The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1921-11-04
WHERE THE COST or WAR FAILS

| cate Of armies and nayies, or of war
preparedness, has this remarkable
thing to say about the cost of war:
Cost of past wars is not a correct
charge against preparedness, but
against the pacifsts. 1t is the failure
to prepare, with the consequnt waste
inseparable from going to war in a
hurry. that has made them so costly
But why .sgo" to war at all? A
nation need not go to war in a hurry,
whether it is prepared or not, unless
it be a defensive war, in which all
rules and laws are 0verridden.
History shows clearly that nations
that arm themselves, that 60 healed
all the time, are not only preparing
for war, but ar ecreating war The
peril to peace is not from the paci-
nsts, but from the armed camps. No
real army ever desired perpetual
peace; no real soldier ever hungered
and thirsted after the cankers of a
long peace. If the armies desired
peace, they would melt away: if the
soldier desired peace, he would
choose some other profession. Men
don't go into the law in communities
that scorn litigants and courts, or
who themselves oppose all litigation
and legal fictions.'
Ay me! what perils do environ
The man that NEEDLES with cold
ir0n
Sang old Samuel Butler. These
swashbucklers, whether individuals
or nations, are the real causes of
war and the terrible costs of war to
me people.
| The late conflict was clear in
stance Of war being entirely due to
preparedness. If Germany and her
ally in shining armor'' had not piled
up armament to such a point that
they must be used in order to dem.
onstrate their utility and justly their
supplying expenditure to the tax
pesJ - ?, liiC1 = sWOu1u HdNS u5Cu uO
war. All the nations that entered
the war in the earliest stages were
prepared TO fight-some, of course,
less so than others Even Belgium
though guaranteed by pledges that
were violated by Germany and dis
regarded by the United States went
always heavily armed. France, though
not equal in armament to Germany
merely because the French people
could not afford such tremendous
rivalry was armed almost up to her
bent in time CT peace. England was
better prepared than any other nation
in her peculiar field, the sea, though
being fast outstripped by Germany;
| and, also, she had standing army
of no mean proportions, considering
the population OF the country and
its isolation moated by the main
And the silly maneuverings and mo-
bilizations ordered by the ha,f-mad
Gear of Russia, gave the entirely
mad Kaiser an excuse to order out
the army CT the Fatherland.
The little spark OF pistol-fash
at Sarajevo was but a silly pretext.
Rightly to be great says Shakes
pere
4. Rightly to be great
IS not to stir without great argu-
ment.
But greatly to find quarrel in 4
straw.
Nobody was prepared or prepar-
ing to or DESTROYS Of fighting Ger
many beyond the range of that war
fare of commerce and trade and eco
Monies which is often as ruinous to a
people as a war to the knife. But
Germany was prepared to the last
drop of wine in the canteen, to the
last atom of poison-gas in her bombs; ;
and she wished for war. She wished
for war, largely because she was
armed, and largely because she lust
ed for French and Belgian territory
and world power; but she went to
war because she was ready, having
prepared for it for generations, hav-
ing even, gone to the extent, as is
now confessed by Marshall Won
Moltke. rehearsed at least three times
the ruthless advance upon Paris
through Belgium
The cost of wars, past and future,
is a warrantable charge against the
limilitarists, who would mobolize the
youth of the nations, train it for war,
and fill the armories with the most
nearly perfected lethal weapons. II
one great power arms, all its neigh
bors must, for security, do likewise.
And if the two or three great pow
/ -. +lat r,our drn1 innate fho world