EUROPE'S DYNASTIC SLAUGHTER HOUSE 75 



good citizens, not to demand literal interpretation of these illustra- 

 tions, but to think them out, " each for himself and not for the other." 

 Whether with our insular possessions we have intruded insolently; 

 whether in our Monroe doctrine we have " swaggered " ; these are pos- 

 sibly debatable questions. I do not say that our altruism will remain 

 unrewarded by conversion of savages ; but it is not yet definitely decided 

 that the cannibals are not land-hungry, and it is very certain that the 

 missionary is very, very edible. 



The question of our national defending, not for aggression, but to 

 prevent aggression, on sea and land, beneath the seas and in the air; 

 this needs to be thought out and legislated out, and acted out. Upon 

 this however full reliance may be placed : that until our great cities can 

 dispense with an adequate police force, the nation will require the 

 defence which trained defenders alone can insure. 



Some of us, especially as to activities and non-activities in Mexico, 

 have openly sneered at the administration's policy of prudence — of so- 

 called " watchful waiting," candor compels confession that for one 

 having had a military training, and withal having the strongest ad- 

 miration for " strenuous " action, to refrain would have been difficult 

 indeed. Nevertheless, in view of what is happening in Europe, the 

 feeling can not be repressed that this policy will find justification, not 

 in premature urgency as to our good offices, but when the day comes, 

 as it surely will come, for an umpire, disinterested, unvexed and un- 

 hampered by affinity or collusion, as a sincere friend to all nations and 

 to humanity, to urge and to demand guarantees of an enduring peace. 



