Part 1 (1/2)
Our National Defense.
by George Hebard Maxwell.
PREFATORY NOTE
_Ammunition_ is necessary to win a battle. Where it is a great _Battle for Peace_, to be fought with pen and voice, the ammunition needed is _facts_.
Whenever the people of the United States know the _facts_ relating to the subject to which this book is devoted, _then what it advocates will be done_. Much fault has been found with Congress because of the country's unpreparedness. Congress is not at fault. ”The stream cannot rise higher than the fountain.” The will of the people is the law. The people of this nation are unalterably opposed to a big Standing Army. When they know that the safety of the nation can be a.s.sured without either the cost or the menace of militarism, the people will demand that it be done, and Congress will register that popular decree, gladly and willingly. It is not at all surprising that Congress does not yield to the clamor of the militarists when they know the adverse sentiment of the people on that subject.
President Schurman of Cornell recently said:
”It would be self-deception of the grossest character if Americans made their love of peace the criterion of the military policy and preparedness of their country. It would be madness to enfeeble and imperil the United States because we believe peace the chief blessing of the nations.”
All that is true. But when the problem is a.n.a.lyzed _there is no other way that can be devised_, except that proposed in this book, that will safeguard the nation against foreign attack or invasion, and do it _adequately_, without incurring stupendous cost or creating a menace to liberty. Americans are a brave people, but they have a hereditary aversion to the clank of a saber in time of peace.
There are a few books that every one who wishes to master the subject should read. First among these is ”Fields, Factories and Workshops,” by Prince Kropotkin, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. A new edition of this book has been recently issued which costs only seventy-five cents.
”The Iron in the Blood” is a chapter in ”The Coming People,” by Charles F.
Dole, published by T. Y. Crowell & Co. of New York. A reprint of this book can be had for twenty-five cents from the Rural Settlements a.s.sociation.
”The Secret of Nippon's Power” is another pertinent article, in ”The First Book of the Homecrofters.” A new and enlarged edition of this book will soon be issued. In the meantime copies of the first edition can be had for twenty-five cents from the Rural Settlements a.s.sociation.
More has been accomplished in Duluth, Minnesota, to prove the benefits of the Homecroft Life than in any other City in the United States. A special publication, descriptive of the Homecroft Work in Duluth, and a pamphlet by George H. Maxwell ent.i.tled, ”The Cost of Living,” which shows the relation to that subject of the Homecroft System of Education and Life, can be obtained by sending ten cents in stamps to the Rural Settlements a.s.sociation, Cotton Exchange Building, New Orleans, La.
The legislative machinery necessary to inaugurate the plans for work to be done through the Forest Service and the Reclamation Service is all provided for in the Newlands-Broussard River Regulation Bill. That bill provides for river regulation, flood prevention, land reclamation and settlement, and the establishment of forest plantations in all parts of the United States.
It also brings the departments of the national government into coordinating by forming the Board of River Regulation. Through that board, all necessary plans would be worked out for coordinating other departments with the War Department, and completing the organization of the National Construction Reserve and the Homecroft Reserve. When perfected, those plans would be presented to Congress with a recommendation for their enactment.
Those who favor the plan advocated in this book are urged to concentrate their influence first on the pa.s.sage of that bill as the entering-wedge to the ultimate adoption of the entire plan. They are also urged to do all in their power to enlist the active interest of their friends by inducing them to study the subject and _get the facts_.
Copies of the Newlands-Broussard River Regulation Bill and explanatory printed matter may be had without charge by writing to the National Reclamation a.s.sociation, 331 Maryland Building, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.
This book, OUR NATIONAL, DEFENSE--THE PATRIOTISM OF PEACE, has been published by the Rural Settlements a.s.sociation. The price of the book is $1.25, including postage, and orders for copies, with remittance for that amount, should be sent to Rural Settlements a.s.sociation, Cotton Exchange Building, New Orleans, La.
GEORGE H. MAXWELL, _Executive Director_, Rural Settlements a.s.sociation, National Reclamation a.s.sociation.
FOREWORD
_Would it interest you to know_ that the people of the United States, having first blindfolded themselves with the self-complacence of ignorance, are walking along the crest of a ridge with a precipice on one side falling sheer into the abyss of devastation by war with an invading foreign power, while on the other side boils the seething crater of a social volcano?
If so, _you will be convinced of that fact_, if you will carefully and thoughtfully read this book through from cover to cover; and _you will also be convinced_ that the only road to safety is that pointed out in this book.
Would you not feel that ”an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”