PRAISE FROM PATRIOTS

an enormous target,211;

more expensive than aëroplane,213;

use as troop-ship yet to be proven,214;

advantages over aëroplane,215;

important use in detection of submarines,215;

not one in U. S.,218.

Theodore Roosevelt:

"'Defenseless America' is a capital book. I hope it will have the widest possible circulation throughout our country. The prime duty for this nation is to prepare itself so that it can protect itself; and this is the duty that you are preaching in your admirable volume."

Oscar S. Straus:

"'Defenseless America', coming from an expert, will awaken interest in the most practical method of securing peace by safeguarding our national existence. I am in fullest accord with your Conclusion—an international compact with adequate international force to maintain it, and give adequate guarantee to enforce its decrees."

S. S. McClure:

"A most convincing book on an extraordinarily important subject, done in a manner not only convincing but irrefutable."

Rear-Admiral Charles D. Sigsbee:

"I should not have said that the subject could be treated in a way to make it fascinating to the popular reader, yet I now think that is precisely what you have done. May the book bear good fruit!"

Garrett P. Serviss:

"'Defenseless America' ought to go into the hands of ten million American citizens before another month passes. You have done a magnificent thing for your country! In God's name, may she turn from the silly twaddle of the pacifist wiseacres, and save herself, even on the crumbling verge!"

George von Lengerke Meyer:

"It will go a great ways toward aiding the people of this country to realize the necessity of a proper national defense and a preparedness against war."

Mrs. John A. Logan:

"I wish that every official in the land could read it."

Dr. Orison Swett Marden:

"A colossal, monumental treatment of the subject."

Franklin D. Roosevelt:

"You have brought the whole question of National Defense to a basis which can be readily understood by the average layman."

Lieut. Baron Hrolf von Dewitz:

"In 'Defenseless America' you explode a crater of information on the subject such as has never been detonated before."

Col. Beverley W. Dunn:

"I wish to congratulate you on the conspicuous and valuable service that you have rendered the people of the United States in writing this book."

Dr. E. C. Beck:

"I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this masterpiece of revelation on your part, this opus which I look upon in the nature of an historical event. May the Lord use your book to pound a little sense into our fellow citizens."

Rev. J. F. Stillemans:

"I am only one of thousands who would welcome an edition as cheap as possible of 'Defenseless America' so that we could distribute it freely."

Cleveland Moffett:

"'Defenseless America' is great stuff and ought to be read by every loyal American."

W. Sidney Jopson:

"The direct results of reading 'Defenseless America' were that I went to Plattsburg and applied for admission in our National Guard."

Philadelphia Public Ledger:

"A book by an expert in modern armament who writes with graphic power what he knows better than anyone in this country—a solemn warning."

New York American:

"No book issued on the subject marshals with equal skill so great an array of facts as Mr. Maxim's volume. In the present state of national thought upon our military and naval needs this book is most valuable."

Washington Star:

"In origin and treatment this is a surpassing study whose sheer information, apart from its personal conclusions, is worth the serious attention, not only of the legislator, but of the plain man behind the lawmaker."

Detroit Free Press:

"Hudson Maxim makes a call to arms against war. Here is an argument for proper armament from a man who not only foretold the Japanese war and named the victor, but also prophesied the present conflict and by knowledge and study of world's conditions knows what he is talking about and makes his warning timely."

Los Angeles Times:

"A powerful book on an imminent and national problem that every thinking citizen should read with care."

Boston Transcript:

"Shows how it is safer for a country like the United States with so large a territory to defend, to prepare, so that no foreign nation will be anxious to try a struggle with us. The peace of the United States will then rest on a firm foundation."

Baltimore Sun:

"The book is brilliantly written, with the severity of one who intensely desires to drive a truth home and with the assurance of one who feels his statistics unassailable and his arguments unanswerable. He is supported by many witnesses whose knowledge must be respected. There is no smallness in the writer's attitude. He appears to feel intensely his mission as prophet and patriot."

Cleveland Plain Dealer:

"Here is a man, frankly interested in war, who seems utterly honest in his beliefs. The book contains an expert elucidation of the weaknesses of the American army and navy. It has practical suggestions for improvement. It is, in fact, a complete text book for the student of American preparedness or unpreparedness, written, of course, in a sincerely ex parte manner."

