The Commoner
JANUARY,-3916
23
Preparedness and
Peace
From The New York Sun, Novem
ber 9, 1915.
To the Editor of The Sun Sir: I
read in last Friday's Sun the state
ment made by the lamented William
Jennings Bryan about President Wil
son's national defence programme. I
do not mean to imply that Mr. Bryan
is dead, for if he were dead I should
not refer to him as the lamented.
Some years ago in one of its ad
mirable editorial articles the Sun
spoke of the ostentatious reticence
of Mr, Bryan. That paradoxical ex
pression exactly applies to the peer
less puerilizer. Not only is Mr. Bry
an ostentatiously reticent but he is
also pugnaciously meek, malevolently
mild and arrogantly unassuming.
Even his silence is noisy.
Mr. Bryan is of so retiring a dispo
sition that in order to advance him
self in any way he finds it necessary
to go backward. Hid "whole public
career hap been a recessional.
Mr. Bryan" refers to the national
defence programme of President Wil
son as a challenge to the -spirit of
Christianity. He says that the phil
osophy of national defence is a false
philosophy. Then he turns upon the
President with another "Gqd -bless
you" in the shape of a hope
that ..the President wilj not be de?
ceiyed by the atmosphere of .the Man
hattan club, as he puts it.
What or who is this spirit of
Christianity to which or whom Mr.
Bryan refers? He can not refer to
the Christianity of he Nazarene, be
cause' Christ' never taught Bryahism.
MAnd.Jie ,thatPhath npwoxd, tlet
him .sell bjis garment and buy one.-r
Luke, xxii., 36.
Christ ivever, taught non-resistance
to wrong; on the 'contrary JHis doc
trine was bn6' 6i constant Resistance
to wrong. Not only that, but also He
taught His disciples tb gird' Up their
loins with, a swdrM'belt and go forth
and "wage a never yielding warfare' of
justice against injustice, of right
against wrong.
Ghrist taught strength, npt weak
ness; taught courage,' not cowardice;
1 aught progress, f not, retrogression;
taught pupli, not' passiyeness;, and
when He 'said "Thou art Peter, and
upon this rock will I build my church,,
and the gates of hell shall not pre
vail against it." He did not refer to
Mr. Bryan, but to St. Peter, and He
had in mind adequate defences
aga'ihst any prevailing of hell,
whether in the shape of war or In
other guise.
Mr. Bryan's conception of the spirit
of Christianity is that of a smug
faced specialization of Providence
which materialized out of the infinite
nascency at Salem, 111., on March 19,
18 GO, and which or who, after it had
fledged itself, went to Nebraska and
built a tower of. Babel known as The
Commoner, and made a tongued con
fusion known as the speech of the
Cross of Gold, and which (pardon my
metaphors) was used as a Jacob's
ladder to make a balloon ascension
into the sunshine of publicity and na
tional political prominence.
Mr. Bryan hopes "that the Presi
dent will not be deceived by the at
mosphere of the Manhattan club."
'"hat is a metaphor, no prettier than
those I have just used. Perhaps Mr.
Aryan's meaning M literal. But Mr.
Aryan's chief medium for the effusive
effervescence of his ideas and their
transmission to others is a caloric at
mosphere, therefore it is natural for
him. to refer to the, atmosphere as a
deceiver.. , , . -
In-'Mri BryanJs.eyfis the Manhattan
club is made the unholy of unholies
by the worshippers of Mammon. Mr.
Bryan himself is not noted for his de
testation of the sight of money. I
never heard of any one Hipping a coin
in his presence without his hat being
under the coin before It touched the
floor. When he is paid $600 a night
for a Chautauqua speech he does not
cry, "Out of sight, damned five spot,"
but his worshipful regards would put
an overstrain on the elastic limit of
the First and Second Commandments,
and he palms it and pockets it with
as pleased and as clinging a sense as
that with which the most exquisite
connoisseur of Virginian colonelcy
sips a mint julep.
