AMERICA PERFECTLY SECURE?

It is inconceivable, at this time, with all Europe locked in a death struggle, how any one can charge--as a pacifist does in another column--that the possibility of an invasion of the United States is a mere figment of the imagination. According to expert opinion, the present conflict will be over in two years and possibly sooner. Then either the Allies will triumph and the German menace will be permanently overwhelmed, or Germany will triumph and her menace will be a menace thrice increased. In the latter case, the utterances of German civil and military writers, as as well as her past history, teach us what to expect. And even in the event of an Allied victory, a shifting of alliances and new complications may bring us into war. All pacifists do not hold uncompromisingly to their theories whatever befalls; witness Norman Angell, who now foresees that America may be fighting half the world in half a century. Those who hold that Europe will be too exhausted to fight after this war forget that Europe fought continuously for more than twenty years in the time of Napoleon.

The duty of Americans is clear. The United States must be prepared to fight if war is forced upon her. The logical necessity is no that of quixotically righting the wrongs of other nations, but of defending our national existence and honor. America as a people must live; although perhaps with Voltaire, the pacifists do not see the necessity. And we should be dull indeed if we did not profit by the experience of certain unprepared nations of Europe.