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Show 320 321 does one nation desire a conflict with another nation or to en- croach upon the territory of another Each one wishes to live in harmony with the others. Yet our boundary lines are bristling with caution, the seas are. alive with battleships and the tramp of the soldier is heard the world over. And for what purpose? It is not to curb the turbulent and vicious. It is because of a groundless fear of attack front sister nations. Such attacks are not really contemplated and ought not to be expected. It follows that this enormous expense for armies, this taxas tion that is draining)r every year billions from the treasnries of the people and bringingr want. sickness. suffering and (l ‘ath to multitudes, is wholly unnecessary; and the problem of international peace is how to set in motion forces which will end this frightful waste and destruction, I believe that this result can be accomplished by appealing to the enlightened selfishness of mankind and by setting in motion educational forces, which will show the folly of the present status, and will also remove the fear and suspicion which are the main causes of our present wasteful expenditures for armies and navies. It is our desire to establish a fund that shall be so used as to cause the nations to see that there is a fully adequate substitute for their present armies and navies; so used as to educate the nations to a better knowledge of each other, to have more trust in each other; so used as to make the people, of each nation feel that other nations are on the same level and as \vorthv of confidence as themselves. I lint no substantial progr‘" can be made if the effort runs directly counter to the present tendency of thought and action. We must adapt our reform movement to the tendencies of the time, movingr along the line of least resistance. The idea of force cannot at once be eradicated, it is useless to believe that the nations can be persuaded to disband their present armies and dismantle their present navies, trusting in each other or in the the movement is not yet far enough advanced so that the nations can be persuaded to disarm and rest for security upon the deci- sions of a court having its limited jurisdiction and no power to enforce its decisions. My own belief is that the idea which underlies the movement for the Hague Court can be developed so that the nations can be persuaded each to contribute a small percentage of their military forces at sea and on land to an international guard or police force. Five per cent of the present forces would probably be found sufficient. If this is too small certainly 10 per cent of the present armaments would be fully adequate to protect all the nations in their rights and to prevent any disorder or turbulence. This plan involves no marked and revolutionary change in the present methods; puts no additional burdens of taxation upon the people; but if tried, it will make the futility and waste of the present method so obvious that disarmament will naturally and inevitably follow, just as disarmament among individuals follows upon the institution and maintenance of an adequate police force. When the nations see, as I think they will, that this international police force is ample to ensure them all their rights, they will be unwilling to bear the present exces- Hague Tribunal to settle any possible differences between them, unless, first, some substitute for the present force is provided and demonstrated by experience to be adequate to protect the rights, dignity and territory of the respective nations. The idea which underlies the embryonic international supreme court which we now have in the Hague Tribunal is fundamentally good; but sive burdens for armament, and disarmament, or at least nine- tenths of it, will come as a natural and inevitable result of a perception of the obvious uselessness of armament. But the important point to have in mind is that all successful reform movements achieve their success by offering a reasonable and adequate substitute for the erroneous existing system. Such a substitute is found, it seems to me, in this suggestion. The benefits which would accrue to the nations and to the people from such a result are hard to exaggerate. There would no longer he need of any grinding poverty in the land. If the people were freed from the present war expenditure, every man, woman and child could live in comfort and have an opportunity for a good education; hospitals, schools, and churches could be erected Wherever there was occasion; swamps and unhealthy parts of the surface of the earth could be drained, and highways built to connect every habitable part of the globe; railroads, rivers, and canals could furnish transportation for the whole world. War and the threat and fear of war constitute today an economic scourge of almost inconceivable magnitude. Armies "INN! MHV>W\\" |