really thinking of the contingency (which I do not expect to occur) of
our being attacked simultaneously on two sides,--of course, as I have
pointed out in reviewing the events of the last forty years, there is
always the possibility of any sort of coalition,--I hope it will
tranquillize them to remember that if this happens, we can have a
million good soldiers to defend each of our frontiers. At the same time
we can keep in the rear reserves of half a million and more, of a
million even, and we can push these forward as they are needed. I have
been told, "That will only result in the others going still higher." But
they cannot. They have long ago reached their limits.... In numbers they
have gone as high as we, but in quality they cannot compete with us.
Bravery, of course, is equal among all civilized nations; the Russian
and the Frenchman fight as bravely as the German: but our men, our
700,000 new men, have seen service; they are soldiers who have served
their time, and who have not yet forgotten their training. Besides--and
this is a point in which no people in the world can compete with us--we
have the material for officers and under-officers to command this
enormous army. It is here that competition is excluded, because it
involves a peculiarly broad extension of popular culture, such as exists
in Germany and in no other country....

There is a further advantage that will result from the adoption of this
law: the very strength at which we are aiming necessarily makes us
peaceful. That sounds paradoxical, but it is true. With the powerful
machine which we are making of the German army no aggression will be
attempted. If I saw fit--assuming a different situation to exist from
that which in my conviction does exist'--to come before you here to-day
and say to you, "We are seriously menaced by France and Russia; the
prospect is that we shall be attacked: such at least is my conviction,
as a diplomatist, on the basis of the military information that we have