Brooklyn Citizen:

"The book should be read and studied carefully by every lover of his country."

Lewiston Journal:

"'Defenseless America' is a ringing and insistent call, calculated to startle the average American out of his peaceful and complacent sense of security."

New York Press:

"The book is interesting—as interesting as a well-written and absorbing novel, only it deals with vital facts that have a bearing on the lives and fortunes of every one in this country."

The Outlook:

"We wish that we could think that those who are opposed to any preparation against war by this country would read and consider this book of Mr. Hudson Maxim."

Life, N. Y.:

"One of the early lumber-camp tales ended with a stirring scene in which a big, sandy-haired hero, caught in the path of a bursting log jam, hurls his cap defiantly into the advancing wall of destruction, just before it whelms him. Such a gesture, futile yet magnificent, is suggested by Hudson Maxim's fiery appeal to the sleeping intelligence and lulled self-interest ofhis countrymen, 'Defenseless America.' The book contains a remorseless marshaling of stern facts, fused into prophecy by a sort of incandescent logic. It is the first bold proclaiming of the bitter 'civilization' truths revealed by the vast disillusionment of the war. And these are here flung, as the author feels, into the face of approaching national disaster."

The Scientific American:

"The scope of 'Defenseless America' is so all-embracing, that the author has given a veritable mine of information upon the subject of war and war material. Mr. Maxim is well qualified by his long and successful association, as a practical and successful inventor, with the production of the implements of war, to write upon the technical side of the question; and this he does with a characteristic force and lucidity which will render the subject perfectly understandable and full of fascinating interest for the average layman."

Review of Reviews:

"A graphic and effective presentation of facts revealing the defenseless condition of this country and indicating what must be done to avert national humiliation."

"THIS POWERFUL BOOK HAS JARRED AMERICAN COMPLACENCY AS NO OTHER BOOK HAS EVER DONE"

From The New York American

One of the most remarkable men of our time has written a book—and the book is probably the most startling document ever placed before the American people. Its author is Hudson Maxim, world-famous inventor, writer on many topics of public interest, member of the Naval Advisory Board—and an American patriot.His book, called "Defenseless America," has fallen among the complacent, the self-satisfied, the careless and the indifferent like a seventeen-inch shell.

His book, called "Defenseless America," has fallen among the complacent, the self-satisfied, the careless and the indifferent like a seventeen-inch shell.

It is a pitiless book—pitiless in its facts, pitiless in its logic, pitiless in its conclusions.

Mr. Maxim knows what he is writing about; he is one of the greatest authorities on military affairs in the world. His book has the cold steel precision of truth.

He shows that all wars have economic causes, no matter how they are painted over with sentiment. And he demonstrates that one of the most urgent economic incentives to war that has ever existed will be the relative condition of Europe and the United States at the close of the Great War.

Imagine the victors of this gigantic conflict—Allies or Teutons—impoverished in money and resources, with the most colossal public debt in the world's history hanging over them, but possessing an enormous army of trained veterans and a world-beating navy.

Then, on this side of the Atlantic, a nation that thinks it "can whip all creation," and acts on that principle—a hundred million over-fed, money-making people, nine-tenths of whom could not load a modern infantry rifle if they should ever happen to see one; a country of countless dollars protected by obsolete battleships and submarines that can neither float nor sink; a nation rich but undefended, confident but weak, dictatorial in manner but powerless in action.

America sits on an open powder barrel. Will the Victors of the Great War apply the match?

Get this stirring and tremendous book, and read what will happen—in Mr. Maxim's own words. He will tell you where the match will be applied, what points in controversy will bring on the collision—and then what will take place with startling swiftness.

And—

He tells what may be done, even at this late day, for effective defense.

As Mr. Maxim has cut out all royalty, publishers are thereby enabled to furnish a special edition of the book, of which this volume is a sample, at only fifty cents a copy.

The book may be obtained of or ordered through any bookstore, or the publishers, Hearst's International Library Company, 119 West 40th Street, New York, will send it postage-paid to any address for sixty cents, or ten copies in a single package for five dollars—fifty cents a copy. The library edition, superior paper and binding, may still be had at two dollars a copy.

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