The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-01-15 00:00:00

3tottrinke ebserVer,

SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1887.

PEACE OR WAR.

As we write, Peace is arming herself from
foot head all over Europe, that she may lie
down ready to rise equipped for the fray
whenever the war-trumpet shall sound.
There is activity in all the arsenals and dock-
yards here and on the Continent, the status
of soldiers and sailors is being ascertained
and their efficiency increased, aud each na-
tion is straining every effort to put its forces
up to fighting strength. The fearful cloud
of war hangs, indeed, heavily and threaten-
ingly overhead, and any accidental gust may
burst its volume, and bring dcwn on the
whole western world a tempest shower of
destruction. All things point to the con-
clusion that a gigantic campaign looms in
the near future ; and, truth to tell, there
are those who are not liftine, a finger to stay
the seething passions of jealously competing
States, nor endeavouring to turn into peace-
ful channels those mysterious undercurrents
of conflicting interest which guide and de-
termine the ebb and flow of the tide of jute-
national relationships. There are individuals
who wield an immense influence, who are
not scrupling, in order that they may get
material gain and gratify an ignoble ambi-
tion for greed or for power, to stir up the
nations of Europe to make war one against
another. The money market will be rigged
on a gigantic scale, if they only have their
way, and while death is reaping his remorse-
less harvest, and battle's pitiless red rain
pelts down, the financiers who gamble with
nations for dice will sweep the spoil into
their coffers. They are working on, ever,
out of sight; they are hidden under the
political upheavals wrought by their sinister
agencies ; the sad effect only appears to the
eye, the iniquitous cause goes often unsus-
pected. But surely the time is at hand
when nations will no longer permit them-
selves to be driven hither and thither as re-
collection and history ish.ow that they have
been often in the past, at the will of Un-
scrupulous plutocrats and 'feelingleSs, ambi-
tion-eaten schemers! Where is the occasion
for war in Europe? There is no need for
any two Continental States to-day to enter
into the savage abitrament of arms, no
difference between any of the Powers which
might not find amicable adjustment if pas-
sson were kept under control and a firm
check imposed upon the hot headed clamour-
lugs of militaryism. There is little of that
devouring thirst for conquest which of old
governed great nations. Men have learned
to look through the deceitful glamour of
glory and see war's horrors beyond. But
for unrighteous interests and the struggle
for the aggrandisement of powerful cliques
at whatever cost, and .quite regardless of
human life and the well-being of nations,
war might never again threaten to devastate
Europe. Should it not be for statesmen
worthy of their high calling, then, to defeat
those who would not hesitate to slip the dogs
of war so that the money-changers may
gather golden grain ? Should not the great
leaders of civilised nations strain every
nerve to prevent the resort to hostilities?
Should not every spark let loose in the hope
of igniting the war flame be quenched at
once by the watchful ? As things are, un-
fortunately, immense armaments are re-
garded as indispensable if national security
is to be maintained, even by those States
most capable of holding their own; and this
arises trom the fact that the undercurrents
we have alluded to have not yet been rend.
ered incapable of creating disaster. But if
countries whose constitutions are built upon
a firm foundation of honour and right would
seek to act towards each other and towed ds
all the world with equity and in a spirit of
passionless judicial calmness, the machine-
ti,ns of combinations of iniquitous cliques
would be all unavailing. It behoves great
aati, ins like England and Gem any to work
.easelessly for a stable universal peace, and
o endeavfmr. with I.lc:ti purpose, to constrain
more hast.y Pow-rs from appealing to arms.
Americ.i, whose ,ccopaphicalsituation paces
her, in a in as:t; e, outside t'le occt_ision of
quarrel, has besni wcil called tile "great
peaceful Republi.s." Si. too, is al e;gainst
the revival of the v. az. it, tiw li.L-gerin of
which is ignorant sf:r-Ifjery and barbarism.
Such all-powerful a; t --fir !, because ex-
,stent circurnstanc:s coin iieL,
themselves in a p.)Ai: ion for self-,-;1,-;t
nd, if necessary, to play the policeman's
part—might, by combination and in concert
with other states inclined even now to peace,
so work togeth,rr as to secure civilisation
against a recummee of the unspeakable
miseries whi..l! ,-,.)71-:pany war. It ought
not to be be' r,nd tlr pow,l, co' nineteenth
.entury hum ity t iu:-,:eeilth century
.ntAlect to b. such bn internationl
_..nderstanding as wo lead to arbitration
takitig the pi • • wnenever differences
Lc'. een Gover nuo mAtter what their
cause., arcse. - . is in the vat, •of the
v:ortprogre:•,4 . this nolle
-ztand of dignity a set -e strut, and
baying Right I!! weir a,ti-
ucle, they w .4
..; ,nn-
ately crush , ne:ce a- -
fiend which has gene ;;y doe such
havoc. We tcut standing at a
crii, in which . ;; auship will be severely
put to the test, but it caution and true re-
gard for humanity's good govern the men
who have been plac:ed in authority, darig.er
will, we hope, aitcr all,- be averted. The
ron Chancel' ,: (Y. Cermany on 'I aesdav
boy e how r pt.a u
lid at the ittj thi. efapeSt
eHre of his nd for p. es.
h;lti •

s

leg.
uir iL
thtrefore, England looks for firm and un-

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