The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-12-05

Cross Conference at Geneva last sums
mer, and the subjects which naturally
would come before The Hague Can-
ference, made it apparent that it was
desirable to have the work of the Red
Cross Conference completed and con-
sidered by the different powers before
the meeting at The Hague The Red
Cross Conference ended its labors on
the 9Th day of July, and the revised
and amended convention, which was
signed by the American delegates.
will be promptly laid before the Senate.
BY the special and highly appreciated
courtesy of the Governments of Rus
STA and the Netherlands, a proposal
to call The Hague Conference together
at time which would conflict with the
Conference of the American Republics
at lRto de Janeiro in August was laid
aside. No other date has yet been
suggested. A tentative program for
the conference has been proposed by
the Government of Russia, and the
subjects which it enumerates are UNI
dergoing careful examination and con-
sideration in preparation for the con-
ference.
Peace and righteousness.
1t must ever be kept in mind that
war is not merely justifable, but inn
perative, upon honorable men, upon
an honorable nation, where peace can
only be obtained by the sacrifice of
conscientious conviction or of national
te
good, and normally it comedies with
righteousness; but it is righteousness
and not peace which should bind the
conscience of nation as it should
bind the conscience of an indi-
vidual; and neither nation Nor an
individual can surrender conscience to
anyothe" keeping. Neither can a nation
which is an entity and which does not
die as individuals die, refrain from
taking thought for the interest of the
generation Of to-day; and no public
men have right, whether from short
sightness, from selfish indifference, on
from sentimentality, to sacrifice ma
tional interests which are vital in
character. A just war is in the long
run far better for nations soul than
the most prosperous peace obtained by
acquiescence in wrong or Injustice
Moreover, tho it is criminal for ma
tion not to prepare for war, so that it
may escape the dreadful consequences
of being defeated in war, yet it must
always be remembered that even to be
defeated in war may be far better than
not to have fought at all. AS has BEEN
q T.
not necessarily a disgraced nation; but
the nation or man is diIsgraced if the
obligation to defend right is shirked.
We should as nation do every
thing in our power for the cause Of
honorable peace 1t is morally as in
defensible for a nation to commit a.
wrong upon another nation, strong or
weak, as for an individual thus to
wrong his fellows. We should do all in
our power to hasten the day when
there shall be peace among the nations
"a peace based upon justice and not
upon cowardly submission to wrong.
We can accomplish a good deal in this
direction, but we can not accomplish
everything, and the penalty of at
tempting to do too much would almost
inevitably be to do worse than moth
ing; for it must be remembered that
fantastic extremists are not in reality
leaders Of the causes which they es-
pouse, but are ordinarily those who
do most to hamper the real leaders of
the cause and to damage the cause it.
self. AS yet there is no likelihood OF
establishing any kind of international
power, Of whatever sort, which can
effectively check wrongdoing and in
these circumstances it would be both
foolish and an evil thing for great
and free nation to deprive itself of the
power to protect it's own rights and
even in exceptional cases to stand up
for the rights of others. Nothing
would more promote iniquity, nothing
would further defer the reign upon
earth of peace and Righteousness, than +
for the free and enlightened peoples
which, tho with much stumbling and
many shortcomings nevertheless strive
toward justice. deliberately to render
themselves while leaving every des-
potism and barbarism armed and able
to work their wicked will. The chance
for the settlement of disputes peace
fully, by arbitration, now depends
mainly upon the possession by the ma
tons that mean to do right of sufficient
armed strength to make their purpose
effective
The Navy and Army.
The United States Navy is the surest
guarantor of peace which this country
possesses. 1t is earnestly to be wisht
that we would profit by the teachings
of history in this matter. A strong
and wise peoples will study its own
failures no less than its triumphs, for
there is wisdom to be learned from the
study of both, of the mistake as well as
of the SUCCESS. For this purpose Moth
ing could be more instructive than a
rational study of the war of 1872, as it
is told, for instance by Captain Maharl.
There was only one way in which that
war could have been avoided If dur
ing the preceding twelve years a navy
relatively as strong as that which this
country now has had been built up,
and an army provided relatively as
.aaa ~. +bat which tbe country now