Topics for Debate

1. The public authorities should assume all responsibility for poor relief and do away with private charity organizations altogether.

2. County jails should be abolished and all prisoners sent to state or federal institutions.

3. The Osborne plan of prison self-government should be adopted throughout the country.

CHAPTER XXVIII
THE NATIONAL DEFENCE

The purpose of this chapter is to show why an army and navy are needed by the United States; how they are organized; and what they cost.

What we spend each year for military purposes.

The Stupendous Cost of Armaments.—Although the people of the United States dislike war and desire peace the national government is now spending about $750,000,000 every year to maintain the country’s military and naval forces. Seven dollars per head of population is our annual contribution for national defence. The people of the United States are spending far more on national defence, on payments for past wars, and on preparations for wars of the future, than they are expending upon all branches of civil government. The cost of a single battleship is greater than that of all the school buildings in a state like Ohio or California. And this does not reckon the loss caused by the withdrawal of more than two hundred thousand able-bodied young men from the farms and factories. Why is it necessary to support armies and navies? The leading nations of the world, at the Washington conference of 1921-1922, reached an agreement for the reduction of naval armaments. Would it not be practicable for the world to abolish armies and navies altogether? We have all heard the arguments of the pacifists to the effect that great armaments are not necessary, that they are in fact an encouragement to war, and that they merely impose upon the people a grievous burden in taxes without any substantial advantage in return.[[269]]

Let us first look at this problem from a different angle, close at home. We spend large sums of money in all American cities for the maintenance of police, police courts, and prisons. Why do we do it? If people would only obey the laws, respect the rights of others, and refrain from interfering with their neighbors, there would be no need for these armed guardians of the law. The trouble is, however, that without police and prisons we would have disorder, injustice, and oppression. A community certainly would not promote the cause of law and order by leaving itself helpless against those who set out to do wrong. Now the army and the navy are our police writ large. They are, against wrong-doing from without, what the police are against wrong-doing from within—a measure of protection and security.

A nation cannot leave itself defenceless.