THE KING ’S BUSINESS 481 There was never a more unreasonable or unnecessary war in all history than the present one. A mania for war took possession of one nation and then spread to another, and then others. For a while America seemed
The World War Mad.
in a large measure to escape the frenzy. At last the war mania seems to have taken possession of a large part of our leading statesmen and most of our lead ing newspapers. They are trying to plunge us into a fathomless ocean of expenditure for a colossal navy and a colossal army. They advocate universal military training in our schools. It is natural, of course, that our military men and our naval men should advocate a large army and a large navy, because that is for their own interest. They advocate it for the same reason that brewers- and distillers are opposed to prohibition. Of course they are not distinctly conscious of this, they imagine it is patriotism, but their patriotism is rooted in something else that is far deeper. But why cool-headed statesmen, brought up in the atmosphere of American traditions, should advocate such schemes for a colossal navy and a colossal army can only be explained by the fact that there is a world-wide epidemic of war madness. We are told that we should.not only have a navy as large as that of any other nation, but larger than that of any other nation. But why? Such a navy is not needed for defense, it is only needed for aggression. The Providence Journal, one of the newspaper leaders in the agitation, says: “ The great mass of the American people do not want war, ‘but want to lessen the chance of war by preparing against it.’ ” And then goes on to say: “ They have seen the evils of unpreparedness tragically demonstrated in Europe.” But any one who will stop to think knows perfectly well that what we see in Europe today is not the evils of unpreparedness, but the evils of over-preparedness-. It was the nation that was most perfectly pre pared for war that had most to do with war being begun. The vast armies of Europe and the vast navies are directly responsible for the présent war. A ' large army begets pride and self-assertion, it leads directly and swiftly to war. Th ^Boston Advertiser advocates preparedness, on the following grounds: “ 1. To defend its own territories from invasion. 2. To sustain its policy of protecting South America from foreign aggression. 3. To protect the foreign trade that is doing its utmost to expand, which means to protect its citizens as, they have not been protected during the past year, and their property.” Then it goes on to admit, without probably intending to admit, that having such an army and navy as it is possible for us to have, will not accomplish these ends, but advocating “ an alliance with such nation or nations as have interests that will not conceivably clash with ours.” Saying furthermore that it would be absurd to keep up an army and navy “ adequate to meet any hostile com bination without support.” But any one who will do a little calm thinking knows perfectly well that forming an alliance with other nations^would not save us from war, but embroil us in the wars of those nations. A far better way to keep out of war than to have a colossal army and à colossal navy (to squander the money that ought to go into schools and reforms and other social improvements, and to rob our young men of some of the best years of their life) is to act righteously and generously and in a Christian spirit toward other nations. O f course if our statesmen are going to act like a lot of fool school boys and resent every imagined offense by other countries by rushing into a fight, then we will either have to have a large army and navy or be whipped- But if we will treat other nations as we would have other nations treat us; if we will appreciate that other nations have rights as well as ourselves ; if we will
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