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Show 185 184 sinews of war, resolve that they will insist on the better way of arbitration. Commerce and industry have not forgotten the liltit‘kudc of southern ports during the .\incrican t‘ivil \\'ar. nor the etTects of that blockade upon commerce from southern ports and through Wt twaamv mum out the South as well as the North, the interruption to the shipment of the products of the South and the greatly enhanced market price to the consumer. Nor have commerce and industry torgotten the damage to northern shipping through the devastatingY work of that southern craft the Alabama. Neither has: lingland forgotten the part she was made to take by that satire vessel. and the judgment of her national peers that England should pay $16,0001000 in damages because of the depredations (it that one vessel. Commerce and indtistry have not forgotten the great con, fusion caused by the American Civil \Var to all northern rom~ inerce and industry. also to the price of commodities and securi~ ties. stocks and bonds. and the violent fluctuation in the premium on gold. Nor have commerce and industry forgotten the tll<t11~ sands of their ablest and strongest men who were called from their occupations to the hardships. the risks. the wounds and deaths of the Civil war; men, who, risking h fillllt and life in the field. found themselves at the close of the conflict discharged from the service, crippled in mind. body and estate. many of them without property. without employment. Commerce and industry have not forgotten that duringr the Civil \\'ar destruction came upon bridges. railroads and highways; that thousands of southern plantations were impoverished and many destroyed; that the pur- suits of the sotithland were injured and millions upon millions were utterly obliterated. \‘y'hat kind of a monster has seized the nations? \\'hat demon has taken possession of their minds that they show so little faith in each other and are straining‘r every nerve to arm themselves against¥whom? Their neighbors? Their relatives? is it the demon of far or the demon of destruction? Or is it :1 secret combination of all who would be materially profited by the expansion and continual expansion of army and navy? l (10 not pretend to say: 1 only stand amazed that the years that have witnessed the greatest progress in adopting methods for the peaceful adjustment of national disagreements should be the very years in which the greatet enlargement. the most et‘tective weapons, the biggest yyar W'sstfls' the 1011M" range guns. are eagerly sought for by the same nations, who. at the same time, loudly proclaim their intention to keep the peace It is time that commerce and industry should say: "We decline to have the wealth we have laboriously accumulated squan- dered by the non-productive military ClZL>\ under the pretense of protecting ottr interests. \Ve decline to have our money used in expensive machines of destruction that so often prove dangerous and deadly to those who man them." The French nation. as well as the balance ol the world. was startled by the explosion on her war vessel at Toulon. Has the iritish nation forgotten that one of her new. large, steel constructed, formidable battleships, the Victoria, built to protect. built to make other nations fear it strength~that that very vessel was a death trap. carryingr its crew to the bottom of the s '21? Russia, Japan and the world have not forgotten the results of the meeting of the Japanese with the Russian vc~sels. carrying destruction of property and death to the crew s. Commerce and industry may ask the question: "i\re not these modern Dreadnoughts‘ more dangerous to friends and own: ers than to enemies?" Can we expect to get out of them our money's worth of protection? Art: they not machines more dangerous to those who man and work them than they are to enemies? If larger and larger navies and armies are surer guarantees of peace between nations, why is it that there is so much unrest in Great Britain and Germany. also in l-‘rauce. as each nation notes the increase the other is makingr in the size of its armies and navies? The relative strength in armies and navies of all the nations would remain the same. if they would by one great and beuelicent act reduce by oneihalf, or even three-fourths. the present size of their armies and navies. the 11 a larger navy is necessary to insure the iutlueuce oi intlu- great the is how nations. the of councils the in States linited ence of the United States, when our country was without the In present large navy. to be accountet 1 for under Secretary llay, |
