The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1907-04-27

p. SATURDAY, APRIL a., 1907
have never in this country had the
mania for creating great war ma
chimes. The United States has become
the home of hundreds of thousands
OF immigrants. who came here because
they knew they would not be COM
PEELED to give years of the most wall
uanle period of their life to the MAIN
tenance of an army. If the money
which the so-called great powers of
Europe have used in the last genera
ton t" maintain their imagined great
ness could have been spent upon inl-
proving and irrigating the territory of
the United States, there would be
ample room in this country for all the
inhabitants of those so-called great
powers.
Notwithstanding our comparative
freedom from the burdens of tie war
game in the past. there has in recent
Years, since we became so-called
world power, grown up certain pride
among leaders and to some extent
among the people in having {, large
navy and. army. Fig war ships are
the homes of thousands of men. Forts
are filled with men going through use
less manoeuvres, Just standing by
waiting for a. chance TO destroy, and
it takes $100,0o0,0OO a year to do this.
There are in the United States 6OO,-
100000 acres of land unoccupied for
the lack of water Irrigation would
make this land wealth producing. The
desert lands of the United States alone
represent almost 100 acres for each
man, woman and child in the country,
How much more sensible, how much
better for mankind it would be if the
money spent in the war game were
used to water this domain and to
make the people of this nation richer
and happier. Besides desert land
there are millions of acres of swamp
land in this country which are not only
non-inhabitable but are breeding
places for disease and pests that tor
ment humanity. If the men now idle
in the navy and in the army and the
money used to support them were
directed toward draining these swamps
what is now the enemy of mankind,
carrying on a constant warfare, would
become the support of mankind
When people seriously stop to think
they must wonder how civilized man
has SO long permitted the war game
to go OF. If the peace talk that took
place last week would start the peo-
pie to thinking along peace lines and
of the possibilities that permanent
peace would bring, it will have been
Of great service. IL the money used
to build big, clumsy, useless war ves-
sells were used to build merchant
ships to carry the goods of the United
States to distant peoples who need
them, some practical good would re-
suit to the people.
In Revolutionary days the hardy
fishermen of New England fitted up
their fishing boats and with impro-
vised cannon went boldly forth to meet
the English warships and the result
was not discreditable to the American
sailors. We had merchant marine
in 1912 and that merchant marine was
used to fight the leading naval power
Of the world and our sailors again
held their own. Since that time a false
theory of tariff taxation has destroyed
what was once the pride of the United
States. We have no merchant marine.
Instead, we are trying to follow in the
footsteps of the great naval powers of
Europe in building fighting vessels at
100000 apiece and which a few
years after they are built become USE
less because of new discoveries and
new inventions. The whole war game
is such a. sanseless proceeding that it
is really remarkable that we only talk
peace, while we still continue to prac-
tice war