The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-08-01


j Iuired in every county. But, it is
doubted whether many will track what
ne calls the law.-Tampa Tribune.
Tent or a Monument.
The greatest tragedies of history
ire of great men who, unwittingly, did
he wrong thing; the greatest national
satastrophes are those where peoples,
meaning to do the best and highest,
lnconsciously made a false choice.
Disarmament must come. 1t is the
one star of hope all men see in a sky
1one too bright with an overdue dawn.
t is something TO which men cling,
something practical, something sane,
something within the everyday COM
orehension, something that touches
The lives, homes and purses of every
one everywhere something that needs
no electric phrases to conjure up a
ZEAL betterment in human living.
Disarmament must come. The Amer
lean people will be proud and happy to
cad the way, if their leadership is
desired, to such a magnificent goal.
But the American people look back
1t their own scant history and note the
wonder of their growth in a matter of
"A century. And because they them
selves are the fruit of miracle, they
are quick to sense the identical ele-
ments Of a similar miracle elsewhere.
They look to that part of the world
where live what are styled grandly
The Powers" They see men multi |
piled on the earth who, with their
women and children, struggle drearily |
for bread; the ysee prosperity and fat |
ness for the few and most grievous !
poverty for the many; they see starved, |
wornout acres; tenement ridden cities; /
governments driven to flog the last |
cent from the populations to pay the
mounting and ever mounting taxes.
Then they look around them, to the
south, to the north to the west; they
see the same adventurous stirring
across vast, unstirred acres; they see
the same potential riches waiting the
aand of man; they see metals, forests,
soil, rivers and toward them hurry the
familiar pioneers; they see the mill
lions of Europe's hungry peering
eagerly toward these lands, praying
'or the day when emigration from the
old to the new may give fulfilment to
heir lives. They see all these things,
he American people, and they ask
themselves, who will be the Powers a
century hence, fifty years, ten years?
Disarmament is no statesman's play
thing, no toy of the cabinet chamber,
politely arranged between gentlemen.
1t is the sigh of the whole world and
nothing less than the whole world must
deal with it. The conference proposed
by President Harding will fail, must
fail, unless this is recognized, unless
the powers of the future as well as
hose of the present, and perhaps Of
the past-and that means all peoples
are brought to a common table, with
out secret understandings, without
there to speak for the
public ear for the public to judge
whether that speech be a true reflex
ion of their prayers.
Britain; France, Italy and Japan are
not sufficient; ak nations only are
sufficient. japan has reservations in
mind; there must be no special reser-
vations.
Either disarmament must come or
the world go into bankruptcy. Either
this particular disarmament confer
snce can be the grandest step in gen.
zine human advance in the history of
man or it can be a lamentable fizzle,
and a crushing shadow Of despair to
The hearts of millions who pray for its
success.
Can we see the chance missed, the !
mistake made2 Shall we build a tent, !
o be whipped away in storm, or shall !
We build monument of granite in {
whose shelter humanity may find rest 8
md peace?-Detroit News.