NATIONAL DEFENSE NATIONAL EXISTENCE
____________. A nation that cannot take its own part
is at times almost as fertile a source of mischief in the
world at large as is a nation which does wrong to
others, for its very existence puts a premium on such
wrong-doing. Therefore, a nation must fit itself to
defend its honor and interest against outside
aggression; and this necessarily means that in a free
democracy every man fit for citizenship must be
trained so that he can do his full duty to the nation in
war no less than in peace. (1916.) Mem. Ed. XX, 232;
Nat. Ed. XVIII, 200.
____________. The only kind of peace worth having
is the peace of righteousness and justice; the only
nation that can serve other nations is the strong and
valiant nation; and the only great international policies
worth considering are those whose upholders believe
in them strongly enough to fight for them . . . A nation
is utterly contemptible if it will not fight in its own
defense. A nation is not wholly admirable unless in
time of stress it will go to war for a great ideal wholly
unconnected with its immediate material interest.
(1916.) Mem. Ed. XX, 261; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 225.
____________. Nations are made, defended, and
preserved, not by the illusionists, but by the men and
women who practise the homely virtues in time of
peace, and who in time of righteous war are ready to
die, or to send those they love best to die, for a shining
ideal. (1918.) Mem. Ed. XXI, 357; Nat. Ed. XIX, 325.
NATIONAL DEFENSE—PLANS FOR. It is not
desirable that civilians, acting independently of and
without the help of military and naval advisers, shall
prepare minute or detailed plans as to what ought to be
done for our national defense. But civilians are
competent to advocate plans in outline exactly as I
have here advocated them. Moreover, and most
important, they are competent to try to make public
opinion effective in these matters. A democracy must
have proper leaders. But these leaders must be able to
appeal to a proper sentiment in the democracy. It is
the prime duty of every right-thinking citizen at this
time to aid his fellow counrymen to understand the
need of working wisely for peace, the folly of acting
unwisely for peace, and, above all, the need of real
and thorough national preparedness against war. (New
York Times, November 29, 1914.) Mem. Ed. XX, 208;
Nat. Ed. XVIII, 178.
TARY TRAINING; NAVY; PACIFISM; PANAMA CANAL;
PREPAREDNESS; SELF-PRESERVATION.
NATIONAL DUTY. Let this nation fear God and take
its own part. Let it scorn to do wrong to great or small.
Let it exercise patience and charity toward all other
peoples, and yet at whatever cost unflinchingly stand
for the right when the right is menaced by the might
which backs wrong. (1916.) Mem. Ed. XX, 260; Nat.
Ed. XVIII, 224.
NATIONAL DUTY. See also DUTY; "FEAR GOD AND
TAKE YOUR OWN PART"; LEAGUE OF NATIONS.
NATIONAL EFFICIENCY. In this stage of the
world's history to be fearless, to be just, and to be
efficient are the three great requirements of National
life. National efficiency, is the result of natural
resources well handled, of freedom of opportunity for
every man, and of the inherent capacity, trained ability,
knowledge and will, collectively and individually, to
use that opportunity. (Message to Congress, January 22,
1909.) Presidential Addresses and State Papers VIII,
2095.
NATIONAL EXISTENCE. While the nation that has
dared to be great, that has had the will and the power to
change the destiny of the ages, in the end must die, yet
no less surely the nation that has played the part of the
weakling must also die; and whereas the nation that has
done nothing leaves nothing behind it, the nation that
has done a great work really continues, though in
changed form, to live forevermore. (At Minnesota State
Fair, September 2, 1901.) Mem. Ed. XV, 333; Nat. Ed.
XIII, 473.
____________. I really believe that people sometimes
think of "new" nations as being suddenly created out of
nothing; they certainly speak as if they were not aware
that the newest and the oldest nations and races must of
course have identically the same length of racial
pedigree. They talk, moreover, of the "destruction" of
the inhabitants of Mexico, and of the destruction" of the
inhabitants of Tasmania, as if the processes were alike.
In Tasmania the people were absolutely destroyed;
none of their blood is left. But the bulk of the blood of
Mexico, and a part of the blood of the governing classes
of Mexico (including Diaz), is that of the Mexicans
whom Cortez and his successors conquered. In the
same way Australia and Canada and the United States
are "new" commonwealths only in the sense that
Syracuse and Cyrene were new compared with Athens
NATIONAL DEFENSE. See also ARMY; DEFENSE;
HAWAII; LEAGUE OF NATIONS; MILI-
and
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