The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-04-16
SHALL IT BE WAR Or PEACE?
A Question That Is Always Under Dis
cussiou in the Capitals of Europe.
The Situation and the Probabilities as to
France and Germany-A Successful War
Would Insure the Republics Permanency.

EAklS, 1l8TCn <&-AmoLlC806 no 8Eo 80
exceptional as not to have visited Europe
think it strange hat European correspond
ents give such prominence as they do to
military affairs. and wonder why it is that
these worthy gentlemen treat the Ameri-
can public. as regularly as the spring
opens. to sensational predictions of an i'm
pending European war. The time was
when We were p%erplexed upon these points
ourselves. bat we think now that We fully
understand the matter. A little. of course.
must be allowed for newspaper 'enter-
PRISE" and you can spell the word
with o big "E," If you like. and leave
room IN it for q considerable exercise
of the imaginative faculties. Bot this is
only q partial explanation. To do full
Justice, the question. of environment must
be taken into account. One breathes In
Europe a military atmosphere. The arma-
ments of these nations are the biggest
things about them. The question of war
or peace 10 nearly always the question
of the hour, and national happiness
warts continually upon the answer From
this point of view the difference be-
tween the United States and France
is the difference between q nation with
a standing army of $4,000 and another
nation, not much moro than half as popu-
lous. which has a STANDING army or ABOUT
a million and q quarter. with men enough
In its reserve forces TO swell the number to
over four millions. To put the contrast In
another light, there are twice as many
soldiers In Paris alone as you could drum
up to-day within the far.reaching limits OF
our entire Nation.
After residing here for q time one gets an
linking of the significance OF these figures,
and of the awful possibilities they open
up as regards the future. The dilemma
which confronts you Is thIs-elther that
the French people are O nation OF fools,
bent on bankruptIng themselves without
any good reason. or that they are a nation
over whose heads q tremendous war
cloud impends. which may break
at any time with such destructive fury
as to threaten their very existence. Per
haps they are fools anyway; perhaps all
these continental peoples are fools. This
doesn't seem at all improbable when you
remember that every century the battle.
fields of Europe absorb the life blood of
eighteen or twenty millions of her flower
ing manhood. and that Germany. after her
great victory over France. spent the
billion dollars of indemnity she en-
acted in strengthening her defenses. and
has since laid ont on her army more than
5000, 0O0. 900 of dollars taken out OF the
pockets of her own people. But here again
the question of environment comes IN, for
IL one nation In Europe does 1t they must
all do il So they say over here, at least,
and, after studying the situation at close
range. it is difficult to see how France or
Germany GOULD do, in the circumstances in
which they are placed, any differently from
what they are dong.
WAR WILL COME FROM II PEOPLE.
On the surface of things 1t would appear
as though all these elaborate preparations
for war were. after oil, the best possible
Rus<antee of continued peace. Germany.
IL is quite certain, has been less inclined to
p~reclpitate o conflict with France since
1883, when the latter, by a sweeping
war measure, made army service prac-
tically universal. 1t is certain. too.
that when the new army measures
have been completed on the other side of
the Rhine. France will be less inclined
than before to renew hostilitles against
Germany. And still another safeguard
arising from the extension OF military con-
scriptions is that the further they extend
the more they involve the nation
as q whole, and the more. in con-
sequence. do they make the question
of war or peace one In which
the whole nation is personally inter
ested. In France. where the govern
ment 10 strictly representative. this is
particularly the case. Thu nation is no
longer q play thing for kings. 1t is not
within the power of al emperor or o Pres
ident to let loose her dogs OF war. II war
shall come, it Will be because the people
shall so decree. and since the people are
the army-every family contributing it's
contingent-it would seem to be only q
plausible supposition that they will move
cautiously. and. before drawing the sword,
pause q little time to count the cost. and
see If such q dire extremity may not by
some means be avoided.
The is how one could wish is to be. and
how the surface facts would warrant us in
expecting that 1t will be. But there is, IN
fortunately. another side to this fair
that the initiative of war rests with the
great body of the people, but it Is equally
true that the people of this nation are
resting at present under the humiliation
of q crushing defeat. and that, with
scarcely an exception, they cherish
f~eelings Of bitterness. perhaps even of
vlndlctiveness, towards the nation which
chastised them. In moving amongst the
French people 1t becomes painfully evident
to even the most casual observer that tho
present peace is looked upon merely as q
truce between two engagements, that the
battle for final supremacy has yet to come,
and that the French people. while they
may fear to hasten that final duel. will not
seek to avoid it. and will consider their sit.
uation permanently tranquil only when it
has been fought and won.
FRENCH SENTIMENT.
The French arc exceedingly sensitive.
Proud of their history as q nation of fight
ers, and with q passion for military glory
such as no other of the great powers of
Europe has shown. it was hardly to be ex-
peoted that they would accept German
domination as a ~permanency without at
least one effort to rid themselves of
it. And. OF course. their partial dis.
memberment. by the annexation to Ger
many of Alsace and Lorraine, made
this additionally unlikely. That Russian
diplomatic who. after the treaty of Frank
fort, congratulated the Iron Chancellor
upon having annexed an open wound, did
not miss the mark very far. The annexed
provinces are wounds indeed. and they
have any amount of proud flesh in them.
Count Won Caprivps recent army bill
speech was. In one view, decidedly fiatter-
that, ordinarily. the French would not OBJ
Ject to hear their capital spoken of as "a
fortified city. such as the world has never
Known before" or TO be reminded that
their forts ara equipped with all the
strength of modern SCIENCE" and that they
have army corps which are very diff
ferent from those of 1870" Such
sayings would made sweet music in
French ears, assuming their source to be
agreeable and their motives above suspi-
J cion. But when Caprivl says these things
for the purpose of converting the Germans
to his own view of their enhanced military
he takes the German army across the west
ern frontier, and In thought plants IL once
more before the walls of Paris. the case Is
so altered that compliments become almost
as singing as bullets would be.
French feeling was deeply touched BY