The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America - Percy T. Magan

severely, would be loath to face the charge of want
of patriotism assailing everybody who opposes it.
This is no new story. War makes military heroes,
but it makes also civic cowards. No wonder that
war has always proved so dangerous to the vitality
of democracies; for a democracy needs to keep
alive, above all things, the civic virtues which war
so easily demoralizes.
“You will have observed that I have treated the
matter of militarism in the United States in intimate
connection with our warlike enterprises, as if they
were substantially the same thing. I have done so
purposely. As I endeavored to set forth, the
development of militarism in European states can
be explained on the theory that each power may
think the largest possible armaments necessary for
the protection of its safety among its neighbors,
and for the preservation of peace. With us such a
motive can not exist. Not needing large armaments
for our safety,--for this Republic, if it maintained
its old traditional policy, would be perfectly safe
without them,--we can need them only in the
service of warlike adventure undertaken at our own
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