The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-04-12
.H0BS0N ASSERTS
WAR is INEVITABLE
Tells House That More Bat.
tleships Will Have Power
full Influence for Peace.
BURTON REBUKES
HERO OF MERRIMAC

Yellow-Gill Criticizcs
r the President About
Brownson Matter.
NV Declaring that many mem
NV bers had gone navy mad
Wv when consideration of TIL
naval appropriation bill wa
resumed in the House to-day, Mr.
Gregg. of Texas. opposed a great nava
| program. He charged that Presiden
Roosevelt had an unsettled naval policy
and that he was trying to force 1t upoi
Congress. If. Mr.. Gregg said, the pie;
for four battleships was based on fea
OF conflict with Japan. the President.
course had been peculiar. because, Ii,
said. the relations with Japan on De
! Ccmber 3, 1906. were more strained
| when he asked for one ship than on
| December 3, 1907, when he asked for
four. The best proof that this govern.
ment did not anticipate war with
Japan was the fact that the Atlantic
fleet had been ordered to return from
the Pacific waters.
In vigorous speech Mr.. Hobson. OF
! Alabama, again pleaded for four bat
|
gressive nation. he declared. invest-
gated the question of whether war
was to be undertaken or not. that ma
ton did rot ask about administration.
maintenance or auxiliaries, but 1t
asked. How many battleshps has the
other nation?"
Even margin of superiority in
lighting ships, he said. would tend to
conserve the peace. With only three
! ~
said. the margin of superiority be-
tween the American and Spanish fleets
would have been such as to have made
possible the settlement of the case by
diplomacy.
SO important was this matter OF
superiority. he said. that when Con-
gress haggled over two battleships the
safety of the nation was being trifled
with
Anglo-Jnpnncsc Alliance.
Mr.. Hobson again reverted to the al
lance between Japan and England, and
hinted at possible union of the forces
OF these two nations in Canadian
waters
Mr.. Hobson went so far as to say
that s5o,0oo.000 in battleships would
have enabled the United States to
force Russia to evacuate Manchuria at
the time she agreed to do so, and in
that case the war between Russia and
Japan would have been averted
The war clouds are gathering" Mr.,
Hobson said, but America could. by
carrying out a legitimate national pol
Icy. prevent it. 1t is not vision; 1t is
not dream. Let's begin BY authorize
ing four ships this year at the least
Burton's Rebukc.
Mr.. Burton, of Ohio. was rather in
clined to discount Mr.. Hobson's pre-
dietions of war Notwithstanding the
dire portents that the war clouds are
gathering" said he. II am gratified 10
notice that equanimity and content
ment prevail in this chamber" He
could not he said. listen to Mr.. Hobson
without words of emphatic dissent
may even say of rebuke."
The United States, he declared, was
in the forefront of modern civilization.
and instead of engaging in warfare
mad made peace between nations. He
referred to President Roosevelt's part
in effecting peace between Russia ana
Japan, and said that mot one nor
twenty tattleships had anything to do
with that peace. 1t was accomplished
rather through a reliance in his fair
ness and the justice and disinterested-
ness of the American people, factors"
HI declared, which would have been
swept away If he had had those aInbi-
tons which belong to country having
a great navy and seeking to dominate
the nations of the earth
Public Opinion.
Sympathy, he said. was factor more
potent than rmaments, and no nation
now could afford to impose upon a
weak people. The public opinion of
the civilized world, he asserted, was
RI
or the nroudest empire. There is, he
said. solidarity of interest among the
nations of the earth such that war
viii not be tolerated. War is practi-
cally Impossible to-day, he said. unless
some irrepresslble ground for conflict
exists as existed in the case Of Japan
and Russia As regards Japan. Mr.
Burton said no nation which had made
such leaps and bounds in SO short a
line had behaved With more n1odera-
.lon than that country. IT, however. |
Japan mad designs on the civilization
Of the Western world. and the western
world would combine against the races
# Asia, 1t would be out Of. the ques-
Ion that there would be any fight in |
which the United States would have to
alone. He concluded by saying
hat the United States should take adj
'nntage of It's magnificent isolation and |
cad the world in the paths of peace
A White Alliance.
Mr.. w. w. Kitchin, of North Caro-.
ina, opposed the Idea OF four battle-
,hips. In his opinion an immense I
Iavy was not essential to the preserva-
ion OF the Monroe doctrine. because, /
C said. the United States heretofore
.ad not had such a navy, either ac-
ually or relatively, when measured BY
lie nayies OF Europe.
Should a war come between the
and yellow races. Mr..
<itchin insisted that there could be
10 reasonable doubt that the navies Of
europe would fight on the side OF