The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-04-11

mat utOre8 carly. 1nlS Is obvious.
~ not necessary to pay the SAsI.
100000 for non-military govern.
ment projects. But sometime 4,
the sort will be necessarysi off IN ~.
dition to this civil appropriated
and over $4,000. 000. 900 to be paid
ON past wars. We add 1856, 900 ,Oo0 Ia
b invested in the army and navy"
Besides working to have tho
naval appropriations limited the
women's committee wants to have
President Harding and congress-
take steps to call = conference of
the powers to discuss practical
means Of disarmament. This MANY
statesmen would demand as the
step to be taken before we chr
down the naval building program
The hearings on disarmament be-.
fore the house naval committee in
January strongly indicated this at
titude. General Bliss, Secretary
Daniels, General Pershing, and
others who testified spoke in favor
Of an international conference To
consider some degree of disarma-
ment, but pending such a confer
ence, they favored a continuance Of
shipbuilding.
Japan and England willing.
So far as naval programs are
concerned, only England, japan
and the United States would need
to confer, for they are the only
naval powers now. But as other
nations would feel sighted IL left
out of the deliberations, it is prob
able that conference would include
them also.
Both Japan and England have
suggested that they would welcome
a chance to limit naval progress.
japanese statesmen have expressed
| a desire to see their navy reduced
to a minimum that would still en-
| able Japan to protect her coasts.
AS far back as 1918, England asked
for an agreement to reduce naval
expenditures, but Germany, then a
naval power, would not consider it.
When Sir Philip Gibbs was asked
his opinion as to England's present
view on accepting an invitation to
a disarmament conference, he said
that England is divided into fac
tions regarding disarmament, but
there is no doubt that the great
mass of the English people would
bring pressure on the government
to accept such a decision, and the
entire strength of the labor and
liberal parties in England would be
brought in on that side"
The objection to a conference and
agreemnt is that there is the dan
ger Of one conferee not playing
fair. It is still remembered how
Napoleon at Jena limited Prussia
to an army Of $4,000 men, and how
the Prussians kept to the letter Of
the demand. The joker was that
the Prussians enlisted $4,000 men
at a time and trained them quickly
and intensively, and then dis
charged them to enlist another
quota, SO that when Napoleon next
met the Prussians in battle huge.
well prepared army rose up to the
attack.
That this sort of thing could &C.
cur again no one will deny, though
H. would perhaps be hard to build
q navy in secret. The committee
also counters by saying that ma
tons, like individuals, must trust
others sometimes.
! At present, the pro-disarmament
faction maintains, We are the ma
ton which is attracting most atten-
ton by war preparations, and
therefore we can and ought to
show that we have no aggressive
intentions by taking the lead in
suggesting a conference. We are.
moreover, the nation which can
most safely start the vicious spiral
curving downward, because, being
set more or less apart, we have
less fear Of invasion than the
crowded Europeans.
These are the two courses ahead
Of US: One, to get it alon,. trusting
no other country and building
ships as fast as we can to keep
any other nation from building
faster; the other, to get the powers
together and see whether a prac.
tical scheme can be devised to safe
} guard the nations who are willing
to lessen their ornaments.
i The women's committee calls
itself . group OF opportunists and
} insists that now Is the psychology.
cal time for a conference because
the people who pay the bills want
1t, because militarism is plunging
them into national bankruptcy, and
. because a conference Is a reason.
able proceeding, such as any bust.
, ness would hold in the event it wa.
} swamped by overhead expenses.