Page 210 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

Preparedness for Naval War. 191

just. Such an attitude, however, is not the
spirit of "militarism," nor accordant with it;
and in nations saturated with the military
spirit, the intimation that a policy will be sup-
ported by force raises that sort of point of
honor behind which the reasonableness of the
policy is lost to sight It can no longer be
viewed dispassionately ; it is prejudged by the
threat, however mildly that be expressed. And
this is but a logical development of their insti-
tutions. The soldier, or the state much of
whose policy depends upon organized force,
cannot but resent the implication that he or it
is unable or unwilling to meet force with force.
The life of soldiers and of armies is their spirit,
and that spirit receives a serious wound when
it seems — even superficially— to recoil be-
fore a threat ; while with the weakening of the
military body falls an element of political
strength which has no analogue in Great
Britain or the United States, the chief military
power of which must lie ever in navies, never
an aggressive factor such as armies have been.
Now, the United States has made an an-
nouncement that she will support by force
a policy which may bring her into collision