I have unhappily been fortunate
enough to hear Mr. Bryan speak sev
eral times. The most notable speech
that I ever heard him make was two
years ago at a banquet of the Au
thors league, New York, and he spoke
somewhat after the manner that the
humble servant of Balaam might
have spoken. Captain Jack Craw
ford says of an imitation of the bray
ing of an ass, which he sometimes
gives at his admirable recitations,
that it is not given as an imitation
at all, but as the real thing. Likewise,
Mr, Bryan's effusion of asslninities
Which he delivered on that occasion
was .no. imitation of donkey talk. ' If I
was the real thing. Now in his talk
about preparedness he is "Bryan"
again.
"We aro," he ,ays, "without an
eneniy, and our, preparedridss is in
creasing, while, other nations exhaust
themselves," and he continues, "the
nations of Europe brought on the
present war because of their pre
paredness for it, hence, why should
we prepare?"
It has beeri said of Mr. Bryan that
he never areU'esTb'e merely declaims.
Thd'Tiest tf'giime'ntcan'ao,is to carry-
declamation' can win- ten converts,
witliollt argument "or reason,' to ev
ery One that can be won by logld. Mr.
Bryan knows this. He knows that
merely for the purpose of convincing
most of his hearers it is not necessary-either
to be logical or to adhere
to facts. -
The European war was not brought
on because .of preparedness, but be
cause off-the lack.iof preparedness on
the part of. the. entente powers. Eng
land was pathetically unprepared; so
I was Russia. Had the entente powers
been prepared there-would have been
no war.
The European powers are not ex
hausting themselves with respect to
what most concerns us, and that is"
war potentiality; they are becoming
stronger every day. They may be
poorer after the war, but they will
be stronger. At the end of the Civil
war the north was much
poorer, but infinitely stronger.
Financial exhaustion or econ
omic exhaustion does not neces
sarily mean military exhaustion.
Economic weakness constitutes a
very strong inducement to utilize mil
itary prowess. The poverty of the
European nations makes their mili
tary powers all the more dangerous
to us.
Mr. Bryan conceives it to be a folly
for us to prepare to defend the coun
try because he. believes that our very
preparation would anger the other
nations and fret them into war with,
us, and then he concludes with the
paradoxical statement, peculiarly
Bryanish, "Why encourage the na
tions of Europe in their folly by imi
tating them" in the matter of arma
ments? If our preparations for na
tional defence would harass and an
ger the other nations, how can it at
the same time be an encouragement
to them? Can we encourage them
by harassing and angering them, or
harass and anger them by encourage
ment? . ,
What a balm for tired .souls it
would be if Mr. William. Jennings
Former Senator Bailey, of Texas,
is Against Preparedness
The rjllowing letter states the po
sition of Former Senator Bailey of
Texas on the "preparedness" ques
tion: Washington, D. C, Nov. 15. Ed
itor "Wow-Wow," Lorena, Texas: I
am always glad to have friends like
you write mo at any time when they
desire to know my opinion on any
question, and I very freely declare
to you that I am utterly opposed to
the so-called "preparedness" which
the President' is now so earnestly ad
vocating. If I thought that this coun
try was in any immediate danger of
coming to blows with any other
country, I would insist upon making
a suitable preparation for the con
flict; but I am utterly unable to un
derstand how any intelligent person
can think that there is even a re
mote possibility of our country on
gaging in a war at this time or for
many years to dome. The only na
tions in the world with which a war
would be anything like a serious mat
ter to us are now involved in a strug
gle among themselves from whltih
they will not recover for fifty years.
With millions of their best men killed
in battle, with other millions crip
pled, with other millions diseased as
the result of exposure aiid with na
tional debts Which will aggregate
$40,000,000,000, neither England,
nor France, nor Germany, nor Rus
sia will be apt to' give any country,
and least of all -our country, any just
cause of quarrol' during the present
century. All of this persuades tnc
that thero was never an hour in our
history when there was less need of
military preparation than there is to
day; and if wo spend an additional
sum of $200,000,000 a year on our
army and navy and before we have
gone very far we will dc spending
much more than that we will have
spent $10,000,000,000 in the next
fifty years in the face of a practical
certainty that we will have no war,
and, therefore, that vast sum, pro
vlded by the capital and labor of tlito
country, will havo simply Uecn'
wasted.
