Victor! and Lose! Will Need Cash
"We shall be rich to repletion when
the war is over, and if no measures of
preparedness are taken now, as weak
I as we are rich. The losers in this ti
| tanic struggle will have to pay an
enormous indemnity, notwithstanding
they are beggared Where will they
get the funds? Why, naturally here,
and through a still larger indemnity
to cover the cost of collection. Simply
on the ground of necessity, ostensibly
because they will hold that our neu
trality during the war was imperfect
- hut any old reasons will do. The
real argument will be in their supe
rior fleets and armies.
"Similarly, the victors, requiring
1 huge sums for re-establishing their
industries and commerce, may in their
turn, accuse us of unneutrality and ex
act a few billions to set them up in
■ business.
"If we do not make ready now, such
j possibilities may harden into realities,
j It is for the people to say whether
i they are willing to spend a compara
tively small sum today as insurance
! against the levying by armed force
i tomorrow of contributions beside
j which our national debt will look mi
croscopic. If congress will only rise
| to the emergency and be guarded by
[ the advice of experts who know, be
i cause they have passed their whole
I lives in finding out, then all will he
well.
More Than Men and Gun!
Emphasizing that preparedness
j means much more than a supply of
men and guns, Rear Admiral Good
rich exhorted his audience to do its
part toward establishing an adequate
defense.
