Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-12
THE APPEAL TO PORK

| FI1HE year 1898 is marked In red in the cal
Il endars Of those who keep themselves ia
mlliar with International affairs and try to
Judge the future, not merely by the past, but
by the logic of events. For Americans there
is no necessity of lingering over the incident
at Fashoda, the formation Of the Austro-
Russian agreement and the affaire Dreyfus.
| They need concentrate only on two things
| In that year: The preliminary shock which
| finally overthrow the isolation of England
| and the ending of the Spanish american
! War. which brings the United States today
| precisely into the position OF England in
1898. So important is this relation that It
will be worth while to give in some detail an
account of conditions in England since that
time and to leave conclusions to those who
are not afraid to make them
In 1898, fortifylng herself by secret treaties
with Germany, England was being slowly
moved into the whirlpool OF European af-
fairs from which she had kept herself for
many years. She feared Russia and France,
her present allies and for ten years watched
the naval ACKNOWLEDGMENT of Germany with
out suspicion. She was commercially pros
porous, almost Intact, and between prosperity
and pacihsm, which rlddled the country, was
settling into the position of a dead nation
on the 18th OF December, 1898, Prince Won
Buelow, after a long speech on the
ances of peace said "Germanys future is
based upon her right and her right upon her
sharpened sword" The London Spectator
caught up the inconsistency, but the London
Foreign Office assured itself with scraps of
paper.
Six years later an anonymous writer in the
Westminster Review could write these sooth-
ing sentences: "Our Oldest rivals are our
best customers. France. Germany, Russia,
toly fr,,,, oT
ports" That was the ruling attitude of
even professed lmperinllsts, although the
word of warning was not lacking. A notably
well-informed writer In the Contemporary
Review called Germany THE archenemy of
England" and indicated the precise obstacle
which England presented to Germanys
dream OF domination That warning was un-
needed. SO was the cry of Lord Roberts
Conscrlpton, advocated In 1904, Jared ILL.,
The Royal Commission which recommended
1t was coolly put into It's place and instead
half hearted scheme of military reform was
instituted The reserve force was made
quately treated and the army left woefully
wanting in almost every particular. Although
by 1912 every aim of Germany and the very
methods she would use to strike in the next |
war exposed, not only by the Bern |
hardis, but by English publicists and strate-
gists, Sir Edward Grey was moved to |
mark that II Germany should be merely pow |
erful, not aggressive, within two or three
years every chance of war would have dis
But was there any reason to be-
lieve that Germany would not be aggressive
after successive attentats made against the
Dual Entente?
The wilful blindness OF England's diplomacy
would be less comprehensive If America
could nOt M
How many publicists have not
tried to persuade the United States that the
armaments OF other nations are not intended
for this country? How many of these pub
cists know that Mr.. Winston Churchill said
that THE British navy is to us a necessity,
and, from some points of view, the German
navy is to them more in the nature of n
luxury? BY 1912 the German army had
reached unprecedented state of fulness
and of preparedness. France had replied
with increased term of service. England had
lone nothing. BY 1912 the German railways
we're debouching on every buffer State. Eng
and talked Of reducing armaments. In that
year Germany foresaw everything; official
England saw not so much as the military
,ritic OF the London Times. who wrote lin
BID "the preservation of France from an
lttack (by Germany before the weight of
Russia begins to teD is absolutely vital for
,ur subsequent safety" And, finally, the
,urlous historian of the next century may
tote with sardonic pleasure certain sim
larity between the phrasing OF the following
words of Lord Haldane and that OF a notable
emark made by former Secretary OF State
Il the United States: "a whole nation
bringing to arms on war being declared and
obly preparing to submit itself to six
months training in order to meet the invad-
ng army" Tho same historian will note
he success OF the experiment in 1915
1t is not necessary to push the parallel.
mentally, morally. information
lly we are precisely in the position OF Eng
and eighteen years ago. AS England re-
used. the United States refuses to consider
erseif part OF the world and refuses to
repare for the participation which, willy
lily will be forced upon her. An inadequate
nvy and army which dwindled from
1000 externals General Miles statement at
he end OF the Spanish War accounts for that
umber) TO $1,000 coupled with an in
bility, an inertia which prevent the lessons
( the war from being learned by the people;
nd, in the face OF this. the most spectacu-
lr and most monstrous attempt to placate
ne country by appealing TO mythical good
iii and to pork