RURAL SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON
Maryland Building
NEW ORLEANS
Cotton Exchange Building
1915
Copyright, 1916,
By Rural Settlements Association.
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
TO
ALL HOMECROFTERS
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
Ammunition is necessary to win a battle. Where it is a great Battle forPeace, to be fought with pen and voice, the ammunition needed is facts.
Whenever the people of the United States know the facts relating to thesubject to which this book is devoted, then what it advocates will bedone. Much fault has been found with Congress because of the country'sunpreparedness. Congress is not at fault. "The stream cannot rise higherthan the fountain." The will of the people is the law. The people of thisnation are unalterably opposed to a big Standing Army. When they know thatthe safety of the nation can be assured without either the cost or themenace of militarism, the people will demand that it be done, and Congresswill register that popular decree, gladly and willingly. It is not at allsurprising that Congress does not yield to the clamor of the militaristswhen they know the adverse sentiment of the people on that subject.
President Schurman of Cornell recently said:
"It would be self-deception of the grossest character if Americans madetheir love of peace the criterion of the military policy and preparednessof their country. It would be madness to enfeeble and imperil the UnitedStates because we believe peace the chief blessing of the nations."
All that is true. But when the problem is analyzed there is no other waythat can be devised, except that proposed in this book, that willsafeguard the nation against foreign attack or invasion, and do itadequately, without incurring[Pg vi] stupendous cost or creating a menace toliberty. Americans are a brave people, but they have a hereditary aversionto the clank of a saber in time of peace.
There are a few books that every one who wishes to master the subjectshould read. First among these is "Fields, Factories and Workshops," byPrince Kropotkin, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. A new editionof this book has been recently issued which costs only seventy-five cents.
"The Iron in the Blood" is a chapter in "The Coming People," by Charles F.Dole, published by T. Y. Crowell & Co. of New York. A reprint of this bookcan be had for twenty-five cents from the Rural Settlements Association.
"The Secret of Nippon's Power" is another pertinent article, in "The FirstBook of the Homecrofters." A new and enlarged edition of this book willsoon be issued. In the meantime copies of the first edition can be had fortwenty-five cents from the Rural Settlements Association.
More has been accomplished in Duluth, Minnesota, to prove the benefits ofthe Homecroft Life than in any other City in the United States. A specialpublication, descriptive of the Homecroft Work in Duluth, and a pamphlet byGeorge H. Maxwell entitled, "The Cost of Living," which shows the relationto that subject of the Homecroft System of Education and Life, can b