The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-18
TO ARM IS TO ERR.

A most significant opinion on the
question of an enormous military pre-
paredness for defense" comes from
Lord ROsebery in his expressions OF
regret over the new policy that Presi-
dent Wilson has mapped out for the
United States in this particular. Lord
| Rosebery is prominent among the
thinking statesmen of Great Britain.
And the English statesmen as well as
their brethren in the several nations
on the continent of Europe, have GER
! tainly had sorry experience with this
larming for defense theory, and the
words of almost any of them in the
premises should have weight Each
of the nations now engaged in the ter
rible war developed their military or
naval forces. or both. for purely de
fensive" purposes, to protect them
selves and their rights. At least, this
was their publicly avowed purpose.
This was the argument that their rul-
ers and political leaders used to OBJ
tain the support of their peoples for
the creation of major military and
naval establishments. The consensus
of the best opinion today in Europe
and elsewhere is that these military
and naval forces that were designed
for defense and protection" bred
the terrible war that is now raging
And mark you, the war that Kaiser
Wilhelm is waging, or the fighting
that his forces are doing is styled in
Germany as a defensive warfare. In
order to properly defend the German
empire, the German armies have
found it necessary to invade and lay
waste to Belgium, to invade France, to
invade Poland and Russia and now to
invade Serbia, and if they can keep
going long enough they will be invad-
ing Egypt, and all this as measures
of defense for the empires of the Teu-
tons. And this is the extent that a
military preparedness for defense"
leads to. The same story may be re-
peated by these United States. Let US
a larger military or naval
program than is actually demanded
for the adequate protection of our own
land, and the forces, selfish and other
wise, behind it, will make it grow and
grow until our force becomes of such
and strength that we will
be more willing to fight for what we
deem to be our rights rather than to
argue or arbitrate for them. Lord |
Rosebery is emphatic in his opinion |
that to arm is to err, and especially so |
FOR the United states, so Iar removed |
as this country is from Europe and |
her war-making problems. He calls |
attention to the further important fact |
that to the extent that the United |
States increases the size of its navy
beyond the real defensive needs of the |
nation, the bigger the burdens of the |
same sort it will place on the Euro |
pean nations, because they will feel |
he necessity of increasing their naval
in like proportions In |
other words, if we enter in any way |
he realm of militarism, all the other
nations of the world will feel COM
oelled to match our moves, and go us
one or two better in order that their
and naval establishments can
show a greater strength than ours;
md only for their defense" of course.
And the world will become the armed
lamp, bristling with warships and
guns, that Europe has been for so
ong and now is Instead of playing
Jur part to promote a world peace, we /
will be encouraging a world war.