The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1909-05-20
TALKING
FOR PEACE

| Lake Mohonk, N. Y, May 19.-The
Lake Mohonk Conference on Interna-
uonal Arbitration opened today. Mich
olas Murray Butler, President of Col
| umbia University, and President of
the American Branch of the Associa-
| ton for International Cancellation, pre-
sided. In his opening address Presi-
dent Butler referred to the progress
| toward universal peace made by the
Second Hague Conference, but deplor-
ed what he described as present-day
emotional insanity which resulted in
war talk. The speaker cited the alti-
5tude of England towards Germany as
{ an instance of unwarranted jealousy
and declared that no adequate ground
for British suspicious toward Germany
had been given by any responsible
person. He continued:
''The incentive application of the dis
coyeries of theoretical science to in
dustrial processes has made Germany
| in a sense. the worlds chief teacher
IN its great International school of in
dustry and commerce. With this over
sea trade expansion has gone the build
| ing of a German navy. 1t appears to
be the building of this navy which has
SO reused the passions of the English
ipeople. For the moment we are not
| treated to the well-worn paradox that
! the larger a nations navy the less like
| ly it is to he used in combat and
and the more certain is the peace of
| the world. The old Adam asserts him
| self long enough to complain, in this
case at least, that if navy is building
| in Germany it must he intended for of
| fensiye use; and against whom could
the Germans possibly intend to use
navy except against England?- Their
| neighbors, the French and the Rus
slams they could readily, and with less
| risk, overrun with their great army
| The United States is too far away to
enter into the problem as a factor of
any real Importance. Therefore, the
| Inference is drawn that the navy must
he intended for an attack upon Eng
| land. 1t is worth while noting that
| on this theory, the German navy now
building appears to be the first mod
ern navy intended for military uses.
| 1t alone of all the worlds navies, how
ever large, however, costly, is not a
messenger of peace.
Zone must need ask then. what rea-
| son is to be found in the nature of the
German people, in the declarations of
their responsible rulers, or in the poll
tical relations between Germany and
any other nation, for the belief that
the German navy alone, among all
modern navies, is building for war
like purpose? Those of who feel that
the business of navy building is being
greatly overdone, and that it cannot
/ e.
sound public policy, or with the in
creasingly insistent demand for social
| improvements and reforms, may well
| wish that the German naval program
| were much more restricted than 1t is.
But, waving that point for the mo-
ment, what ground is there for the
suspicion which is so widespread in
England against Germany, and for the
irnputation to Germany of evil inten-
tions toward England? Speaking for
myself, and making full use of such
opportunities for accurate information
as l have enjoyed, l say with the ut
most emphasis and with entire since
rity that 1 do not believe there is any
ground whatever for those suspicious
OF for those imputations.
| But, says the dbjector, England is
| an island nation. Unless she com
nands the sea absolutely her national
existence is in danger; any strong ma
Wy in unfriendly hands threatens her
safety. That formula has been repeat
ed so often that almost everybody be
t1ieves it. There was time when it
was probably and with limits true. II
is no longer true, and has not been
true for some time past. In the first
lplace, national existence no longer de-
Ipends upon military and naval force
tItaly is safe; so are Holland and Por.
ltuga1, Mexico and Canada. Then the
possibilities of aerial navigation alone
with the resulting power of destroying
a population huddled fbeneath a mons,
ter travelling through the air and will
ing to risk its own existence and the
lives of it's occupants for the opportu-
nifty to infiict vital injury upon ano
ther people, to say nothing of the en-.
ginery of electricity, have changed
the significance of the word island"
'The greatest present obstacle to
the limitation of the armaments under
the weight of which the world is stag
gering toward bankruptcy; the great
est obstacle to carrying forward those
social and economic reforms for which
levery nation is crying out, that its
population may ibe better housed, the
ipubHe health more completely protec
ted, and the burden of unemployment
lifted from the backs of the wage
earning classes, appears to me to fbe
! the insistence iby England on wha1
1t calls the two-power naval standard
This leads, and inevitably lead, te
huge programmes OF naval construction