The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-13
MEAD DISCUSSES PEACE MOVEMENT Commercial Bodies Are Taking
 Up Project ENORMOUS COST OF WARS Visitor Says All University Buildings In New England Did Not Cost as
 Much as Does One Mod
 ern Battleship.
 
ENORMOUS COST OF WARS

affairs, spent yesterday in Birmingham,
 coming from Nashville, where he ad-
 dressed the students of Vanderbilt univer-
 sity and the Peabody college, and leaving
 this morning for Atlanta. He spoke yes
 terday forenoon at the Lincoln centennial
 celebration at the High school MT. Mead was the American vice president of the ln-
 ternational Peace congress in London last
 summer, and has taken prominent part
 in many of the congresses of the last 10
 years; and he spoke warmly to repre-
 sentative of The Age-Herald at the Hill-
 man last evening upon the remarkable
 advance of the peace movement in the
 last 10 years.
 "I remember,' he said, being at the
 Mohonk Arbitration conference 10 or F
 years ago. when Edward Everett Hale
 made a stirring speech demanding and
 prophesying a permanent international
 tribunal. The general opinion there at
 the time was that we shouldn't see such
 a thing for a generation. A famous dip-
 lomat and judge of the New York court
 of appeals both declared it was splen-
 did ideal, but that none of us could hope to see it realized in our time. Well, In
 less than half doezn years The Hague
 conference had met. and the international
 tribunal was established, and the United States was one of the parties to the first
 case which it settled. It took this world
 tribunal less time after it was established
 to get into successful operation than it
 took the supreme court of the United
 States, which settles disputes between our
 states as the international tribunal set
 ties disputes between nations
 Asked how this development of inter
 national law and a world court would
 affect the worlds military establishments,
 Mr. Mead said 1t was all question or
 the nations coming gradually to have 1ull
 confidence in the new method Of the
 courts. Logically there ought to be
 steady decrease of the machinery for the
 arbftrament of international differences
 by war corresponding to the steady and
 now so great increase of the machinery
 for their arbitrament by law. Really no
 nation party to The Hague conventions
 has any right or reason actually to ln-
 crease its armaments at time like
 this, unless some distinct new danger
 can be shown. But it will take little
 time for the new institutions and in
 fuences to work their way to control.' Cost of War.
 | MT Mead spoke very sharply of what
 he called the present ''big navy craze" ! in this country. We of all people, he said. "are without excuse for it. We l are in no danger whatever from any quarter, and never need be if we behave ourselves. Our business is to lead the
 world in the policy of disarmament. All the great nations are being exhausted by the terrific cost of their monstrous nayies which are really vastly more of
 a provo cation and menace than de- fense. How many of our people realize l that 65 per cent practically two-thirds, of our entire national revenue goes TOT expenses saddled upon us by past wars and preparation for imaginary future
 wars. leaving barely one-third for con
 structive purposes? We are standing on our heads Why, add together the cost
 of all the hundred buildings of Harvard university, and all the buildings of Yale, Amherst, Williams, Dartmouth, Bowdon and Brown, all our historic New Eng
 land colleges, and it is less by S,0OO0Oo
 than the cost of one of our new $100OOOOo
 battleships whose lifetime is less than
 10 years" He rejoiced at the over whelming vote by which Congress last year rejected the proposition for four new battleships, and hoped the present Con
 gross would do itself even greater credit, Our forestry" he said, which now
 goes begging, with frightful loss to the country, our public education and the great constructive things are what have
 the real claims upon our money If we would make our country really strong and real blessing to the world, which Is now cursed by the insane naval rival ries."
 Commercial Men for Peace. MT. Mead said that few things were more oh heerng to the workers for the peace cause than the energetic new in- terest in it of the great commercial
 bodies of the country, like the Birming- ham Commercial club, which he was glad to know had associated itself with the Moh onk Arbitration conference.
 "The hard headed business men, he said -'are waking up to the wicked ness and sinful waste of militarism.
 They see that it is not good business, that we are not spending our money in
 the right way. Might doesn't make right. War never shows what is just; it simply shows which of two fighting nations is at the time the stronger. The chief business of all sensible men today is to hasten the supplanting of the war system by the system of in ternational jaw and courts. More than hundred of our American Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade are now regularly identified with the Lake Mohonk Arbitration conference.' An important movement was started at Mohonk three years ago. MT. Mead said, to enlist the colleges and univer- sities of the country in the arbitration
 movement and something like 200 of them are now regularly identified in the cause. He spoke too of the active
 new work in the public schools, which has resulted in the formation of an American School Peace league of which Superintendent Phillips of the Birming- ham schools is one of the five presl- dents. The peace societies were never so strong as now; and an important
 new instrumentality is the Internation- al Consolidation association of which
 President Butler of Columbia univer- sity Is the head in America, and which is publishing for free distribution an invaluable seres of peace pamphlets MT. Mead was the chairman of the programme committee of the great peace congress in New York two years ago, of which Mir. Carnegie was presi- dent.
 This year the last week in April, the National Peace congress meets In Chicago. Mr. Mead said 1t would be undoubtedly as large and notable a congress as that in New York. He hoped tn ere would be a large represen- tation from the south. He spoke in tn e warm appreciation of the deep inter est in the peace cause shown by MT. Gilreath, Judge Weakley and other