ship of nations. This is the time above all others when we should
wish and resolve to keep our strength by self-possession, our influence
by preserving our ancient principles of action.

From the first we have had a clear and settled policy with regard to
military establishments. We never have had, and while we retain our
present principles and ideals we never shall have, a large standing
army. If asked, Are you ready to defend yourselves? we reply, Most
assuredly, to the utmost; and yet we shall not turn America into a
military camp. We will not ask our young men to spend the best years of
their lives making soldiers of themselves. There is another sort of
energy in us. It will know how to declare itself and make itself
effective should occasion arise. And especially when half the world is
on fire we shall be careful to make our moral insurance against the
spread of the conflagration very definite and certain and adequate
indeed.

Let us remind ourselves, therefore, of the only thing we can do or will
do. We must depend in every time of national peril, in the future as in
the past, not upon a standing army, nor yet upon a reserve army, but
upon a citizenry trained and accustomed to arms. It will be right
enough, right American policy, based upon our accustomed principles and
practices, to provide a system by which every citizen who will volunteer
for the training may be made familiar with the use of modern arms, the
rudiments or drill and maneuver, and the maintenance and sanitation of
camps. We should encourage such training and make it a means of
discipline which our young men will learn to value. It is right that we
should provide it not only, but that we should make it as attractive as
possible, and so induce our young men to undergo it at such times as
they can command a little freedom and can seek the physical development
they need, for mere health's sake, if for nothing more. Every means by
which such things can be stimulated is legitimate, and such a method
smacks of true American ideas. It is right, too, that the National Guard
of the States should be developed and strengthened by every means which
is not inconsistent with our obligations to our own people or with the
established policy of our Government. And this, also, not because the
time or occasion specially calls for such measures, but because it
should be our constant policy to make these provisions for our national
peace and safety.

More than this