COUNSEL BEFORE ACTION

In this imminent crisis which threatens so strongly our present status of peace, it is natural that men who love their country should ask what they can do. "Old men for council," but young men are impatient in council. They want swift action, a blow while the iron is in its whitest heat.

The time for idle and vacant talk is long since past, yet the time for warlike action has not arrived. The need of the hour is for far-sighted plans which will lead on the action, or make hostile action unnecessary.

Plans are being carefully drawn up whereby the men of the University may prepare themselves most efficiently in a military way for their country's service. Preparation does not predicate war. On the contrary it looks clearly, with no false prejudice, at the future. The self-hypnotism which causes a man to believe that what he does not want will never happen is akin to destruction. The future does not hold in store the peace we wish, but the war Germany may possibly provoke.

Knowing this, we must lay our plans so that an adequate system of military preparedness will give us our surest guarantee of peace. A scheme of training which is hastily planned and insufficient may prove worse than nothing. We must trust to the authorities of the nation to guard our honor. We must trust to the authorities of the University to formulate a plan whereby we shall be prepared to defend that honor.

When the time comes, if the time should come, of just war Harvard will not fail. Until that time we must counsel how most wisely and most calmly we may prepare, and bring our counsels to fruition.