The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-04-26
ROOSEVELT SHOWS WHERE WAR is OF BENEFIT TO NATIONS


when there has been a concert of big powers
to prevent the breaking of this peace, although
only by breaking it could the outrages be
stopped. Be it remembered that the peoples who
suffered by these hideous massacres, who saw
their women violated and their children tortured,
were actually enjoying all the benefits of dis
armament" Otherwise they would not have
been massacred for if the Jews in Russia and
the Armenians in Turkey had been armed, and
had been efficient in the use of their arms, no
mob would have meddled with them.
Yet amiable but fatuous persons, with all
these facts before their eyes, pass resolutions de-
manding universal arbitration for everything,
and the disarmament of the free civilized pow
ers and their abandonment of their armed
forces; or else they write we-neaning solemn
little books, or pamphlets or editorials, and arti
Giles in magazines or newspapers, to show that
it is an illusion" to believe that war ever pays,
because it is expensive. This is precisely like
dlSuIlS llldl VIC SllOulu ulSUdllu pOuCc dllQ
devote our sole attention to persuading criminals
that it is AN illusion" to suppose that burglary,
highway robbery, and white slavery are profit
able. 1t is almost useless to attempt to argue
with these well-intentioned persons, because they
are suffering under an obsession and are not
open to reason. They 60 wrong at the outset,
for they lay ali the emphasis on peace and none
at all on righteousness They are not all of
them physically timd men; but they are usually
men of soft life; and they rarely possess high
sense of honor or a keen patriotism. They rare
ly Try to prevent their fellow-countrymen from
insulting or wronging the people of other ma
tons; but they always ardently advocate that we,
in our turn, shall tanely submit to wrong and
insult from other nations As Americans their
folly is peculiarly scandalous, because if the
principles they now uphold right it means
that it would have been better that Americans
should never have achieved their independence,
and better that, in 1861 they should have peace
fully submitted to seeing their country split into
half dozen jangling confederacies and slavery
made perpetual If unwilling to learn from
their own history, let those who think that it is
illusion to believe that war ever benefits
a nation look at the difference between China
and Japan. China has neither a feet nor an
efficient army. 1t is huge civilized empire, one
~ the DOOulOuS IN, the olOhe and ~ has
been the helpless prey of outsiders because it
does not possess the power to fight. Japan
stands on footing OF equality with European
and American nations because it does possess
this power. China now sees Japan, Russia, Ger
many England, and France in possession of
fragments of her empire, and has twice within
the lifetime OF the present generation seen her
capital in the hands of allied invaders, because
she in very fact realizes the ideals of the persons
trust that our helplessness will secure us con-
temptuous immunity from attack by outside ma
tions.
The chief trouble comes from the entire ina
bility of these worthy people to understand that
they demanding things that are mutually in
compatible when they demand peace at any
price, and also justice and righteousness. l re-
member one representative of their number, who
used to write little sonnets on behalf of the
Mahdi and the Sudanese these sonnets setting
forth the need that the Sudan should be both
independent and peaceful As matter of fact,
the Sundan valued independence only because it
desired to war against all Christians and to carry
on an unlimited slave trade. 1t was "independ-
ent' under the Mahd for dozen years, and
during those dozen years the bgotry, tyranny,
and cruel religious intolerance were such as
fourshcd in the seventh century, and in spite of