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AREA AAP OTROS: PORE DOOSCTPOSS SE? present day it has always been the the place of the unprepared. ; . Where is Egypt? Once a state on a high plane of civiliza- tion where a form of socialism prevailed and where the distribu- ilitant aggressor taking protect her. Where are the empires of the East and the em- pires of the West which once were the shrines of wealth, wisdom and culture? Where are Babylon, Persia, Carthage, Rome, Byzantium? They all fell, never to rise again, annihilated at the hands of a more warlike and aggressive people, their culture memories, their cities ruins, Where are Peru and Old Mexico? A handful of bold and crafty invaders destroyed them, and with them their institutions, their independence, their nationality, and their civilization. : And saddest of all, the downfall of Christian Byzantium. When Constantinople fell, that center of learning, pleasure and wealth, and all the weakness and corruption with it, a pall fell over Asia and southeastern Europe which never has been lifted. Wars have been fought these nearly five centuries, that have had for at least one of their goals the bringing back ° under the Cross of that’ part of the world lost to a wild horde of a few thousand adventurers on horseback whom. hunger . and the unkind climate of their steppes forced to seek more fertile regions. The thousand years of existence of the Byzantine empire, its size, its religion, the wealth of its capital city, were but added incentives and inducements to a conqueror. HER WEALTH WAS NO PROTECTION AGAINST AGGRESSION. It is no more an augury of military and defensive strength in a nation than it is an indication of health in an individual. Success in war depends upon men, not money: No nation has ever been subdued for lack of it. Indeed, nothing is more insolvent or provocative or more apt to lead to a breach of the peace than undefended riches among armed men. And each nation swept away was.submerged by force of arms. Once each was strong and militant, each rose by military prowes?, each fell through degeneracy of military capacity because of .- boca i] unpreparedness. The battlefield was the bed on which they; were born into this world and the battlefield became the couch on which. their worn-out bodies finally expired. LET ‘Edited by C. H. Bigelow 'US BE PREPARED LEST WE TOO PERISH. Los Angeles Chapter of Rainbow Division Veterans Rainbow Division “Ueterans PATRIOTIC HALL 1816 South Figueroa St. <> «1 Los Angeles 15, Calif. 7 . ye 4 f tion of wealth was regulated, her, high organization did nat “ §