusting our neighbors; we are warning
them to beware of our mailed fist; and we are thereby declaring to the
world that we have lost our faith in the power of justice and are now
trusting to the force of arms.

[3] The orator is comparing the cost of the United States
army, navy, and pensions upkeep with the military
establishments of other powers.--_Editor._

[4] Since naval rivalry in its acute form has centered
between Great Britain and Germany, European naval building
programs have exceeded those of the United
States.--_Editor._

And why this paradoxical situation? Why do we at the same time prepare
for war and work for peace? It is simply because many of our statesmen
honestly believe that the best way to preserve peace is to prepare for
war. It is true that a certain amount of strength tends to command
respect, and for that reason a navy sufficient for self-defense is
warranted. Such a navy we now have. Why should it be enlarged? Naval
enthusiasts would have us prepare, not for the probable but for the
possible. Seize every questionable act of our neighbors, they say,
magnify it a thousand times, publish it in letters of flame throughout
the land, and make every American citizen believe that the great
powers are prepared to destroy us at any moment. Having educated the
people up to a sense of threatened annihilation, they burden them with
taxes, build artificial volcanoes dedicated to peace, parade them up
and down the high seas, and defy the world to attack us. Then, they
say, we shall have peace. Is this reasonable? As sure as thought leads
to action, so preparation for war leads to war. This argument that the
United States, since she is a peace-loving nation, should have the
largest navy in the world in order to preserve peace is illogical and
without foundation. By what divine right does the United States assume
the role of preserving the world's peace at the cannon's mouth? Since
when has it been true that might makes right, and that peace