The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-05-17

end, and back of them great popular
campaign is now in progress to support
the proposition.
Not by any means the least of the
steps now being taken in this behalf
is the inculcation of the doctrine of
peace in the public schools. In this
| Territory the Superintendent of Public
Instruction has just sent to every pub
lie and private school suitable itera-
ture for use in teaching the cost, the
i futility, the immortality of war. The
churches are filing the land with know
ledge and enthusiasm as well as con-
science on the subject. The religious
press is unanimous in similar effort
One little bit of missionary work any
body who wishes to can do. thaesaTiH be
powerful for good. Everyone of you
who can afford it, buy the novel
Ground Arms, -. by Baroness SUIT.
phen, read it and pass it~on through
i your neighborhood. know of no way,
so pleasant and SO easy, of putting
j yourself in line of the blessing coming
to the peacemakers.
The time, pending The Hague meet
| ing of 1915, will be packed full of agi-
tation and instruction in it's interest.
The press, the pulpit, the lecture plat
! form, the school, the family teaching
all the voices of conscience and helpful
ness will be at work.
The situation is paradoxical in this,
that, for all the unanimity Of public
sentiment, the concord of the powers,
and the prophecies of universal peace,
the armies of the nations are kept stu
diously in fighting form and battleships
are ON the increase.
/ This looks like bad faith, suspicion,
folly-anything but good statesman
tship. The millions of money invested
in Dreadnoughts by our Congress would
far better serve the country and the
world in subsidies for fast mail ships
of the merchant marine.
! 1t is perhaps an ungracious remark
to make, but | am surely not unpatri-
otic in saying, that the spectacular pill
grimage of our war fleet last year,
when America went staggering around
the world poking great guns into the
faces of weaker communities, in the
name of peace, was anything but i'm
pressive, from the standpoint of Chris
tian civilization. 1t was useless to be-
gin with, and it was open to the eriti
cism of being the bluff of a parvenu
among the powers. The fact that the
feet could be spared for so long, for
swashbuekling, so far abroad, tended
to show it's lack of usefulness at home
1t was good training for the crews,
certainly, and the conduct of the men
was highly creditable. But the per-
Torrance, as whole, was not good
enough for a great democracy that has
no enemies and aspires to be the lead
er of the nations.
1t was sheer folly as a stratagem in
the interest Of peace. One drunken
brawl in the streets of Toxic, or one
torpedo in Yokohama bay, fixed and
fred by criminal desperadoes, would
probably have plunged the world into a
fearful war, for exactly nothing bear
ing any resemblance to an issue
What a contrast there was between
that performance and the tour of a
quiet gentleman named Elihu Root
through South America, as Secretary of
State and the guest of the Latin repub-
lies! Mr.. Root s trip was the more
notable event, the more dignifed, the
more effective, the more convincing, and
infinitely more worthy of the traditions
and aspirations of the country. If, in
stead of the war feet, the great Secre-
tary had been sent on visit to Japan,
and had brought home the peace memo
randum which has increased the hope
and stirred the imagination of all ma
lions, the eclipse of the ship show
would have been total.
So far as I can understand, that fleet
expedition enters itself on the war side
of the ledger. 1t stimulated fighting
, rivalry. 1t belittled the worldwide
movement for peace. 1t caused the
laying down of half a hundred war
ships keels, in the ports of friendly
nations. On the other side of the ac-
count, there is to be entered only that
it was good exercise for the men, good
, education for the officers, and good luck
: that we got out of it without war.
1t was matter of establishment to
me, that President Taft, the big man,
. in big place at big period, stood
up so promptly for an increase of the
navy, at this time. Has the admins
tration secret information that makes
the peace movement foolish to the ini-
, tiated? Is it possible that the Mysteries
of California and Nevada is a national
perila Is it known that the agreement
entered into at the second Hague con-
! ference, providing that unfortifed cities
, should not be bombarded, was fraudu-
, lent or futile? What does this multi
plieation of fighting equipment mean
: | have travelled widely in Europe and
somewhat also in the East. and [ be-
: lieve | know, that the people of all
the civilized nations are for peace.
strongly and enthusiastically.
Ambassador Wright has said that the
talk of war between this country and
our only possible enemy, Japan, ism t
even respectable nonsense. The people