Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-04-08

be raised by the great armament firms
OF England and other countries. "They
must be the servants" he said, "and
not the masters. Some people will
try to involve by suggestion the naval
expenditure in cloud of suspicion.
Let them mock. I am convinced that
reduction of naval expenditure is
necessary for the welfare of civiliza-
tlon. 1t is a question that does not
only affect governments and diplomats
out concerns parliaments and the peo-
pie. We must not be discouraged by
want of success. The time will
come when the present expenditure
and competition in naval ornaments
VIII be thing Of the past and when
the great naval powers will look back
upon it with feelings of regret" The
significance of these words in the
making of different world tomorrow
comes from the fact that they are
the carefully-considered utterance of
| the head Of the navy of the greatest
sea power in the world
Finance Against Increased Armament.
Other forces are being brought to
bear, though as yet vainly, in favor
of limitation of naval expenditure.
Some-a larger number than the ordi-
nary news-reports of the day indicate
"a number, too, that is growing in
| extent and influence, would substitute
a peace policy for arbitration by the
sword and thus make unnecessary, ex-
| cept for police duty, the army and the
navy. Among the "pacifsts,' as the
| advocates of world peace are de-
! scribed, it is interesting to Americans
to note that the European press class
| Woodrow Wilson, the president of
! the United States, and Champ Clark,
the speaker of the house of represen-
tatives. In Europe the financial inter
ests of the continent have been more
effective than the eloquent advocates
of peace in preventing war. 1t is an
open secret that two years ago these
| financial interests averted a general
war on the continent. They are now
becoming aroused to the evils result
| ing from "the mad rush of increasing
ornaments"
Disarmament Sentiment Growing.
| Sentiment on the continent of Eu-
rope is changing toward a saner
! policy of disarmament and of arbitra-
ton as opposed to increasing military
establishments and appeals to the
sword, though this sentiment has not
yet been able to express itself in po-
litical international agreements and
| legislation. The repeated strife in the
Balkans is only an apparent exception
in the. general trend. The raw, un-
disciplined peoples Of the mountains
set their neighbors' houses on fire.
That the confagration spread no far
Their was due to the self-restraint of
more civilized Europe and to a senti-
ment for peace, which was non-ex-
istent few years ago. All this must
be written with some reservation.
The millennium of peace and inter
national good will is not imminent,
but, Notwithstanding the portentous
| figures Of expense which have been
quoted, there are signs of the dawn.
Supremacy suggestive, perhaps, is the
behavior of European nations in re-
cent crises of international disagree
ment. Fifty years ago, twenty years,
| possibly ten years ago, these crises
would have resulted in war. Today
they have been settled by conference.
The recent treaties have been written
with the pen and not the sword. They
smell of tobacco smoke, not powder
And not what a man says when moth
ing is happening to him reveals his
real self so much as what he does
| when something is happening to him.
And nations, which are but collections
of men, are, in this, as otherwise, like
unto them. They are many men, but
| with the same mind.
Church Influence for Peace.
The powerful aid of the spiritual
| group of the church in Europe is cast
for disarmament and peace. The
church exists under many names and
with doctrines and deeds much at
variance. Set aside the large section
of a so-calIed Christian church which
drills soldiers in Ulster, inspires blood
ritual prosecutions in Russia, blesses
statues to Moloch in Germany, and
worships Mars and Mercury, militar-
ism and commerce, everywhere. Unto
these who call themselves Christians
Jehovah is a man o. war and the
Christ came into this world to bring
not peace-but sword. They, for
consideration of temporal power and
afternoon teas and fat livings, are
helping him to this end all over this
continent of Europe. Verify, they
have their reward. Are they not chap
lains-in-ordinary to Mars at good
stipend which enables them to dress
in purple and fine linen and fare
sumptuously every day? One meets
and hears them in all European lands.
1t is another and different group in
the church, in mosque and synagogue,
in cathedral and chapel, in monastery
and mission house, which, increas-
ingly potent and numerous, pleads for
peace and spiritual, as opposed to
merely temporal, things. Almost or
entirely a paradox is it that the trav-