“In other words,” Vassar broke in, “you mean to prevent this country from preparing to defend herself from the power of Imperial Europe?”
Waldron searched his opponent for a moment of intense silence and slowly answered:
“If you care to put it that way—yes. I represent the combined forces of peace and sanity in this nation. We have determined that America shall not be cursed by the military caste. We are determined that our country shall not follow in the mad blind race of the Old World in building armaments with which to murder our fellow men. I have made no secret of my purpose and I am going to win. I am going to defeat your bill to place our army and navy on the footing of war-cursed Europe—”
“My bill does not propose to establish a military caste,” Vassar protested. “It only demands a trained citizen soldiery for adequate defense, armed and ready to enter the field, an effective wall of patriotic fire if we are assailed. I ask a navy that will be absolutely sure to sink the fleet of any power that may attack us. I do not ask that this fleet shall be in constant commission, only that it shall be built and ready for service.”
“Your demand is preposterous,” Waldron coldly answered. “You ask for a bond issue of $500,000,000 for naval purposes only—”
“Anything less will be inadequate. We are behind the world in guns, behind the world in aircraft, behind the world in submarines. We invented the aeroplane. We invented the machine gun. We invented the iron-clad. We invented the submarine. We must lead the world in these arms of defense—not follow, the last lame duck in the march! An inadequate navy no matter how great its size is worse than none. It will merely lead us into trouble and murder our defenders. War is now a merciless science. Skill, not physical courage, wins. The machine has become the master of the world—”
“Please!” Waldron cried with hand uplifted in a gesture of impatience. “I know your speech by heart. It’s old. It doesn’t interest me. Come to the point. If you’ll agree as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs to modify your bill to train and arm a million citizen soldiers, and reduce your naval programme to two battleships, four cruisers, twenty-four submarines and twenty-four aeroplanes, we can come to terms—”
Vassar rose, fixed his opponent with a searching look and said:
“I’ll see you in hell first—”
“All right,” Waldron snapped. “I’m going to wipe you off the map. There’ll be a new chairman of your Committee when Congress meets in December—”