Page:Frank David Ely -Why defend the nation? Sound Americanism... (1924).pdf/27

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National Defense—Its Need
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The purpose of good government is ever to improve the conditions and habitations of man; and an inglorious yielding by one nation to another can never serve that purpose or satisfy high ideals. A well-considered policy of National Defense is simply the sanest and the only sound insurance that our free institutions shall live and flourish. Its need is both paramount and fundamental.