Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-03-06
" Article WoefulIy Distorts Pur.
poses of Patriotic Citizens,
He Points Out

emphatically by W. r. Castle, Jr., in
the latest issue of The Friend lie
writes from Cambridge, Mass:
Dear Sir: The long article in the
December issue of The Friend, en-
titled "Prepareditis," seems to me tn
call for an answer because IL WofHlly
distorts the purposes of those patfi.
otto citizens who belieYe that peace
can best be secured by adequate mill
tary preparation. If the Friend makes
fetish of peace, IL 1t believes that
peace is more important than right.
eousness, nothing that we prepared.
ness advocates can say would either
make any impression or should be
published.
believe Ia adequate military pre-
paEadness because ] believe that such
preparedness will enable the United
States to be q real World Servant .
We are today prolific with our beau
tiful phrases, and they mean nothing
because all the world knows that We
cannot make them good. president
Wilson gives US often beautiful lit
tie sermon about our duties to human.
ity, tells Germany and Austria that
they must conduct their submarine
warfare without endangaring the
lives Of innocent women and children
They answer with sneering polite
ness and continue to murder because
they know that we can do nothing
except talk And even the floodgates
OF humane presidential eloqHenee are
opened only when an American hap
pens to be murdered. Are there no
Innocent women and children of other
nations? Is this doing our part as a
World Servant" r.iS
At the present time we cannot
serve even our own people, let alone
the people of other nations. We can
praise the president as we will for
keeping us out of trouble with Mexico.
we can say with him, IF they want
to shed each others blood It is no
affair of ours" but that does not les
sen the responsibility for the Ameri-
cans tortured and murdered in Mexi-
CO. We may be cowardly enough to
say that the few Americans murdered
are not to be compared with those
who would have been killed had we
gone to war, but we can hardly deny
the truth of what so many Americans
in Mexico report the Mexican atti.
tude to be, that had we been In any
condition to back up our protests with
force our protests would have been
Instantly needed We can hardly 70
behind the admissions in the German
papers that had we been prepared to
make good our wordy pleas in the
name of humanity the Lusitania and;
the Arabic and the Ancona and the
Persia would not have been sunk At
all.
This is why the very large proper
ton of thinking people in America to-
day are advocates of preparedness
not at all that the United States may
become a conquering world power,
but that 1t may be In all seriousness
q power for righteousness. It is OF
course true that military men, makers
of ammunition, trouble mongers in
general are advocates OF prepared
ness, but 1t Is to take q very low esti-
mate of the morale and the intelli-
geuce OF our people as whole even
to suggest that such as these have
brought about the great movement Of
today
The '.Prepareditis'' article seeks to
prove that we shall for long time be
immune from attack after the Euro
pean war is over No proof either
way can possibly be given because we
cannot 4oresee the future To talk
of the economic imp0ssibility of at
tack by any exhausted European pow.
er is simply to contradict history,
because II is q well known historical
fact that nations most burdened with
taxes are the most likely to go to war
|on account Of the possible gains and
consequent financial relief. It has.
moreover. not yet been proved by any
means that the Teutonic states s'are
bound TO lose in the end and be rem
dered hors de combat for at least two
generations In any case they must
suffer financially and the last months,
have not shown them to have a very
sensitive conscience. 1t may be that
some .have begun to hint that we
must look out for Britain" Certain
sly no advocate of preparedness who IL
worth listening to has advanced any
such proposition. II II were necessary
ito prepare to fight Great Britain we
should indeed be In q parlous stata.
AS to Japan, Il may be that conflict
between these two neighbors can
only come as the result d. some great
moral lapse in our own country ]
have the highest respect for the Japa-
nese; do not anticipate any couflint
with Japan; but am American
enough to believe that even the Japa-
nese are as liable to have moral
lapse as we are. 1t seems TO me dis
tinctly unpatriotic to assert that In.
any possible clash with Japan Che
fault must be ours.
All students of politics and Of eco
Monies agree that the time of world.
reconstruction must be very dan
gerOus time They do not claim that
trouble will come from this quarter or
from that; they hope it will not come
at all; and the great majority Of
Americans, those who are lovers of
peace, say, please God 1t may never
come" But that does not mean that
they do not want to be ready to meet
Il IL 1t should come. A man does not