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PREPAREDNESS A NECESSITY I believe that human nature has improved and is Improving writes Senator Chamberlain in The Forum In my opinion the events of the times are arousing the idealistic altruistic and sacrificial impulses of men and women as they probably never were aroused on such a scale before Xo doubt vhen the war is over the public mind throughout the world will be healthier saner more temperate ind more reasonable than ever before But I dont believo the war is going to bring on the millennium by making men wholly perfect After it is over greed and selfishness jealousy and eovetousness will still have to be contended with as evils of human nature though I trust their virulence will have been greatly reduced reducedNations Nations are only the comiiosite reflection of human beings They cannot be much if any supe ¬ rior to the individuals that animate and give them life And nations will not approach perfection in thought or action until at least a majority of human iKings in all nations arc perfect It is idle to im ¬ agine all the imperfections of human nature be ¬ ing uprooted or destroyed during the period of the war 110 matter how lung or violent it may be In fact if War were capable of such a phenomenal purifying process we would be compelled to exalt the science of killing above the tenets of religion und all the moral forces that have worked peace ¬ fully for the uplift of mankind For myself I can pay to war no such tribute tributeCntil Cntil you can enidkate from the individual human heart the evils of greed and selfishness and the desire to get something that belongs to some one else you cannot eradicate from the hearts of nations the same desire that lurks in the hearts of meu dealing with others othersSo So lung as men ars greedy nations will be greedy So long as men are unjust nations will be unjust So loiig as men seek what is not theirs nations will hunger for conquests So long as policemen shall be needed to protect your homes a military arm will be needed to protect your bor ¬ ders from the invader When locks and vaults can be discarded throughout the earth military arms may lx safely thrown into the sea But such a time of halcyon safety is not coming next year or the year after even if it ever comes at all allThus Thus if I am asked if ve will have to adopt measures of permanent military preparedness my answer is positively iu the affirmative
