At the Ohio Society dinner the other night in New York City Mr. Roosevelt thus referred to the present exposure of military shortcomings:

Our past lamentable failure in the speedy building of the indispensable implements of modern war, and of the great transport fleet which alone will enable us to utilize our giant strength after we have developed it, must merely spur us on to efficient action in the present and the future. To refuse to see and to point out these failures is both silly and unpatriotic.

It is no mere accident that has made all the pro-German organs in the press clamor against the men who dare point out our shortcomings, the speaker proceeded to assert, for the pro-Germans know well that our country's ruthless enemies, whom they serve as far as they dare, desire nothing so much as to see this country afraid to acknowledge and make good its shortcomings; and those pro-Germans cloak their traitor-our aid to Germany under the camouflage of pretended zeal to save American officials from just criticism. "But there is an even lower depth," Mr. Roosevelt affirmed, "and this is reached by the men who treat the discovery of our shortcomings as a reason for relaxing our efforts to win the war."

Our one whole-hearted immediate aim, Mr. Roosevelt concluded, must be to speed up the war in every possible way and at the earliest moment to make our military strength of decisive weight in Europe. Let us remember, he reminded his auditors, that "our troops fight abroad beside the Allies now so that at some future time they may not have to fight without allies beside their own ruined homes." This carried the 1,200 diners to their feet, cheering.

As to the future, only vision and firm purpose in preparing to deal with our industrial and military problems will enable us to guarantee future peaceful development at home and immunity from attack by other nations. In so saying Mr. Roosevelt did not fail to add that it would be foolhardy not to introduce a system of real preparedness based upon universal military training. Such an army, in his opinion and ours, would be not only the most democratic but might be the most efficient in the world.  --The Outlook.