The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-04-28
First Glass Navy
To Insure Peace
RoosEvETs STRONG APPEAL TO CONGRESS TO PRO-
FOR FOUR NEW BArrLEsHlPs- WANTS THE UNITED
STATES A NAVY COMMENSURATE WITH ITS pow
Frs AND IT'S NEEDs-PEACE WORSE THAN WAR

of anger. These arbitration treaties
are not only for the purpose Of ending
wrong doing by others against us but
also as a proof that we have no inten- |
ton of doing wrong ourselves. Yet it
is idle to assume and from the stand
point of national interest and honor 1t
is mischievous folly for any statesman
to assume that this world has yet
reached the stage or has come within
measurable distance of the stage when
a proud nation jealous of its honor
and conscious of its great mission in
the world, can be content to rely for
peace upon the forbearance Of other
powers. 1t would be equally foolish to
rely upon each of them possessing at
all times and under all circumstances
and provocations an altruistic regard
for the rights of others. Those who
hold this view are blind indeed to all
that has gone on before their eyes in
the world at large.
CHINA AN EXAMPLE
They are blind to what has happen
ed in China, in Turkey, in the Spanish
possessions, in Central and South AT
RIGA, during the last dozen years. For
centuries China has cultivated the very
spirit which our own peace at any
price men wish this country to adopt.
For centuries China has refused to
provide military forces and has treat
ed the career of the soldier as inferior
in honor and regard to the career OF
the merchant or of the man of letters
There never has been so large an EN-
pire which for SO long time has re-
luctantly proceeded on the theory Of
doing away with what is called mill
tarism.'
Whether the result has been happy
in internal affairs, | need not discuss.
All the advanced reformers and far
sighted patriots in the Chinese minis
try are at present seeking q may add
with our hearty good willy for a radi-
cal and far reaching reform in internal
affairs. In external affairs the policy
has resulted in various other nations
now holding large portions of Chinese
y
fear in China lest the empire, because
of its defenselessness, be exposed to
absolute ACKNOWLEDGMENT, and its well
wishers are able to help it only in a
small measure, because no nation can
help another unless that other can
help itself
The state department is continually
appealed to to interfere on behal~ of
people and nationalities who insist
that they are suffering from oppression
now Jewsin one country, now Chris
tians in another, now black men said
to be oppressed by white men in AT
RIGA, Armenians, Koreans, Firms, Poles,
representatives of all appeal at times
to this government.
All of this oppression is alleged to
exist in time of peace, and frequently,
although by no means always, it IL al
legged to occur at the hands of the peo-
pie who are not very formidable in a
military sense. In some cases the ac-
cusation of oppression and wrong do
ing are doubtless ill founded. In 9th
ers they are well founded, and in Ger,
tain cases the most appalling loss OF
life is shown to have occurred, accom-
panied by frightful cruelty. 1t is not
our province to decide which side has
been right and which has been wronH
in all or in any of these controversies
| am now referring to the loss of life
PEACE WORSE THAN WAR.
1t is probably a conservative state
ment to say that within the last Il
years, at periods of profound peace
and not as a result of war, massacres
and butcheries have occurred in which
more lives of men, women and chill
dren have been lost than in any single
great war since the close of the Napo-
leonic struggles. To any public man
who knows the complaints continually
made to the state department there i:
an element of grim tragedy in the
claim that the time has gone by wher
weak nations can be oppressed by
. those who are stronger without aroua
, ing effective protest from other stroEl
interests. Even this, still fresh in tn,
p mind of every thinking man, shows
that neither arbitration nor any otne
J device can as yet be invoked to pre-
vent the gravest and most terrible
: wrong doing to peoples who are eithe
. few in numbers or who, if numerous
/ have lost the first and most importan
= of national virtues-the capacity 70
/ self-defense.
5 When a nation is so happily situate
as Ours-that is, when it has no reaso
3 to fear or to be feared by its neighbor
r the fleet is all the more necessar
} for the preservation of peace. Grea
g Britain has been saved by its flee
e from the necessity of facing one of tn
t two alternatives-of submission to cor
= quest by a foreign power or of itse
n hanOu,inor q urraat military Y,Ouar rTb