Field Marshal Earl Roberts told the English people, over and over again, that they were in imminent danger of a war with Germany. No one believed him—at least not enough of them to make any impression on public sentiment—and England was caught unprepared by the present war.
Therefore, let full weight be given to Lord Roberts' declaration and warning as to the future, as recently published:
"I would ask them not to be led away by those who say that the end of this great struggle is to be the end of war, and that it is bound to lead to a great reduction of armament. There is nothing in the history of the world to justify any such conclusion. Nor is it consonant with ordinary common sense."
Such a statement as this, from such a man, cannot be whistled down the wind. This country must inevitably face the condition that in all probability the present war will increase rather than reduce the danger that the United States may become involved in war.
It may be argued that Germany, once a possible antagonist, will be so weakened by this great conflict as not to desire another war. The contrary will prove true. If Germany should prevail, the ambition of her War Lords would know no limit, until Germany dominated the world.
If Germany should not prevail, no matter how much she may be humbled by defeat, she will start over again, with all the latent strength of her people, to rebuild from the ruins a more powerful military nation than she has ever been. With the record before us of what Germany has accomplished since the close of the Thirty Years' War, can anyone deny that a great Teutonic military power might again be developed from the ashes of a ruined nation?
If we look across the Pacific at Japan, we see a nation strengthened and proudly conscious of victory as a result of the present war. Whatever other nations may suffer, Japan gets nothing from this war but national advancement and national glory. The latter is a mighty asset for her, because of the inspiration and stimulus it affords to her people in all their national efforts and ambitions for advancement and expansion.
Russia, England, and France, however great their losses may be, will come out of this war with enormously enlarged national strength, and with their national forces solidified and concentrated behind the military power in those governments. In none of them will this new accretion and concentration of military governmental power be thereafter voluntarily limited or surrendered.
Let us then not deceive ourselves by any visions of world peace which exist only in dreams, or follow shadows into the quicksands in which we would find ourselves mired down if this nation were caught unprepared in a war with any of the great nations above named.
The question of national defense, in the event of such a war, is not one of battleships, so on that point we need not trouble ourselves much with the controversy about how many battleships this country should build in a year. If we had as many battleships as England has to-day, they might prove a broken reed when tested as a means of national defense in case of a war with either England, France, or Japan.