The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-08-30
WILL EUROPE DlSARM {?

lister, has by order of the Car, address
cd n note to the powers asking that u
conference be called to agree upon some
basis for dispensing with the vast arma
ments they now maintain. Count Muir
avieff sets forth the failure Of the doe
trine that instant readiness for war is the
surest guarantee of peace and indicts the
system as follows:
ut is the better to guarantee peace
that they have developed in proportions
hitherto unprecedented their military
forces, and still continue to increase
them, without shrinking from any sacri-
fee.
Nevertheless all these efforts have not
yet been able to bring about the beneii-
cent result Observation-Disclosures
"The financial charges following the
upward march strike at the very root Of
public prosperity. The intellectual and
physical strength of the nations, labor
and capital, are mostly diverted from
their natural application. and are unpro-
ductively consumed. Hundreds of mil
lions are devoted to acquiring terrible
engines of destruction, which, though to-
day regarded as the last work of science,
are destined tomorrow to lose all their
value in consequence of some fresh dis
covery in the same field. National cul-
turc, economic progress. and the produc-
ton of wealth are either paralyzed or
checked in development. Moreover in
proportion us the ornaments of each
power increase, they less and less fulfill
the object the government have set be-
fore themselves"
Coming from Russia, which has of late
been regarded as the most aggressive Of
all European powers, despite the rather
melodramatic belligerency of Emperor
William, this proposition is likely TO lead
to much talk in diplomatic circles.
Pretty as the proposition to disarm
may appear upon paper and in the gar
ulous arena of peace congresses, it is not
likely to get beyond the discussion stage
European diplomats are entirely too
well acquainted with one another's little
weaknesses. Five hundred years of
training in the art of believing nothing
that is put forward as a motive will not
yield to implicit belief in a moment Rus
movement to secure freedom for Europe
from the incubus of standing armies, but
there is not court in Europe that will
believe it.
Nor has she chosen an opportune mo-
ment for her proposal. Europe has come
to look upon all weaker peoples as legi-
innate prey and there will not be any
voluntary trimming of claws or drawing
of fangs until the final division of the
booty. Each nation secretly believes
that if it comes to the test of tooth and
nail it will get the better of it. Nations.
no more than men, yield advantages,
real or supposed, to competitors.
The European system is founded
primarily upon selfishnessa sentiment
that is, unfortunately, yet quite strong
in the human breast, and nowhere
stronger than in the breasts of imperial
majesties. Militarism is essentially vi
cious but. like most other vices, is eX
ceedingly hard to uproot. Even from the
outside it is sufficiently attractive for
us to deliberately adopt it-when the
same necessity does not exist here as in
Europe.
Whatever Germany, France and Rus
sia might do, it is a tolerably safe pro-
phecy that England will accede to no
policy that involves the dismantling of
a single battleship. As great as is the
burden of maintaining her navy her
pride in it is greater. The ministry that
should propose to itself to relegate her
navy to the scrap heap would speedily
find it's way thither instead. And while
England maintains her navy there will
be no disarming.
AS wise and pretty and humane as is
Russia's proposal to be good, it does not
appear that, just yet the pruning hook
market has any reason to anticipate a
glut.