Looking back from the vantage point of
a score of years, probably every one will agree that he was an absurd
person. But he was not one whit more absurd than most of the more
prominent persons who advocate disarmament by the United States, the
cessation of up-building the navy, and the promise to agree to arbitrate
all matters, including those affecting our national interests and honor,
with all foreign nations.
These persons would do no harm if they affected only themselves. Many
of them are, in the ordinary relations of life, good citizens. They are
exactly like the other good citizens who believe that enforced universal
vegetarianism or anti-vaccination is the panacea for all ills. But in
their particular case they are able to do harm because they affect our
relations with foreign powers, so that other men pay the debt which they
themselves have really incurred. It is the foolish, peace-at-any-price
persons who try to persuade our people to make unwise and improper
treaties, or to stop building up the navy. But if trouble comes and the
treaties are repudiated, or there is a demand for armed intervention,
it is not these people who will pay anything; they will stay at home in
safety, and leave brave men to pay in blood, and honest men to pay in
shame, for their folly.
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