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The People Want Peace AssuredSource: The Advocate of Peace (1894-1920), Vol. 74, No. 3 (MARCH, 1912), pp. 53-54Published by: World Affairs InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20666403 .

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vol. Lxxiv. WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH, 1912. No. 3

THE AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY,

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Entered as Second-Class Matter June 1, 1911, at the Post Office at Washington, D. C, under the Act of July 16, 1894.

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CONTENTS. page

Editorials.?. 53-56 The People Want Peace Assured?Navy League Peace Meet

ing?More International Visits?The German Elections? Reduction of Armaments?Against Airships in War.

Editorial Notes . 57 Hawaiian Fortifications?Central Office of Nationalities.

Annual Meeting American Peace Society. 57 What the Peace Organizations are Doing. 57-58 Peace Brevities. 58-59 General Articles :

Chicago Office and Field Secretaryship. Charles E. Beals.. 59 Maine and New Hampshire in Line. J. L. Try on. 60 New York Peace Society. William H. Short. 61 The Day of Peace. Poem. Arthur E. Stilwell. 62 The Power of Organized Peace. George Elliott Howard.-... 62 The General Arbitration Treaties. Senator McCumher. 65

Christianity and the Peace Movement. Edward L. Parsons. 70 Correspondence :

Letter from Hamilton Holt. 74 Letter from Gilbert Bowles. 75

Book Notices. 76 Lecture Bureau . 77 Branches American Peace Society. 77

The People Want Peace Assured.

The members of the United States Senat-e have been greatly impressed, and we suspect not a little

surprised, by the volume of public sentiment in favor of the ratification of the pending arbitration treaties which has been pouring in upon them in letters and

petitions from all sections of the country. Some

senators, who think the treaties in themselves "lame and impotent/' have, nevertheless, been led by this

extraordinary exhibition of public opinion to declare themselves in favor of ratification. And that is most commendable in the senators. If there is, as Senator

Works, of California, said, in his speech of February 8, "a general, almost universal desire that the world should be at peace/' then a very imperfect treaty

may prove in practice to be just about as effective as a more perfect one would be. The best possible treaty that could be devised would prove to be a

"broken reed" in time of crisis, if the general senti ment of the country cared not whether peace or war

prevailed. This aspect of the matter has had, we

think, all too little attention in the Senate. Nearly all the discussion there has been on the technical character of the treaties, their constitutionality, their defects, etc, and not on their significance as the strong, united will of the nation in favor of undis turbed peace.

Some members of the Senate have taken upon themselves to make mild sport of the people who have sent in petitions, as for the most part not know ing the contents of the treaties or, if knowing, as "not understanding their meaning and effect." We fear that these senators are doing the people a good deal of injustice. No other measure of public in terest has been up for consideration in recent years

with which the people have taken so much pains to acquaint themselves as with these treaties. The text of the treaties has been extensively distributed among the people and widely read, and, as for understand ing them, we are not sure but that the people have done quite as well as the senators. At any rate, more meanings of the documents could not well be conjured up anywhere else than have been imagined by the senators themselves. The men and women of the nation who have sent letters and memorials to Washington favoring the ratification of the treaties, are nearly all from the intelligent classes. They have doubtless not troubled themselves as much as the senators have done to find recondite meanings and dangerous tendencies in the docu ments; but of one thing they have' been sure, and that is that the treaties, whatever defects they may have, will constitute a strong bulwark against war and an assurance of the continuance of unbroken peace between the nations who are parties to them. In their view, this is the chief significance of the treaties, and it is from this point of view that they have nearly unanimously urged their ratification.

The voting on the treaties is to begin on the fifth of this month. The proposed amendments to the text will first be disposed of, and then the resolution of ratification with the suggested amendments thereto will be taken up. All this will require some days. It is generally believed at this writing that the necessary two-thirds of the senators favor the treaties and that they are sure to be apprgved. It is also understood that the senators in general favor .the' adoption of the Lodere amendment to the reso lution of ratification, which is merely an expression, in formal terms, of what the State Department de clares to be the true interpretation of the treaties,

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54 THE ADVOCATE OF PEACE. March,

viz., that the rights of the Senate as a part of the

treaty-making power, are to be fully preserved, and that questions of purely national policy do not come within the scope of the pacts. By the time this paper reaches our readers the senate's action will be known to the country and the world.

