The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-07-22

/ through Belgium. He stopped at :
hotel where the other guests were z5t
\ Belgian, tola him that he, the motel
/ keeper, was one Of five brothers. Said
he: OF the five or us one is in tins
army. He has fought; he has been
wounded, but he Is back and Is Still
! fighting. The four others of us al
earnestly WISHED to fight. We applied
at once to the authorities but there
were no arms and equipment for u.s.
there was no time to get any; there
was no time to drill We were heip-
less.
IAN / could do was to come back
and run my hotel tor the beneft OF
the victorious invaders and do vital
over they told me to do. am one OF
/ the many hundreds of thousands OF
Be.gians, whose one determination Is
that if ever we get our country back
we win all of us 1T ourselves IN sucn
! shape that never again will that coun-
Try be taken from us.
Belgium was unprepared; and be-
cause Ok her appropriateness Belgium
has paid the most frigntful price In
blood and misery. Some day or other
II may .be that We Liall have to pay
on a tenfold greater scale the sa"is
price tor exactly the same reasons:
and if SUCH should be the case, re-
member, my feilow countrymen, tnat
whereas the case of Belgium excitea
warm sympathy. our misfortune would
excite nothing but scorn and contempt;
/ for a rich, powerful. boastful people
invites the ridicule Of all mankind II,
whether from sheer Stiffness and short
sia,itedness. or from gross and greedy
devotion to the material benefits OF
the moment, IL fails to prepare itself
TO defend its own rights with its own
strength.
China's Case.
China offers an even more perfect
parallel 10 the condition to which In
practice the doctrines OF the ultra
pacifists would lead US. Fifty years
ago Japan and China occupied sub
stantially the same positions as re-
ga ds the world at large. Japan now
stands abreast of the leading civilized
nations of the world, her progress nav
ing been on the whole more remark
able than that of any other nation
known to history.
This is not merely due to her de-
velopment of fighting efficiency. Tor
the history of Turkey has shown that
mere fighting efficiency by itself will
not save nation from ruin. But II
is no less true that without fighting
efficiency all other national efficiency
amounts to Ia house built on the
sand. Japan's progress would have
been absolutely impossible If ii had
not included progress in fighting eff
ficiency exactly as in industrial ana
social efficiency.
China, on the other hand, had for
generations been trained to regard
peace as the most desirable or all aims
and to look down upon war and SOL
diers. She mas acted on the theory
that the worst peace was better than
the best war, and therefore she has
suffered all the evils OF the worst war
and the worst peace.
The average Chinaman took the
view that China was too proud 10
fight and in practice made evident
tlis hearty approval of the sentiments
of that ahject pafifist song. i Didn't
Raise NV Boy to BE a Soldier song
which should have as a companion
piece one entitled. Il Didn't Raise My
Girl TO Be a Mother approval or
which, Of course. deprives any woman
of all right Of kinship with the sol
diers and with the mothers and wives
of the soldiers whose valor and SER
vices we commemorate on tae Fourth
of July and on Decoration Day: song
the singing Of which seems iucredi-
BILE to every man and woman capable
of being stirred to lofty and generous
enthusiasm by the tremendous surge
of Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn
of the Republic.
China has steadily refused to pre-
pare for war. Accordingly China has
Of lnnnpd orr
her. until ene-half of her territory is
now under Japanese. Russian. Eng
lish and French control. During the
past year C.aina has looked helplessy
on while the English and Japanese and
the Germans fought on her territory
for what legally belonged to her. but
was taken away from her simply be-
cause she was not in the condition
of military preparedness necessary for
her defense, and at present China Is
not in any real sense of the word an
independent and self-governing people
at all.
Professional Pacifists.
THE professional pacifists. the peace
at any price -resista nee, universal
arbitration people are now seeking to
Chinafy t1is country. While the best
people in China are painfully endeav-
Drln2 TO raise tDt new 1HAttd W a Po-
sition OF international respect and OF
national self-respect. well-meanfng
people her are doing their best to re-
duce this country to the level Of inn
potence TO which the old China has
sunk; to which she has sunk primarily
because for generations the moral n
bre of the Chinese people has been
slowly eaten into by the doctrines OF
the professional pacifists, so that she
has shown herself incapable during
the last thirty years of preparing her.
self against war and for self-defense
Probably the worst feature OF our
national life Is the habit OF using
words with no relation to facts OF
| making promises which are not to be
| kept; as I have said above. OF treat
| ing elocution as an inadequate sub
/ stStute for action.
4 This habit has worked particular
| damage to us in international reia-
/ tions, and most Of all in connection
| with the arbitration treaties, peace
conventions and the like into which
we have entered. We can accomplish
J nothing real for International peace
until we understand that it Is dis
graceful not to make our deeds square
with our words and therefore disgrace
full to make promise which we either
/ ought not to or cannot keep.
LET me make this point concrete.