The Washington times., 1921-11-21
Today
Ia Conference Described.
Dogs Fight, Men Also.
Rome and Carthage Then.
Japan and Amerlca-Now.
ARTHUR BRISBANE


Conferring." Montaigne has q few
words that tell all there Is in the
washington performance. Ruth
iessly confided to the fury Of teleg-
raphcrs and printers, the words. in
siightly archaic French, are:
Ls plus fractueux ct naturel
exercics do nostre esprit, c'est, .
mon gre La Conference: Len
trouve rusass plus douix que
d.auIeuns auitre action do nostre
vie.~
That is II exactIy-pIeasant,
natural. agreeable mental exer-
else. good to sharpen the wits, but
not productive Of immediate re-
suits.
Montaigne says, IL forced to
choose, he would lose his sight
bsfore speech or hearing. He would
say It today especially, with
BRAND speaking for France.
Did you read what various think
ers had to say yesterday? Hano-
taux, who once held Brands place
as French premier, said:
III one wants to fight, one can
as easily do 80 with ten cruisers as
with twenty"
Shaw wrote: 1.-THE notion that
disarmament can put stop to war
Is contradicted by the nearest dog
fight"
IF you put muzzle on a fight
Ing dog he'll still 20 through the
motions and the growlings Of q
fight. although unable TO bite"
Lady Astor. able young Ameri-
can woman. sitting in a House Of
Commons seat that New York
estate gave her, says: "To
sweep away the defensive forces
Of the world. when lawlessness
and unrest are rife. is not prac-
tical politics"
Reventlow who knows-says
that submarine war cannot be
controlled except. Of course. by
the ablest submarine power. He
adds. what has been said here,
that submarines can be built Sc
cretly. You need not advertise
your work. In his opinion "the
United States could. with large
U-boat fleet, probably force a
permanent peace"
That Is the best suggestion. It
Is the business Of an intelligent
grown man to stop fighting
among. boys. This nation, with
the right submarine and flying
fleets, could force peace on
others for their good Without
those fleets others will force war
on us. You may have seen many
q little man slapped, but you've
never seen any one slap Dempsey.
Admiral Sims. student Of naval
warfare, urges modern methods
on the United States. The bat
tleship is now where the bludg-
con was after the rifle came in.
"The battleship is as obsolete
as Henry the Eighth's Royal
Harry. The submarine and the
battleplane are what the admiral.
ties will fight with in future"
says Shaw. :,
Rear Admiral Fiske. who could
give the President good advice.
saws truly, "the United States
has never been prepared for war
when war came. and never pre-
pared for peace when peace
came"
He says this country will not
last long If It continues neglect
Ing preparedness.
There were once two nations
looking at each other across the
Mediterranean-as big then, in
proportion, as the Pacific now.
Those two nations, Rome and
Carthage, did not like each other,
and both knew it. Rome was a
strictly fighting nation, as japan
Is: Carthage a highly prosperous,
trading nation, as we are. In
those days they said what they
thought, and regularly one old
Roman remarked: Carthage
must be destroyed"
Carthage had lorded 1t over
Rome. had told her where she
might and might not trade, just
where her ships might go. The
war came, and when it ended
there was no more Carthage.
Read in Winwood Reade's MAR
tyrdom of Man" what complete
beating poor Carthage got. The
Romans destroyed the great city,
scattered salt where it once stood,
that even grass might not grow
there.
After that Rome colonized on
the fertile shores of North Africa,
shipped in wild beasts for the
arena from land that Carthage
once ruled, honored with the
title "Africanus" certain great
Roman fighters.
Men do not change in 1900 years.
Japan and America now look at
each other across the Pacific that
flying machines will soon cross