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Show 304 "Jam‘s. m "'1 Parliament. arraigning the great and growing burden of Euro- pean armaments, with the mounting debts and drain on national resources, John Bright turned to the United States to point out the contrast: "She has practically no army nor navy, her war debt is now insignificant, her taxation is light, her resources are cxhaustless, her people are prosperous and contented. How Europe, handicapped by its present burdens, can expect long to compete successfully with her in industry and trade is hard to imagine. if she perseveres in her present wise and noble policy for twenty years, she will force Europe to disarm in sheer indus- trial self~protection." This is the advantage-advantage to ourselves. advantage as a friend and servant of the nations of Europe -that we have recklessly thrown away; we have come down to their level instead of lifting them to ours. Sir Edward Grey, the linglish Foreign Secretary, in a debate in Parliament just a month ago, said truly that the vastness of the present expenditure on armaments is a satire on civilization, and if it continues must lead Europe into bankruptcy; and he added no less truly that nations which are preparing themselves at the present rate to protect themselves from possible outside attack may be preparin g themselves for internal troubles of the most disastrous and radical kind. No Englishman foresaw all this more clearly than Glad- stone, the great statesman who by his part in the Geneva arbitra- tion with ourselves, the most important arbitration case in history, did so much to prove that there are no matters of "honor" or "vital interest" so grave that two great and self-respecting nations cannot afford to settle them peaceably rather than go to war about them. It was because Gladstone refused to be identi- fied with or responsible for the new policy of greater armaments into which England was advancing-~let us never forget this great fact in his great career-that he finally retired from public life. I say the plain people read the newspapers. They therefore know that any respectability or plausibility that ever attached to the silly contention that the way to promote peace is to prepare for war has been effectually disposed of by the present situation between England and Germany. in their mad race in building rival battleships. So far from each new Dreadnought proving 305 an added bond of security and peace, according to the theory, each one on either side proves a new menace, a new source of suspicion, enmity and danger. So it is everywhere and always. Nations are like men. The unarmed gentleman is safe; the cowboy with his pockets full of pistols is always in danger. The present question is, How soon will the nations act like gentle- men, in mutual trust, and so be safe? The plain people read the newspapers; and so they have read frequently that it is a great thingr to have big navies to send about the world, because they elicit tutnultuous expressions of friendship and affection from all sorts of people, in Rio Janeiro and Tokio and elsewhere, and so add to the fraternity as well as the gayety of nations. Well, they have not forgotten that one simple American statesman named lilihu Root elicited vastly more impressive expressions of friendship in every South American capital, and accomplished things of a vastly more constructive character, than all the sixteen noisy battleships that by and by followed him. And they wonder why, since Japan by her overwhelming demonstration so unansweringly proved her friendship, it was or is so necessary as the jingoes prate to display great squadrons to keep her well scared into good behavior. it was not battleships that 'l‘okio was welcomingr so tumultuously the other day; it was Americans. Had it been a single ship, without a single gun, bearing the duly accredited American emissary of good will named lilihu Root, or named Jacob Dickinson, it would have been just the same. indeed it Would have been much better ~and I suggest to the gentlemen of the Chicago Association of Commerce and other chambers of commerce that, like all policies of the gentleman as over against the policies of the cowboy in national affairs which we are here considering, it would have been vastly cheaper. just before l left Boston I read in a Chicago newspaper an account of a banquet given by your Association of Commerce in honor of two visiting commissioners of the Japanese International Exposition; and l was much impressed by a word spoken at that banquet by Mr. Harlow lliginhotham, of your city. "I would rather," said Mr. lliginbotham, "send sixteen members of this association around the world, advancing the condition of this country, than twice that number of warships, as a peace measure. lllllMl MHU' |
