The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-07-06
Preparedness For War


L parednesN for war" issue than the fact that
up, almost to- the opening gun OF the great
war" the optimi~S continually declared that the
day when preparation for war was necessary had
gone BY that there would be no more war; that
it was useless waste Of money and repugnant to
common sense
For example, longer ago than 1911 Jack
London demonstrated to his satisfaction, in the
Forum, that the economic development of the
world had rendered war obsolete; that although
the world had been accustomed to war for thou
sands OF wears it chiefly conflict between
the people seeking food and subsistence and such
necessity no longer existed.
lie summed his argument up in the following
words:
But a change in the affair of man has long
been coming
The more recent drifts of the stronger races,
carving their way through the lesser breeds t"
more carth-space, have led to peace, ever to
wider and more lasting peace.
The lesser breeds, under penalty OF being
killed, have been compelled to lay down their
weapons and killing among themselves.
The scalp-taking Indian and the head-hunt-
ing Melanesian have been either destroyed
converted to d belief in the superior efficiency
The planet is being subdued. The wild and
the hurtful are either tanned or eliminated
From the beasts of prey and the cannbal
humans down to the death-dealing microbes,
no quarter is given; and daily. wider and
wider areas of hostile territory, whether of a
warning desert tribe in Africa pestential
| fever hole like Panama, made peaceabe and
habitable for mankind.
AS for the great mass of stay-at-home folk,
what percentage of the present generation in
the United States, England Germany, has
seen war or knows anything of war at first
hand?
There was never much peace in the world
as there is today.
War itself the old red anarch, is passing. 1t
is safer to be a soldier than workingman.
The chance for life is greater in an active cam
| paign than in a factory a coal mine.
| In the matter of killing war is growing i'm
potent, and this in face OF the fact that the
| the past nor dreadful
| War; equipment today, in time OF peace is
more expensive than OF old in time OF war
A standing army costs to maintain than
| 1t used to cost to conquer an empire.
1t is more expensive to be ready to Kill, than
it used to be to do the killing
The price of dreadnaught would furnish
the whole army OF NcrxeS with killing weapons, .
and, in spite of its magnificent equipment, war
no longer kills as it used to when it's methods
simpler.
\ bombardmcnt by modern feet has been
known to result in the killing OF one mule
he casualties OF twentieth century war
between two world powers are such as to make a
worker in an iron foundry turn green with envy.
/ War has become joke Men have made for
theIIS 4 h,tt h;cb tI,n
rot face in battle.
Subsistence is generous these DAYS, life is not
| cheap. and it is not in the nature Of flesh and
+ blood to indulge in the carnage made possible
: bv pre~ent-day machinery
Ihr is not theoretical, as will be shown by
comparison of death, in battle and men in
! VOWED, in the South African War and the
/ Npansh-AmeriCan War the one hand and
! the Civil War or the NapOeonic Wars on the
| other.
Mt only has war, by it own evolution, rem
dercd itself futile but man himself. with greater
wisdom and higher ehcs is opposed to war
! lie has learned too much. War is repugnant to
| his common sense. He cunCeIveS it to be
Wrung to be absurd, and to- be very expensive
| For the damage wrought and the results &C
/ compIShed, it is not worth the pnce.
Just as in the disputes Of ndivi duatS the arbi-
! trati0n OF a civil court instead Of a blood feud
! i more practical, So, Decides is arbitra-
| u"n more practical in the disputes Of nations