Vice Pres. Marshall pleads for preparedness at Newark celebration
www.nytimes.com
NEWARK, N.J., June 3. -- Vice President Thomas R. Marshall was the guest in Newark yesterday of the Loyal Order of the Moose. He arrived in Newark shortly before 1 o'clock and was escorted to the Robert Treat Hotel. After luncheon the Vice President reviewed the Moose Parade from the City Hall, with Mayor Raymond and the Supreme Officers of the Moose Order. After the parade Mr. Marshall, who was heartily received, delivered an address to 5,000 persons from the reviewing stand.
Mr. Marshall, after stating that he was here as the guest of the Loyal Order of the Moose, not as Vice President of the United States, or even as an old-fashioned Democrat, added that he had come to tell why he happened to be a member of the Order of Moose. Then he branched off into the question of preparedness though he did not mention the word. He said the world was all awry and that nobody knew what tomorrow might bring forth. Many were proclaiming that regardless of what happened, the country should remain at peace and many others were arguing that, regardless of what might happen, the country should get into the war. Continuing, he said:
"Now, I am not a believer in the idea that war is the very worst thing that can come to a people. I hope it may never come. Being old enough myself to avoid any dangers of war, I still see that it would be far better for our American youth to lose his life upon the field of battle in defense of our institutions than to destroy his life by vicious conduct in social affairs. We mistaken, my friend, when we think that death and burial are synchronous. They are not. There are hundreds of men in America walking around the streets -- perhaps some are in the City of Newark -- who are dead, but they have not yet been buried. And there are men who have gone to their graves who are just as much alive today as they were when they walked this earth of ours. Never in all history was George Washington so much alive as he is at this moment. And never was there so great a need for the American to remember, as to remember now, his dying advice to have friendly relations with all people and entangling alliances with none. Abraham Lincoln is as much alive today as he ever was, and no man ever died who lived for a good cause and helps to move it onward. And every man is dead who has no ideals in life. We are talking much about preparation for peace in this country, and I want everything done that can be done by all patriotic people to see to it that there is never any danger of an unfriendly foe setting its feet upon American shores. But you will permit me to say that, while, in common with the great men of this country, I am raising my voice for the cause of preparation for peace in America, you cannot and overcome a foreign foe with mere windy words."
The speaker then said there never had been a braver people than the people of the North, yet it took them nearly two and a half years after the outbreak of the civil war to drill an army that was worthy of the name of an army. He added that he approved of everything that was being said and done in the cause of preparation to prevent war in this country. The speaker also said that patriotism did not consist in wrapping the flag around you and singing the "Star Spangled Banner."
"What the men in this country should be doing is organizing and drilling, finding out how they can take care of themselves, and how to obey an officer, and how to shoots," he said. Mr. Marshall said further that Congress might appropriate billions of dollars for the defense of this country, but it would go for naught if the people were not ready to defend themselves.
"The time has arrived in this American life of ours," he added, "when a man can no longer walk along the streets and proclaim his rights as an American citizen unless he shall also proclaim his responsibilities as a man and a citizen." In conclusion, Mr. Marshall said the reason why he belonged to the Loyal Order of Moose was because it had a great educational institution at Moose-Heart, Ill., where the poor and needy of the order were taken in and trained, not only along educational, but along industrial lines. After finishing his speech Mr. Marshall returned immediately to Washington and did not visit the Industrial Exposition.