The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-03-11
''Menagerie' Theory Of international Dealings
BY LA SALE A. MAYNARD.

always before us, too, of a possible rev.
olution in Guam and a formidable up
rising in Panama It is easy to see from
all this, of course, why we ought to
have at least forty-eight battleshiDs,
even if they do cost from 3,000, 900 to
81, 900 900 each
1t was an eloquent Anglican bishop
who in the course of an address before
the peace congress in Boston two years
ago hit off the prevalent craze for war
preparation in an apt phrase by saying
that it was based upon ''the menagerie
theory" Of international dealing. What
he meant by this was that in their elab-
crate, expensive and far-reaching plans
for carrying on war at some future
time, the nations of the world are pro-
ceeding upon the clear assumption that
now, as in the centuries past. the COM
ponent parts of the great human family
are to be likened to so many wolves, or
other ravenOus beasts, ever ready TO
pounce upon one of their number who
may be weak or off his guard and rend
him to pieces
The good bishop was wholly right.
Upon no other theory or assumption
than this, can any explanation or JUS
LITIGATION be found for the policy now
being followed by nearly all the civ
ilized nations in gathering to- them
selves larger fleets of warships, larger
armies. in planning new and more
formidable defense works. and in en-
ploying their best energies and their
highest forms of inventive genius in
devising and constructing new and
more destructive pieces of war en-
g1nery. In our national war depart
ments, in the circles OF the army and
navy, and in every other sphere of
military activity, we seem to be
Breathing still the air of medievalism,
II be thinking, talking and acting pre-
cisely as if the forces of Christianity
and our boosted civilization counted
for little or nothing in the world; as
IL no real progress had been made over
savageries and inhumanities of ancient
days; as If the Gospel of Peace
preached and taught for twenty cen
turtles had made no real impress upon
the hearts and minds of men; as if
there were no arbitration treaties and
no Hague courts for the settlement of
international disputes So far as war
preparations go, we seem to live in
the fourteenth century instead of the
twentieth; in the old days when the
lust of conquest still swayed the pol
icy of every nation and might invari-
ably meant right in the dealings of one
nation with another.
Now, without committing myself to
any form of extremism in these mat
tiers; without indulging in any vain
and delusive hope as to the near ap-
preach of the Millennium, I make bold
to affirm my belief that the world is
much better than it was one hundred
or even fifty years ago, and that 1t
will be vastly better fifty years hehce
than it is today. 1 believe that great
progress has been made in the hu-
manities in these recent years; that
the sense of human brotherhood is
gTOwings that the sentiments of love,
mercy and justice are far more preva-
lent now than they ever were before
in the history of the race. It is be-
cGCse of this optimism of mine, this
firm and abiding faith in the increas-
Ing spirit of good will and peaceful
intent among our civilized fellow men
throughout the earth, that 1 fail to see
sound craftsmanship or even plain
common sense in proceeding in our
national policies as if war was a nor
nal feature of the life of nations now
and evermore-a thing to be expected
and provided for in our national budg-
cts through all the future, as much
as public highways, public school sys-
TENS and other objects Of public ex-
penditure.
Why not shape our policy of war
preparations in accordance with the
facts? The signs of the times and
all the tendencies of the age in COM
merce, art, industry, religion and phi