The defense legislation of the year is evidence of heartbreaking national failure. The collection of sectional, personal, sometimes obviously dishonest, and, at best, ill-considered bills, evidences a graver charge than the political “expediencies” to which we are well enough accustomed. They are a testimony to the faithlessness of legislators in the highest places of the land, a miserable failure in patriotism, and that they have gone on so many months unchallenged is another proof of the supine patience, flabbiness, and stupidity of the average American citizen. What should we have done? We had ample warning when Congress adjourned in 1915 that we would face the issue of preparedness as a vital compelling matter in 1916. Instead of depending upon separate and often conflicting reports from various departments and staff officers, the party in power should have had in hand in December--when Congress reassembled--the outline of a national policy, substantiated by certified facts, along which a series of bills could have been drafted to meet the needs at all points, and to avoid duplications at any point. Then the reserves of the majority party should have begun their own nation-wide campaign to carry their program. Failing this, the minority party in Congress had its opportunity. Such a plan would have rallied all the citizenship force for defense in support of its program and would have avoided the conflicts that now wage throughout the land. This program broadly conceived would have commanded the most comprehensive information in the country; not only from the Interstate Commerce Commission on transportation; from the Federal trade commission on industrial capacities and reserves; from the Public Health Service on port conditions; from the Federal reserve board on credit; from the Department of Labor on conserving men and stabilizing labor and Americanizing aliens, but it would have had the coöperation of such organizations as the American Federation of Labor and the United States Chamber of Commerce. The best thought of the country would have been crystallized, and instead of the prevailing chaos we would have a program free from partisan or sectional influences. Instead of haggling over the number of men, and where to get the money, and resurrecting letters from files to prove responsibility, we would be reapportioning our army posts on the basis of national defense, instead of on the basis of a civil war; we would be locating our munition plants in safe places; we would be building model ammunition plants, we would have an aviation corps and training schools worthy of the name--and Villa would not have raided Texas.