The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1916-07-11
THE ADVERTISERS SEMI-WEEKIY
A Ban on Science

rs a sure preventive of future world war
n Solomon Rcinach, in The Nation advocate
the arbitrary control of science so that no cvlze
nation may employ its powers against a neighbor
ing people:
1t would be dangerous mistake to believe that any
readjustment Of frontiers 1ould afford a sufficient
guarantee fJr future peace, Dr. that indemnties
protective tariffs and the like could oblge the peace
breakers to renounce their schemes he says We are
longer in 1915, when fortresses considered as
obstacles to aggression when financial disabilities in
volved disarmament.
The treaty which shall put an end to the present
will do nothing for the interests of mankind If
is like any Of the former ones. Whyf Because the
character of and warfare having undergone
complete change, the conventions and treaties which
put end to warfare cannot in degree, resemble
those Of the past.
At the future congress- among the seats reserved
for the delegates of the great powers scat should
remain vacant reserved to the greatest, the
rcdoubtable though youngest of powers; science in
scrrlet robes.
That is the fact; that is what diplomacy should
guorc.'if that imminent and execrabe scandal is
to be avertCd: the whole of civilization falling vic
tim to science her dearest daughter brought forth
and nurtured by her. ready to deal her the death
blow.
As early as 1870. the great historian Michcet
wrote that machinery would transform warfare, but
that the mechanism of spreading death would
n riv"l in military chemistry.
Miehelct prophet. Fortresses bygone
things. The depths of the the realm of the clouds
are open machines which work, unseen, any
amount Of evil. Military chemistry has only just
made it's appearance, but know that whole regions
be turned into deserts by using poisoned gas n
a large scale. Wireless electricity has not
trived explode factories destroy distant towns
by nm thquake but that is by impossible,
and may be realized this very year.
Let u conclude that in 1916, IL the remOdeing of
frontiers the financial compersatons, etc, still retain
their raison ctc because in conformity with justice
they cannot and should not be considered the
essential elements of the future settlement. The all
important question is the muzzling of the mad dog
IT, in a civilized country, the police hear of n fac
tory preparing poison, that factory is at suppress
ed md the directors punished. What is for a
civilized should be for the world large
for the of states. Such consensus exists
in the matter Of keeping down plague and cholera;
the only thing necessary and urgent is extend
its action n scourge fatal than either cholera
plague the scourge of destructive science because
il destroys the best.
Every state would pledge itself to rcnounce the fab
rication of submarines, planes, tOrpedOes, high
explosives excepting for industrial purposes),
of than two inches poisoned gas Excepting for
industrial purpOses) and, in general, instrument
contri"ance which the inspectors. sent by the
permanent peace committee at The Hague should
slider adaptable to purposes of destruction and
slaughter.
Renan and Berthelot dreamed of a great scien.
tifc discovery which would put in the hands of we'll
meaning tyrant. of q small minority of friends to
m"nkind terrible instrument of coercion thanks to
which nothing could be initiated against the welfare
of humanity. But they to have overlooked that
such instrument could become the property Of n
enemy of mankind and enable him to destroy the
liberty of the world That is what has almost been
the case.
The lesson of l9l4-l9l6 should not be lost The
dreams of Renan and Bertheot must be realized. hut
to the advantage of liberty and justice for their
suppression. Humanity must have its police and sci
supply that police, and that police only,
with of holding in respect the depredatory
nations, the international banditti and world raiders