New-York tribune., 1922-08-12

almost inevitable, Just ss thew had
SAID that war seemed to be inevitable
In Europe for the ten wears before
l914. On the Japanese side. too. there
had begun to arise the feeling that a
struggle was bound to come and that
they had better prepare.
The Washington conferences was
summoned. Issues were frankly and
honestly discussed 1t was found that
much of the suspicion was unfounded
and an arrangement was reached
which, If it did not solve the under
ly'ng problem. got rid of the immedi
a1e difhculties and swept the var cloud
from the sky. But suppose the per-
sonar equation at the conference had
peen less statesmanlike. Suppose.
even, that the conference had been de.
layed and that the bad feelinr had
been allowed to pile up with all the
propaganda of hate and suspicion at
full blast. Suppose there had bean an
accident, an inflammatory ppeech. an
incident like the sinking Of the Maine,
10 you think that it would have been
impossible for a war to have broken
OUT And If 1t had broken out would
n.y. ,, the overwhelming majority of Che
cltizens OF both countries have said:
TeoPAe Are Cpmplacent
Well, I don't much like this war,
but we are in it. The only thing il to
see it through That would have meant
nghting for four or Ave years. And. as
the Washington conference showed
there would never have been necessity
Tor the war ct all. Yet all this han.
pened within three years of the end
OF the greatest war and the greatest
peace movement in history. Am I 40
very far from the truth when saw
that to-day I can see no security
against another world war?
A.. Wnat have tried to say has been
inns: That so long as mankind, and
especially civilized mankind, remains
organised into separate states, wars,
ana py that l mean world wars, will
continue TO decimate mankind and to
SET BACK civilization as they have done
ever since the fall Of the Roman En-
pire. / believe that every sane man
ana woman who considers the matter
must become convinced that this state.
aneRt is true. and that you cannot pre-
vent war, you cannot escape war. so
long as states insist on being a law
unto themselves, and so long as hu-
manlty acquiesces being divided into
fragment which owe nothing to one
another. O'e
Details Losses of World War
I'm conclusion, I only want to draw
your attention to one thing more. Be-
tween the outbreak of the great war
on July 81, 1914, and the signature of
she armistice on November II, 1918,
there were, according to official calcu-
i,ait,ons, more than ten million men
killed, mostly in the flower of youth,
and s.d more than thirty million wounded.
Inc loss of life since, and especially Of
chlid life, through famine, disease and
the DISCRIMINATION of production and
supply. nobody has ever computed or
probably y ever will be able to compute.
The physical anguish and mental
agony entailed by these losses, not so
much to those who have died, but
among those who have lived and
watched others die, helpless to com
tort or to save, cannot even be limited
at in words. This institute is here
assembled largely for the purpose of
seeing how order can be retrieved out
OF the chaos left by these four terri
bic years of war.
are we really going to, allow the
tragedy to happen again? 1t will again
unless we take steps to prevent it.
Yet, If we are to prevent it. we shall
have to deal, not with vague, easy senti-
ments, but with something which
seems to be very law of our being,
the existence of our countries as abso-
lutely independent sovereign states. If
what | have said is true, nothing short
Of this will avail to end war, for it is
the fundamental cause of war"