the match.

We dare not trust the peace of the world to those who spend their time
in getting ready for wars that should never come. Half the energy
employed in preparing for war would effectually prevent war if used in
propagating the principles which make for peace.

Instead of preventing war, preparedness provokes war, because it is
impossible to coerce the people into bearing the burdens incident to
continuous and increasing preparation without cultivating hatred as if
it were a national virtue. There must be some one to fear; some other
preparing nation that must be represented as plotting for war.

Hate sets up sham standards of honor and converts every wound into a
festering sore; hate misunderstands; hate misinterprets; hate maligns
its supposed adversary, while every contractor, battleship builder,
and manufacturer of munitions of war applauds.

How can preparedness prevent war, if all prepared? Each step taken by
one nation toward more complete preparedness excites the other nations
to additional purchases and new levies, until all have exhausted their
productive industries and menaced their moral progress.

The doctrine that preparedness will prevent war will not stand the
test of logic, and the conflagration in Europe shows that it fails
when tested by experience.

If any nation is without excuse for entering into a mad rivalry with
the belligerent nations in preparation for war it is the United
States. We are protected on either side by thousands of miles of
ocean, and this protection is worth more to us than any number of
battleships. We have an additional protection in the fact--known to
every one--that we have the men with whom to form an army of defense
if we are ever attacked, and it is known also that we have the money,
too--more money than we would have if the surplus earnings of the
people had been invested in armament. We not only do not need
additional preparation, but we are fortunate in not having it, as now
it seems impossible for a nation to have what is called preparedness
on slight notification.

The leading participants in the present war are the nations that were
best prepared, and I fear it would have been difficult for us to keep
out of this war if we had been as well prepared as they.

Happily for our nation, we have in the White House at this time a
President who believes in setting the Old World an example instead of
following the bad example which it has set in this matter.