The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-03-11

lanthropy, make for worldwide peace
and the solidarity of the race. Can
any one read with any degree of in
telligence and perspicacity the history
OF the world during the past decade
o. more, and not see and know these
things? Are not the existence of the
Hague tribunal and the settlement of
international disputes it has already
made, such as the North Sea incl
0ent, aid the conclusion of some thirty
arbitration treaties between different
European nations, facts of sufficient
weight and significance to be. reckoned
with in the military preparations of
the nations? Why continue to pile
more Ossas on more Pelians of expen-
ditures for armament in the face of
the fact that we now have an inter
national court to which in all proba-
bTity before many years each civil
lied nations viii be forced by treaty
with every other to carry it's dis
putes? Why not reckon here, too, with
other movements and projects for es-
tablishing a world peace, such as those
being urged on by the Interparliamen-
t&ry union and other peace organiza-
tions, and which seem practically GER
tain of realization in the near fu-
tuIe?
1t is easy to generalize here. to raise
the alarm cry which has been heard
at frequent Intervals for years past
about the probabilities of a general
war in Europe, a cataclysmic conflict
which is to shake the very earth and
dJench the continent with blood and
tears. But where are the signs which
point to any such hideous and suicidal
strife; what visible or invisible forces
are working to bring about such an
awful struggle between the so-called
Christian powers of Europe; what ac-
tual causes exist which could afford a
shadow Of justification for plunging
UEnumbered millions of people into a
he'll of woe and agony? 1t would af-
ford a measure of relief, at least, if
someone would give specifications here,
would point out the monster or mon
sters In the shape of individuals or ma
! tons who are planning this bloody
OTgie and at whose initiative the hOr-
rCrs are to begin. Is it King Edward,
Or Emperor William, or one of the
respective nations of which they are
the heads? If not these, then who
and where? Let some one hunt this
war dragon to his den, run down the
arch fiend who is just about to kim
die a flame which shall sweep all Eu-
rope into holocaust of death and
ruin.
Over against such dire predictions
and loud alarums which have been
sounding in the ears of the world for
years past, and which were never
louder and more insistent than they
are just now, and which have helped
largely to form the stimuli for war
preparations among the great powers,
may be set an array of undisputable
facts of unmistakable tendencies and
actual achievements in the life and
intercourse of nations, all pointing to
an opposite conclusion, all going to
form a basis for the belief that peace
and not war is in the mind of Eu-
rope, that no cause exists, nor are any
likely to exist so far as human fore
sight goes, for the embodiment of
great nations in mutual strife. Did
space permit one could go into spe-
cific and exhaustive details in support
of the argument that the present trend
OF events in England, France and
Germany, to speak of no other ma
tiOns, makes for peace and not for
war, now nor in the immediate fu-
tUre. 1t must suffice now to say that
the optimism thus expressed rests up
on a surer and more solid groundwork
of fact and actuality than the utter
ances of the war prophets and alarm
lists.
And what is true of the European
situation is still more true of our own
We have been hearing much during
the past few years about some enc
my or enemies against which it is our
national duty to prepare ourselves at
any cost. It is this unnamed and in
visible foe who seems to grow larger
and more formidable every year, if
we may judge by the calculations of