The Irish standard., 1908-03-07

. armada to the Paeiilc is only part
OF Il spectacular policy pursued by the
president. IN his efforts to hypnotise
our people. he has pursued that policy
successfully Tho new movement Of
the army to the Pacific coast is another
part of 1t, an act in tho great drama
that is to be unrolled in the Pacific.
He is bound to force the nomination
| in the national convention. This is his
way. He will succeed, too. The hypno-
| tixed millions. gone mad over his way
OF working up sentiment. will make
his nomination inevitable. That is
what 1t all means. 1t is as the breath
OF his nostrils in this warlike display.
1t is all part of a big game When the
curtain rises on the convention Of the
Republican party, readers will re-
member what has been said in these
| columns week after week
The powers that be want war-tney
are bent upon conjurlng up war. Our
people will not want to swap horses
with war imminent. A cry will go up
for tho denomination Of the man who
is now at our head. But it is not the
| man at the head that worries me- it
| is the fact that we are so nearly ma
that war, war talk, vast mass Of
| lnediocrity masaucradlnS as states
| manshp could so befool and bcfuddle
us Is enough TO make me weep. AS
the world wags on, it will plunge into
war. 1t is preparing for war, not for
| peace. It's purposes are too warlike
for the end to be otherwise than war.
Our boast about our big ships being
better than Engand or anyone's, cx-
cept JApan's, is calculated to excite
an interest, the assured result OF which
the inauguration of II policy that will
as surely lead to war as the cry to
| "Rcmembcr the Maine: led to the
most shameful war in the five or six
| in which we have had hand.
Chaplain Crawford Of our navy Is
assured that the British navy is a gen.
| Grafton behind US in naval construc-
| ton. When chaplains are looking up
| The statistical or relative strength of
| the two navies, is il not nearly time
| TO take the matter of a naval mix-up
as a. probable or possible contingency:
This fighting chaplain sees in the Ja-,
panese navy our only rival. Our boats,
he believes. have been built to win.
| Then, Of course, the chaplain, no doubt,
| is building upon the god of navies. if
not on Neptune to help out. Under
| the caption: "a Winning Navy and
Why 1t Wins" the Rev. Crawford tells
US that Great Britain is a. generation
behind us. He harks back to the war
OF 1872 to find that the English were
| far behind us in the way guns were
worked for whereas we used Sights
| they did not. Since the wars in East
ern waters, says that authority. the
boys on board our ships have been dig
ging hard to keep ahead Of the Japs,
liISiI Ouit INhlo vi edILn--Ot water.
BY reason of their island environment,
runs the Rev. Crawford, the Japs are
fitted to be the best seamen in the
| world. .... ......
Why is that any more true Of the
Japs than it is Of the English or any
other islanders: or. for that mater.
why better than the Norwegian or the
| sailors Of New England, Newfound-s
land, etc, ETC.?
The old battleship Massachusetts, is
able. more power to her, to shoot more
shots at a given point. in given time.
| than any ship afloat. The Japanese
have won; but-mark this irresistible
logic-they have not vet winning
navy. Why? A winning navy is one
that has habit Of winning-and that
is ours. It is so and always so, be-
| cause It had the best built ships. etc,
etc. Bide the Bonne Homme Richard