The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-05-12
PLEADING FOR THE
PEACE OF NATIONS
War Not Inevitable According
to Former Secretary
of State.
OUR OWN HISTORY CITED
THREE CONFLICTS SHOULD
NOT HAVE OCCURRED.
OUR OWN HISTORY CITED

Hartford, Conn, May 1.-THE two
most trying problems that the third
Hague conference will face are those
of the inviolability Of ocean COM
merce in war and the Limitation of
ornaments"
Thus declared Edwin d. Mead, di-
rector of the international school of
peace, Boston, in addressing the New
England arbitration and peace confer
ence today.
He continued:
THE question is now a great moral
one. The arguments for the great
ornaments, especially for the great
navies which are now vastly more a
danger than defense, are not respec-
table arguments.
lit would surely be hard to con-
ceive of anything worse than the
jingoism and hucksterism of the re-
cent speech of the secretary of the
navy at Philadelphia, urging a bigger
navy to prevent our being 'trodden
upon by other nations, and to make
more business for the steel trust"
In comparison with this, Mr.. Mead
read former President Roosevelt's No
bel prize address, in which he pointed
out that there was no insurmOuntable
difficulty.
John w. Foster was a speaker at
evitable; Illustrations From the His
tory of Our Country
Mr.. Foster raised the question
whether il was reasonable to expect
peace among the nations, and stated
that the prevailing answer to the ques-
ton would be in the negative.
After com batting this position at
some length, Mr.. Foster took up the
three foreign wars in which our coun-
try has been engaged, and discussed
them in detail The war of 1912 with
Great Britain, he contended, although
justified under international law, was
entered upon against the better judg-
ment of the country.
President Madison and a large mi
nority in Congress Strenuously op-
posed it, and ii was only entered upon
under the lead of the party known as
the War Hawks. at the head of whom
were Henry Clay. John c. Calhoun
and other young public men, with the
boast that we would dictate a peace
at Quebec.
War Was FruitIess.
Five days after Congress declared
war, and long before the news reached
England. the orders in council, which
were the main cause OF the war, were
repealed Peace was made without
settling single question about which
the contest was begun Never was
war more fruitless in its conclusions.
1t was neither inevitable nor neces-
sary.
In the judgment of history the war
with Mexico was provoked on our
part, and was largely inspired by the
spirit of slavery extension.
The war with Spain seems charac-
teristic of that of 1912, in which the
President was strongly opposed to a
resort to arms, and struggled for peace
TO the last, and It was Congress and
an excited press that unnecessarily
forced hostilities. The Spanish gov
eminent would in the end have yield
ed to the demand of our government
if time had been allowed for negotia-
tions.
Mr.. Foster then made a review of
the relations of the United States with
Great Britain and Canada, to show
how the many irritating questions dur
ing the last hundred years had been
settled peacefully.
The naval disarmament agreement
for the great lakes, which has been in
force for nearly a century, was cited
to show how an enlarged disarma-
ment might be put into practice