Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-09-01
ANALYSIS OF MILlTARlsM
It is System that Does not Com
mend ItseIf to Common Sense.

mona It6elr TO Somfnon SoHeo'
A picture for which we will have to
walt for history to furnish the key is
drawn by DR.. Charles E. Jefferson,
dealing with the spectacle Of this GEN.
tury's militaristic display. "Delu-
sion," he calls 1t, for the article was
written before the war clouds rose
above the Servian horizon. Now the
significance of everything is changed,
but the details that make up the pic
ture still have their salience. He notes
I in the role of the historian of the fu-
ture, the preparations made for war
ever since the century began, especial
ly among the nations which confessed
allegiance to the Prince of Peace. He
sees that these preparations were
carried forward with tremendous en-
ergy and enthusiasm, and that the air
was filled with prophetic vices pictur-
ing national calamities and predicting
bloody and world embracing con-
| flicts."
Alongside this fact the historian of
the future will find another fact no
less conspicuous and universal, that
everybody of Importance in the early
years of the twentieth century was
an ardent champion Of peace. In the
Christian Century, DR.. Jefferson con-
| tinues:
He will find incontestable evidence
| that the king Of England was one OF
the truest friends Of peace who ever
sat on the English throne, that the
| German emperor proclaimed repeat
edly that the cause Of peace was ever
the United States was so effective a
| peacemaker that he won a prize fol
ending a mighty war, that the cZar OF
| Russia was so Jealous in his devotion
to peace that he called the nations to
meet in solemn council to consider
measures for ushering in an era OF
universal amity and good will, and
that the president Of France, the kine
of Italy. and the mikado of Japan were
not a whit behind their royal brethren
in offering sacrifices on the altar OF
the Goddess of Peace. A crowd of roya
peacemakers in words surchargeo
with thoughts and threats, Of war, q
band of lovers strolling down an ave-
nue. which they themselves had lined
with lyddite shells and twelve inch
guns, this will cause our historian tc
rub his eyes.
| His bewilderment, however, will
reach the climax when he discovers
that it was after the establishment OF
an international court that all nations
voted to increase their armaments
Everybody conceded that it was better
to settle international disputes by rea-
son rather than by forces, but as soor
as the legal machinery was created by
means of which the swords could be
dispensed with, there was a fresh fury
to perfect at once all the instruments
Of destruction. After each new peace
conference there was a fresh cry fol
more guns. Our historian will read
with gadness the records of The
Hague conference and of the laying
Of the foundation Of a periodic Con-
gress of Nations, and of a permanent
high court. He will note the neutral
ization of Switzerland, Belgium and
Norway; the compact entered into by
the countries bordering on the North
sea, to respect one another's terrific
rial rights forever; the agreement OF
the same sort solemnly ratified by all
the countries bordering on the Baltic;
the signing of more than sixty arbitra-
tion treaties, twelve of these by the
senate of the United States; the crea-
ton of an International Bureau OF
American Republics, embracing twen-
ty-one nations; the establishment OF a
| Central American High Court; the
elaboration and perfection Of legal in
struments looking toward the parlia-
ment of man, the federation of the
| world
He will also note that while these
splendid achievements of the peace
spirit were finding habitation and a
| name, the nations were thrilled as
never before by dismal forebodings
and the world was darkened by whis-
pers Of death and destruction. While
the Palace of Peace at The Hague was
being built, nations hailed the air-ship
as a glorious invention, because Of the
service it could render to the cause of
war. This unprecedented growth of
peace sentiment, accompanied by a
constant increase of jealousy and sus-
picion, of fear and panic, among the
nations of the earth, will set our his
torian to work to ascertain the mean
ing of this strange phenomenon, the
| most singular perhaps to be met with
in the entire history of the world
Peace was seen to be the one su-
preme blessing of the world, but to
preserve the peace it was necessary to
prepare for war. This lay at the Gen.
tre of the policy Of the twentieth GEN.
| tury. No guns were asked to kill
men with-guns were mounted as
safeguards of peace. No battleships
| were launched to fight with-they
were preservers of peace. Colossal
armies and gigantic navies were eXhib-
| tied as a nations ornaments-beauti-
| full tokens of its love of peace. And
following thus the Angel of Peace, the
nations increased their ornaments un-
til they spent upon them over $1,000
| 900 every year. and had amassed ma
tional debts aggregating $35, ,OOO,OOO.-
900. The expenditure crushed the
poorest of the nations and crippled
the richest of them but the burden
was gladly borne, because it was a
sacrifice for the cause Of peace. II
was pathetic and thrilling testimony
of the humans hearts hatred of wal
and longing for peace, when the ma
tions became willing to bankrupt
themselves in the effort to keep from
lighting.
The militarist is comic in his seri-
BUSINESS. He says that if you want tc
keep the peace you must prepare fol
| war and yet he knows that where