I understand, of course, that there
are men In this country who believe
in a strong government, and who
think that a great army and a great
navy will make ours a strong one';
but no real democrat entertains that
view. Wc have been taught to believe
that a military republic is an impos
sibility, because the spirit of an- army
and the spirit of a republic arc irre
concilable. A republic can, it is-true,'
maintain a small- army In tiraeof
peace without serious injury -lo'its
institution, but that can only 'Me
done by keeping the army ok small
that Its spirit can not permeate thoj
great mans of our people. This 7iaaJ
always been the positioii of the'dom
ocratic party, and this must continue
to be the pdBltion of the democratic
party,- If It is to remain democratic-
Very truly your friend, J. W.'
BAILEY. - i w
' IT.
Bryan would relegate himself to the
Jnflnite quiescence of innocuous
desuetude. '
' iteSsoN' maxim:
Brooklyn, "November 8. "'
PyTS BAN ON ADMIRALS
A Washington dispatch, dated Jan.
4, says: Officers of the navy hereafter
will not be permitted to "talk in pub
lic" The rule by which Secretary
of War Garrison prohibited army
offlcers from making speeches has
been made applicable to navy officers.
This fact became known today
when Secretary Daniels wired John
W. Scott of the Chicago Commercial
club that ho would not give
Rear Admiral Austin M. Knight per
mission to speak before that organ
ization on January 15.
The Commercial club had asked
Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske to
speak, but Fiske wired he would not
be able to d. so. President Scott
then wired President Wilson as fol
lows: "The Commercial club of Chicago
regrets your refusal to permit Rear
Admiral Tiske to address us on the
evening of January 15. Will you
give your consent to our inviting
Rear Admiral Austin M. Knight for
the same date? There will be no
newspaper publicity given the matter
of the address. The courtesy of a
telegraphic reply at once is request
ed." Secretary Daniels replied:
"I had not heard that Ad.miral
Fiske had been Invited to address
the Commercial club until your tele
gram to the President was referred
to me. It is my conviction that the
expert opinion of the navy depart
ment having been givea to the public
and congress and the President hav
ing outlined a policy for navy con
struction it is fpr civilians to lead
the fight for enlargement while naval
offlcers follow the unbroken policy
of not attempting to influence legis
lation. i(
"Until I became secretary .of the
navy the reports of the general board
hud been regarded as confidential. I
publish all their recommendations
for increases of the navy. Thd 'navy's"'
experts will give their "views to'htfvtfT''"
affairs committees in congress and
hearings will be public. This gives
to congress and the public th" 6pTtf
ions o'fexpertsT ' '' 'tttfu
. : Uuii.m
' CLAIMS PAID IN W.'mln,
Ida E. Sundeen, Waverly i'j'i?!t0''j
Homer E. Aylsworth, Aurora3 5, (Td 6'' fl
John, G. Swanson, Osceola'. ,'. ' l,t)b(T "'
Emma North, Lincoln ." 2'!50d ' '
- .. . ....',, t .,,
Thos. E. Bailey, Pleasant Dale 2,0'flff
Thos. C. Swoboda, PlattsmoutlM.OOO "
Robert E. Neitzel, Murphy, ' '"
.h?; v' ,s,m
George Falconer, Omaha i.VfdO1 '
' - '.
Cora B. Alexander, Lincoln.. ltfO '
Samuel J. Boomer, Lawrence 1,000 "
Jay L. Pierce, Hartington 2,000'
Clair A. Everett, Scottsbluff . .' 1,000
James E. Lawthers, Rising City 1,00.0
E. Ross Hitchcock,. Sterling. . . I,(f00
Delmer McCann, Arlington. . ,10,000
Frences L. Wisner,' Bayard . . . ljfoO '
Total $32,500
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