The Irish standard., 1908-04-18
Gives China as Example.

South Africa, during the last dozen
years.
Gives China as Example.
For centuries China has cult
waited the very spirit which our peace
at-any-price men wish this country to
adopt. For centuries China has re.
fused to provide military forces and
has treated 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 empire which for so long a
time has so resolutely proceeded on
the theory of doing away with what is
called "militarism."
Whether the result has been happy
in internal affairs / need not discuss;
all the advanced reformers and far
sighted patriots in the Chinese EN-.
pire are at present seeking Il may
add, with our hearty good will) for
radical and far-reaching reform in in
ternal affairs. In external affairs the
policy has resulted in various other ma
tions now holding large portions of
Chinese territory while there is a
very acute fear in China lest the en-
pire, because of its defenselessness.
be exposed to absolute dismember-
ment, and its well-wishers are able
to help it only in small measure, be-
cause no nation can help any other
unless that other can help itself. :.
Oppression During Peace.
The state department is continually
appealed to to interfere on behalf of
peoples and nationalities who insist
that they are suffering from oppres-
sion; now Jews in one country, now
Christians in another, now black men
said to be. oppressed by white men in
Africa. Armenians, Koreans, Firms,
Poles, representatives of all appeal at
times to this government. All Of this
oppression is alleged to exist in time
of profound peace, and frequently, al
though by no means always, 1t is al
legged to occur at the hands of people
who are not very formidable in q
military sense. In some cases the ac-
cusattons Of oppression and wrong-do-
ing are doubtless ill-founded. In others
they are we'll founded, and in certain
cases the most appalling loss Of life
is shown to have occurred, accom-
panied with frfghtful cruelty. 1t is not
our province to decide which side has
been right and which has been wrong
in all OF these controversies. 1 am
merely referring to the loss of life.
Massacres Claim Many Lives.
Within the last IL years, at periods
Of profound peace and not as the re-
suit of war, massacres and butcheries
have occurred in which more lives of
men, women and children have been
lost than In any single great war
since the close Of the Napoleonic
struggles. To any public man who
knows Of the complaints continually
made to the state department there is
an element of grim tragedy in the
claim that the time has gone by when
weak nations or peoples can be op.
pressed by those who are stronger
without arousing effective protest
from other strong interests. Events
still fresh in the mind of every think.
ing man show that neither arbitration
nor any other device can as yet be
invoked to prevent the gravest and
most terrible wrong-doing to peoples
who are either few In numbers or who,
If numerous, have lost the first and
most important of national virtues
the capacity for self-defense. When
nation is so happily situated as ours
that is, when it has no reason to
fear or to be feared by its land neigh
bors-the feet is all the more neces
sary for the preservation of peace.
FIrst.CIass Navy Necessary.
Great Britain has been saved by its
fleet from the necessity of facing one
Of the two alternatives-of submits
sion to conquest by foreign power OF
of itself becoming great military
power. The United States can hope
for a permanent career of peace or
only one condition and that is, on con
dftion of building and maintaining 8
first-class navy; and the step to be
taken toward this end at this time is
to provide for the building of four ad
ditional battleships. I earnestly wish
that the congress would pass the
measures for which have asked fol
Strengthening and rendering more ef
ficient the army as we'll as the navy;
all Of these measures as affecting
every branch and detail of both serv
ices are sorely needed, and it would
be the part of farsighted wisdom tt
enact them all into laws, but the mos
vital and immediate need is that o
the four battleships.
To carry out this policy is but tt
act in the spirit Of George Washing
| ton: fs hut to continue the nnlicie,