The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-09-10
ANALYSIS OF MILITARISM.
1t is a System That Does Not Com
mend Itself to Common Sense.

A picture which we will have to
wait for history to furnish the key is
drawn by DR.. Charles E. Jefferson.
dealing with the spectacle cf this CEN
tury's militaristic display. "Delu-
sion," he calls it, 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 in the role of the historian Of
the future, the preparations made
for war ever since the century began,
especially among the nations which
Confessed allegiance to the Prince OF
Peace. He sees that these "prepara-
tions were carried forward with tre-
mendous energy and enthusiasm, and
that the air was filled with prophetic
vices picturing national calamities
and predicting bloody and world en-
bracing conflicts
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 CEN
tury was an ardent champion OF
peace. In the christian century, DR..
Jefferson continues:
He will find incontestable evil
dence 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
repeatedly that the cause OF peace
was ever dear to his heart, that the
president of theUnited States was so
effective a peacemaker that he won
a prize for ending mighty war,
that the czar of Russia was so zeal
Gus in his devotion to peace tnat ne
called the nations to meet IN solemn
council to consider measures for
ushering in an era of universal
amitv and good will. and that the
president of France, the king of Italy
and the mikado of Japan were not a
whit behind their royal brethren in
offering sacrifices in the altar of the
Goddess of Peace. A crowd of royal
peacemakers, in words surcharged
with thoughts and threats, of war,
a band of lovers strolling down an
avenue which they themselves had
lined with lydGite shells and twelve
inch guns, this will cause our his
torian to 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 ma
tions voted to increase their arma-
ments. Everybody conceded that it
was better to settle international dis
putes by reason rather than by
forces, but as soon as the legal ma
chinery was created by means or
which the swords could be dispensed
with, there was a fresh furry to per-
feet at once all the instruments OF
destruction. After each new peace
conference there was fresh cry for
more guns. Our historian will read
with gladness the records of The
Hague conference, and of the laying
of the foundation Of periodic con-
gress of nations, and of 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
territorial rights forever; the agree
ment of the same sort solemnly ratl-
fed by all the countries bordering on
the Baltic; the signing Of more than
sixty arbitration treaties, twelve of
these by the senate of the United
States; the creation of an Inter-
national Bureau of American Repub-
lies, embracing twenty-one nations;
the establishment of Central Ameri-
can high court; the elaboration and
perfection of legal instruments look
ing toward the parliament 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
airship as a glorious invention, be-
cause of the service it could render
to the cause of war. This unpre-
cedente6 growth of peace sentiment,
accompanied by a constant increase
of jealousy and suspicion, of fear and
H. Nf