The Washington herald., 1920-12-12
The University Of Peace.


or Encouragement that disarmament
has been relegated to the side lines
at this first meeting of the league of nations
at Geneva. There is too much actual war
fare being wsged and too much of the spirit
Of war in the air to warrant the serious
consideration of disarming. While some
war, others can not throw away their
weapons.
Peace must precede disarmament before
it has any chance to follow it. For two
years the world has been crying "peace,
peace" to have only the returning echo of
more strife. In fact it is not yet. known
what disarmament may be, can be or
should be. The world war developed in
Vulnerable agencies which are equally
adapted to both peace and war and quite
as essential in the one field as the other.
Wireless carrying electric current has
but to control direction to become deadly
missive. The submarine will quite surely
become a merchantmen. The airplane is
now a passenger and mail carrier, and ex-
press agency. The sirship is an air trans
port for persons and freight. Chemistry is
an essential of industry; it is, too, the most
are its product. The warship may be con-
cealed in the hull of the merchant ship.
Disarmament, then, when finally applied,
may be rather An incentive than a pre-
ventive of war. 1t may induce to rivalry
in those duplex agencies for both peace
and war in which inventive genius has the
double objective. 1t may relegate itself to
the field of economics as expressed in tax
alton where it indeed seems to be headed
There is no reasonable doubt that fol-
lowing peace, armies will be greatly re-
duced and with them navies. The money
so expended will be turned to the channels
of industry and production. Purchasing
power will be" multiplied and prosperity
follow. But even so, as nations grow pros
porous, they grow greedy and as they grow
greedy, they become belligerent with war
preparedness steadily augmented by peace
activities.
Neither is it possible or practical to
restrict, let alone forbid, exploiting these
war agencies that come so largely through
peace activities Asphyxiating gas that so
nearly won the war for Germany, may be
prohibited in war, but that, as Is now
Known, VIII nOl-S stop It's use SnOulQ war
come And why should it?
As the late Alfred T. Mahan, then a ma
val captain, pointed out at the FIRST Peace
Conference at The Hague, the same objec-
ton made to gas, was made to firearms.
1t is clearly no more inhuman than the
: submarine, the depth bomb, the mine field,
the mining of Notifications, the nonasphyx-
atmg explosive shell or many other mis-
siles. But beyond this, its discovery can
not be prevented and once discovered, its
use Is inevitable should occasion arise.
The fact remains that economically de-
sirable and inevitable as disarmament is, it
wdl not prevent wars. War prevention can
come only as do other reforms, through
drawing nations together in constantly bet
ter mutual understanding; through the
settlement of differences by agreement, ar
bitration and court action; through building
mp repugnance to war with the spirit of
international righteousness.
This also can be done only Though such
m agency as is already in operation in the
league Of nations. If Americans then are
IN faet opposed to war, if they want peace,
hey must become part of the peace
agency; they must matriculate in this uni
versify for peace and become part of it,
perhaps almost dominating influence in it.