The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-05-19
LARGE NAV|ES
NOT GUARANTEE
OF WORLD PEACE
President Nicholas M. Butler
Discusses Question at Mo-
honk Conference
GERMANY AND ENGLAND
CITED As An ILLUSTRATION

Germany'S Wonderful Industrial De.
velopment Has Brought About a Cor.
responding Demand for an Over the
Sea Trade.
Lake Mohonk. N. Y, May 80
The Lake Mohonk conference on in
ternational arbitration opened today.
Nicholas Murray Butler. president of
Columbia university, and president of
the American branch of the Associa-
ton for International Cancellation,
presided. In his opening address
President Butler referred to the
progress toward universal peace made
by the second Hague conference. but
deplored what he described as present
day emotional insanity which resulted
in war talk. The speaker cited the at
titude 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 intensive application of the
discoveries of theoretical science to in
dustrial processes has made Germany
in sense, the worlds chief teacher
in its great international school of
industry and commerce. With this
oversee trade expansion has gone the
building of a German navy. 1t ap-
pears to be the building of this navy
which has so reused the passions of
the English people. For the moment
we are not treated to the we'll worn
paradox that the larger a nations ma
Wy the less likely it is to be used in
combat and the more certain is the
peace of the world. The old Adam
asserts himself long enough to COM
plain, in this case at least. that IL a
navy is building in Germany, it must
be intended for offensive use: and
against whom could the Germans pos
sibly intend to use a navy except
against England? Their neighbors,
the French and the Russians, they
could readily, and with less risk,
overrun with their great armq.' The
United States is too far away to enter
into the proglem as factor Of any real
Importance. Therefore, the inference
Is drawn that the navy must be in
tended for an attack upon England.
1t is worth while noting that. on this
theory. the German navy now build
ing, appears to be the first of modern
navies intended for military uses. 1t
alone of all the worlds navies. how
ever large, however costly, is not a
messenger of peace!
Zone must needs ask, then, what
reason is to he found in the nature of
the German people, in the declarations
of their responsible rulers, or In the
political relations between Germany
and any other nation, for the belief
that the German navy alone. among
all modern navies, is building for a
warlike purpose? Those of us who
feel that the business of navy building
is being greatly overdone, and that it
cannot for moment be reconciled
with sound public policy. or with the
increasingly insistent demand for So
cial improvements and reforms. may
we'll wish that the German naval pro-
gram were much more restricted than
it is. But, waving that point for the
moment, what ground is there for the
suspicion which is so widespread in
England against Germany. and for the
imputation to Germany of evil inten-
tions toward England? Speaking for
myself, and making full use of such
opportunities for accurate information
as / have enjoyed, say. with the ut
most emphasis and with entire sin
cerity that 1 do not believe there is
any ground whatever for those sus-
picions or for those imputations.
But. says the objector, England
is an island nation. Unless she COM
mands the sea absolutely her national
existence is in danger: any strong ma
Wy in unfriendly hands threatens her
safety That formula has been re-
peated so often that almost everybody
believes it. There was time when
1t was probably and within limits true.
1t is no longer true, and has not been
true for some time past. In the first
place, national existence no longer de-
pends upon military and naval force.
Italy is safe, so are Holland and Por-
tugal, Mexico and anada. Then. the
possibilities of aerial navigation alone.
with the resulting power of Destroy
ing a population huddled beneath a
monster travelling through the air
and willing to risk its own existence
and the lives of its occupants for the
opportunity to inflict vital injury
upon another people, to say nothing
of the engineerv of electricity, have
changed the significance of the word
island
"The greatest present obstacle to
the Limitation of the ornaments 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
every nation is crying out. that its
population may be better housed the
public health more completely pro-
tected. and the burden of unemploy-
ment lifted from the backs of the wage
earning classes. appears to be to be
the insistence by England on what 1t
calls the two power naval standard.
This leads, and will inevitably lead. to
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