Swiss army. I might add that the
Germans would undoubtedly have preferred to invade France through
Switzerland rather than through Belgium. Their flank would then not
have been exposed to the disastrous pressure of the British army and
navy. The fact of the matter is that they feared the British and the
Belgians combined less than the Swiss. So great are the advantages of
reasonable military preparedness.

_Preparedness and military system_ are not synonymous with a large
standing army. A small, well-prepared army may be the nucleus around
which an efficient military system can be built. The Swiss
organization is at present most interesting, for it has saved that
country from becoming involved in the present war. Had Belgium been as
well prepared as was Switzerland, Germany would have observed sacred
treaties and invaded France _across the Franco-German border_.

The efficient Swiss military system, which can put 500,000 trained and
organized men into the field, costs less than ten million dollars a
year. Our ineffective American standing army of 85,000 men costs us
one hundred millions a year, on a peace footing. The difference is due
to the fact that the frugal, thrifty Swiss, like most other nations,
do not consider civilians competent to meddle with military
matters--or that national defense should be subject to the vagaries of
party politics--or that an army is a fit subject for the experiments
of amateur social scientists.

In spite of the cruel calamities which have in the past overtaken the
United States because of her perpetual unpreparedness, we still insist
that because we do not believe in war we therefore need no military
system. It is as if we held that since we do not wish to be ill we
will abolish physicians--or as if we believed that because we do not
desire to have our homes burn down we will do away with the fire
department and with insurance. No matter how pacific a nation may be
it cannot avoid war by signing peace treaties, either singly or by the
bushel. Reasonable military preparedness is the _only_ valid insurance
against disastrous and ruinous war.

We did without this war insurance in the decade from 1850 to 1860,
when we at that time needed insurance only to the amount of 100,000
trained soldiers. This would have cost about seventy-five millions.
Had we possessed this insurance the Civil War would never have been
fought. For the lack of it our country missed disintegration by a
hair's b