The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-07
E9ryriguz IyT4
 by tho Neclurs Newspaper Syndie,.s

called international incidents re- lating to or growing out of, the con tact of commerce or travel or com munication have threatened war re peatedly. The Maine is blown up in Havana. Our flag is insulted in Mexico An Archduke, travelling abroad, is assassinated. The Lusi- tania case, the Sussex case, the de- clared war zones, and all other mat ters over which We had friction with Germany or the other powers would obviously not have occurred had there been no great international commerce traversing the high seas.
 (3) By increasing the speed of army mobilization, thus bringing na- tions within shorter military distance of each other. Railroads are not only channels through which trade may flow, they are channels through which troops may flow as well.
 It does not require much observa- ton to see that international con- merce has been an important cause, if not the important cause, of the present war.
 International Competition.
 Thus, as one important result of the compacter neighborhood of na- tions, comes competition in arma ments. Although designed at first and primarily, for defense, thesa armaments increased the chance of war and increased it's destructiveness when it came.
 A new invention is of only tenn porary use to the nation bringing it out The airplane enabled us to dis cover the enemy plans but soon help ed equally the enemy to discover ours. We invented tanks and over whelmed the enemy until they adopted them. The enemy invented land mines and once more had the advantage until we could respond.
 If we look to the future, we must take into account that inventions for military use have not nearly reached their limit A Massachu- sets inventor has I am informed, recently devised a new type of boat, a sort of skate CT glider, which has ac- tually developed a speed of sixty miles ar hour and which is expected when perfected to attain seventy-f1ve miles per hour! The friend who gave mo this information naively re- marked that this boat would proba- bly,, in another decade, be of great value to the navy ef the United States. It did not seem to occur to him that, if so, it would soon be of equal value to all tho other naVtes of the world, and therefore of no value to any of the them! On the con trary it will be a source of new naval burden on all.
 The situation is like that in the old mining pioneer days of anarchy in California when many men were thrown close together without any government. Then each man had to carry a pistol because everybody else does" The real effect of the voluntary disarmament of one per son would have been the endanger- ment of nis own life. Only when vigilance committees were improyised, and later a stable government deEei- oped could the individual disarm- In the beginning each individual was an independent sovereign; but he soon found it profitable to surrender part of his independence to secure protec- r ton.
 The Way Out
 This all shows us the real way out. It is the way which the gold miners in California found, the way the states in this union found, the way the railways find, the only way ever found in history Combination can stop competition.
 The greatest question of the hour is: Shall we combine with others in league of nations, or shall we continue to rely on carrying our own individual pistol
 The Dilemma.
 We hfsaae now come to the parting of the ways-we must choose. We i must either join with other nations in an international organization suf- hcient to care for international inter !, course and settle all the disputes