The Navy League Peace Meeting. When the Navy League feels compelled to enter the

field occupied by the peace societies and hold a peace meeting, so called on their convention program, it would seem at first thought as if the peace cause were

finally won. Indeed, it is a remarkable evidence of the immense progress of the peace movement and the power which it now exercises over the nation at large, that the League has this year for the first time done just this thing. It has realized finally the deepening opposition of the people to the continual increase of the navy and to the enormous burdens of taxation and of

high cost of living thereby laid upon them. It has felt, therefore, obliged to try in a positive way to make it appear that the navy is nothing more than an instru ment of peace?the best possible instrument?and that

battleships and other naval paraphernalia have no tend ency in the direction of war. It was with this inten tion, #we suppose, that the League on Friday afternoon, February 23, during its annual convention in Washing ton, held a professedly peace meeting.

But in spite of its efforts to establish its contention that a big and constantly increasing navy is the best guarantee of peace, the attempt to recoup its waning fortunes by appearing before the public in the garb of a peacemaker was not a conspicuous success. The Con tinental Hall in Washington, in which the meeting was held, was scarcely half filled, and there was little en thusiasm in the audience. So it appeared to our repre sentative who was present. The emphasis of the

speaking, as was to be expected, was upon the necessity of adding two new battleships to the navy this year, and upon the navy in general as the greatest possible guar antee of peace. The arguments for this position were the same as we have been accustomed to hear for some years past, and have often been answered in our col umns. The brief speech of President Taft could not have given the Navy Leaguers much consolation. He distinctly declared that the increase and strengthening of the navy is, in his judgment, but a temporary meas ure. The time will come when the nations will enter into such conventions as will abolish war or render it extremely improbable, and then navies and armies will be little needed. As that time has not yet come, the President felt that a strong navy is a guarantee of peace, and he would therefore be ready to sign a bill for

building two Dreadnaughts this year, if Congress should pass one. We regret very much that the President did not see

his way to take the opposite course and to declare openly for immediate arrest of naval increase. His course on the arbitration treaties has been up-to-date, clear-sighted, and courageous. It has met with most extraordinary support from the nation. If he had de clared unequivocally for no more Dreadnaughts the ap proval of the country would have been even stronger

than it has been for the arbitration treaties. That was the logical position for the President to take. In not taking it he has, we think, missed one of the greatest opportunities that ever came to the head of a great nation to advance a long step forward the growing Christian civilization of the world. The time has clearly come for our country to stop the increase of the navy. The great omens of the day all point away from such increase. To lead in the establishment of pacific international institutions, and at the same time to be feverishly supporting the great military and naval establishments which are confessed by the heads of sev eral of the great powers to be a satire on civilization, is clearly a contradiction for which it is hard to find any excuse.

Our country has no enemies. NO nation has ever

thought of attacking us. We were as safe from attack when our navy was less than half its present size as we are today. Every battleship added increases suspicion and distrust, if not positive dislike, among other na tions toward us, and thus helps to keep up the ruinous rivalry of armaments now prevailing. What the Presi dent ought to do is to make an immediate proposal to all the naval powers to enter into an agreement for the arrest and reduction of the navies of the world. They would, we are sure, respond as eagerly and as quickly to such a proposal, if made in a sincere and bona fide way, as they have to the proposal for unlimited arbitra tion treaties.

The recent action of the Democratic caucus in Con gress in deciding to vote against the addition of any new Dreadnaughts to the navy this year is, we think? and we speak from an entirely non-partisan point of view?a much truer interpretation of the will of the American people and of the present needs and demands of civilization in general, than the proposal to further increase the navy, and thus lay additional burdens on the already overladen backs of the people. We very

much hope that the members of the majority party in the House of Eepresentatives will adhere to their caucus decision, and that this year will not only be made memo rable bv the conclusion of treaties of arbitration to cover every class of disputes between nations, but also by the beginning of the arrest of the vastly overgrown naval and militarv establishments which are already driving the world rapidlv toward bankruptcy and toward such a cataclysm of disorder and ruin as men have never yet seen on this earth of ours.

More International Visits. The announcement of the coming visit of Secretary

Knox to the republics south of us has recalled the many beneficent influences of former Secretary Boot's trip to the South American capitals. The recent visit of the British Secretary of War, Lord Haldane, to Berlin has

again demonstrated the great value of such visits in

promoting good feeling and preparing the way for bet ter relations between countries. The present Secre

tary of State, who has already started on his trip, is certain to be received in Central and South America with the same sincere and elaborate hospitality as char

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