Our country should not shirk its duty to mankind. It can perform this duty only if it is true to itself. It can be true to itself only by definitely resolving to take the position of the just man armed; for a proud and self-respecting nation of freemen must scorn to do wrong to others and must also scorn tamely to submit to wrong done by others. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. SAGAMORE HILL, January 1, 1915. CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORD vii CHAPTER I. THE DUTY OF SELF-DEFENSE AND OF GOOD CONDUCT TOWARD OTHERS 1 II. THE BELGIAN TRAGEDY 15 III. UNWISE PEACE TREATIES A MENACE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS 44 IV. THE CAUSES OF THE WAR 60 V. HOW TO STRIVE FOR WORLD PEACE 74 VI. THE PEACE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS 88 VII. AN INTERNATIONAL POSSE COMITATUS 104 VIII. SELF-DEFENSE WITHOUT MILITARISM 128 IX. OUR PEACEMAKER, THE NAVY 156 X. PREPAREDNESS AGAINST WAR 174 XI. UTOPIA OR HELL? 220 XII. SUMMING UP 244 CHAPTER I THE DUTY OF SELF-DEFENSE AND OF GOOD CONDUCT TOWARD OTHERS In this country we are both shocked and stunned by the awful cataclysm which has engulfed civilized Europe. By only a few men was the possibility of such a wide-spread and hideous disaster even admitted. Most persons, even after it occurred, felt as if it was unbelievable. They felt that in what it pleased enthusiasts to speak of as “this age of enlightenment” it was impossible that primal passion, working hand in hand with the most modern scientific organization, should loose upon the world these forces of dread destruction. In the last week in July the men and women of the populous civilized countries of Europe were leading their usual ordered lives, busy and yet soft, lives carried on with comfort and luxury, with appliances for ease and pleasure such as never before were known, lives led in a routine which to most people seemed part of the natural order of things, something which could not be disturbed by shocks such as the world knew of old. A fortnight later hell yawned under the feet of these hard-working or pleasure-seeking men and women, and woe smote them as it smote the peoples we read of in the Old Testament or in the histories of the Middle Ages. Through the rents in our smiling surface of civilization the volcanic fires beneath gleamed red in the gloom.