The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-02-20
Preparedness for Peace
Americas Need.


"Let us make haste slowly in in
creasing our armament. BY the time
the war is over we shall most likely
find the nations ready to organize the
world for peace and some sort of dis
armament. If that is the case, any
great burden of taxation now imposed
upon the American people for arma-
ment purposes will be wasted" Thus
declares Hamilton Holt, in Capper's
Weekly.
When we find the nations ready to
organize for peace, it will be when the
countries have come to the realiza-
tion that only through peace may
civilization be sustained. But that
stage of the worlds development has
not ct been reached.
The main difference in the paeifcists
and the advocates of preparedness lies
in their methods and not in their mo-
tives. Crying Peace! Peace! will not
bring peacel The only way to insure
peace in the United States today is
to prove that this nation is nation
Of mower.
The advice Of The Association To
Abolish War, which declares tLat ma
ticnal defense consists 'not in nachin-
cry to kill but in friendly behavior,
keeping treaties, and refraining from
interference with weaker nations" is
Ike saying that it takes two to make
quarrel. So it does, if one .is willing
to take all the insult or relinguish all
claim. to right and justice.
BIT if ono holds honor high and
sacred, if ionAshas q sense of Justice
e. a shark dsfnanhood, he win not
t~'so q clap. in the face without show
- fcht, nor VIII he see all that he
Fota sacred trampled in the dust
:hcut an effort to hold his own and
6csopd it against the world.
The fate Of little Belgium is an
evidence Of how adequate are good be-
hevior and treaties. It takes only one
person for bad behavior and one ma
tion can break a treaty, and in arma-
ment today does safety lie, and
through armament will peace at last
be brought about.
When the nations of the world have
learned that warfare is too costly, that
armament Is too deadly, that honor
may be upheld through arbitration,
then may nation depend upon a
scrap of paper, and not before then.
It is better to be taxed for peace
than to be taxed for war. And that
is what armament means to Ameri-
ca today. Preparedness for peace.
Should this nation present to the
world a front that is formidable,
there is hope of preserving an indefi-
mite peace. But until it can show to
other nations that it is not only the
richest nation of the world but the
strongest nation of the world, it will
have no security, any more than have
other nations.
The American people do not want
a great war debt, but it is better to
be alive with debt than dead with
out one.
1t is better for this nation to be in
debt for its defenses, than for the
young manhood of this nation TO go
down before the machinery to kill"
that other nations have supplied them
selves with and for their women and
little children to struggle under a
greater burden of debt, after they
have fallen before the Unsuitable am
bition of some other country, with
greed enough to take what they want,
regardless of friendly words and
pieces of paper that are called treaties
in peace, and in time of war are torn
asunder.
The thing that this country needs
today is more people who can think
for themselves. What America wants
today is peace. President Wilson has
said that we are nation with a pas
sion for peace and we are. But be-
cause we want peace and cry out for
peace, will not give US peace, unless
we are able to say to warning ma
tions: "Stand back, Thus far and no
farther" And at this stage of the
worlds history it takes a voice of
power to be heard above the din and
roar of battle and not the wavering
voice Of the pscifcist, crying softly,
Peace! Peacew