The Washington herald., 1914-10-25
Europe'S Blood Rests on Nations
Who Blocked Cars Proposal in '98

not so unspeakabIe a calamity have been
averted7 Why all this needless carnage,
these heartless outrages, this destruction
of property, this impoverishing OF mil
lions. in a word. this wreck OF con-
tinent?
"Alas, 1T is not easy to answer these
questions. Too many elements enter into
the equation. Its roots strike too deep;
its causes are too far-reaching and COM
plicated to be lightly stated or easily
dealt with.
Justice demands that we study the
causes dispassionately; that We trace
them patiently from their remote historic
sources and from the racial viewpoint of
each Of the nations involved.
I'VE must first discover, IL possible,
the Inherent causes and conditions which,
like the invisible causes of some deadly
disease, have been inoculating and gradu-
ally undermining some human organiza-
tion and threatening its very life.
Only by an impartial and dispassion-
ate analysis of this character can-one
keep an even keel and preserve a true
perspective and at the same time OBJ
serve that just neutrality which our Pres
'dent has so wisely requested"
MiIItRrIsm n Disease.
In searching for these hidden causes"
Miss Richards maintained that while the
growth OF militarism and the "hghting
spirit" il engenders had doubtless been
one Of the chief factors in promoting the
present war. "militarism." as she put IL,
rs but a disease Of the mind-a mental
obsession on the part OF small groups of
military men and militant rulers, un-
shared in by what We call the common
reople'-a disease whose symptoms are
suspicion, fear. jealousy. rival political
Fa1 nd
and all rooted in racial antagonism."
For some inscrutable reason, the vari-
Gus peoples Of this sorry little globe Of
ours" she continued, have never learned
to know or understand one another In
deed, so radical are these differences, so
fierce the political, geographical. and re-
ligious antagonism, that one might almost
think each race had sprung from a diff
ferent planet-Saturn. Jupiter. Mars-in-
stead or being children OF a common hu-
man family
IT sometimes think the real reason for
all this sad inharmony lies in the differ
ence OF language-that confusion OF
tongues which causes the races. at best,
to see through a glass darkly in their
relations one with another.
IF this be true. we must lay the blame
on that group Of ambitious masons who
attempted to rear the first skyscraper
and gained for US instead only this hope
less Babel of tongues
Miss Richards illustrated this linguistic
difficulty. by way OF parenthesis. by her
own experience during the past six years
as delegate to three European con-
crosses. at Amsterdam and Stockholm
and last May at Rome, where, as one Of
the ten American delegates TO the Inter
national Council OF Women she realized
anew the handicap Of many tongues
while English was the official Ian
guage Of the council she said, the
proceedings were continually halted by
necessary translations for the benefit OF
non-EnElish speaking delegates And
even then II was often impossible TO
convey the exact meaning OF some i'm
portant idea or technical phrase under
discussion. So that with the best will in
the world the progress was often exas-
peratingly slow and the result unsatis-
factory the defective trsnslations being
often detrimental to the achievement OF
the best results.
In Relation to Diplomacy.
IF this he true OF a friendly confer
ence designed for mutual helpfulness,
how much more true and prejudicial 10
proper adjustment of delicate diplo-
matte disputes among the nations.
1T would then seem that, taken to-
gether, the difference OF tongues. racial
jealousies. suspicious and fierce CONNER
cial r!valries, constitute the great pri-
mary causes for the arming Of the ni-
tons.
And once armed and aided by modern
science and invention in the production
Of armaments ever more and more dead
". the menace of what is known as
modern militarism' was already upon US.
Indeed in looking hack to the year of
our own Spanish war. We are reminded
that as early as September. 1895, was is
sued that first call for an international
peace conference'-a call issued by so
sutoCratic a ruler as the Gar Of the
Russias-not as we now think to merely
establish a tribunal OF peace and arbitra- |
tion, but primarily, as his manifesto
reads, for the proposed reduction Of
armaments' Had the purpose Of the !
Cars manifesto been put into effect hy /
the first Hague peace conference OF 1899 |
the curse of militarism would in the in |
tervening fifteen years have vanished |
from earth and the nations Of Europe |
would not today be at each others |
throats, engaged in this unprecedented !
crime against civilization and humanity. |
Upon those nations who blocked the |
Cars proposition for gradual disarma- |
ment must rest the responsibility for this |