Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-02-07
4 Far-reach;ng Achievement
of the Armament Conference

of the Armament Conference
IF the sole result of the Washington Con-
ference were the agreement of the great
naval powers to limit their ornaments to
certain ratio, that alone would be land
mark in modern history. For with fixed
proportion taking the place of endless COM
petition, the most sinister well as the most
costly phase of the building Of giant battle
fleets will be eliminated. AS long as each ma
ton felt impelled to outdistance or to Keep
abreast of another, there was no reckoning
the ultimate expense and no controlling the
war-like trend. Thus if Japan spent billion
dollars for new dreadnaughts, America would
be called upon t, spend two billion; while
Great Britain, not to be left in the lurch,
would add billions more None would be
relatively or actually stronger after these
colossal OUTLAWS, but the taxpayers OF all
would be staggering, and the worlds COM
mon interests would be the poorer for haV-
ing so vast an amount of capital sunk in I'M
productive fields. Moreover, the atmosphere
of this competitive building would be con-
stantly charged with explosive elements,
with suspicion, distrust, and painfully SEN
sitive pride, if not with darker passions.
War soon or late would be inevitable.
Much if not all of this is averted when
the nations agree upon a ratio OF naval
strength consistent with their security, and
let that stand. The 5:5:3 proportion means
TO. the present, and in general terms, 3d.
900 tons for Great Britain, $4,000 for
America and $4,000 for Japan. Under this
order certain amount of battle tonnage will
be scrapped by each party to the agreement;
and, what is of greater moment from the
economic standpoint, halt will be called
upon construction, pending and prospec-
tive. For American tax payers this alone Will
mean a monthly saving of more than five
million dollars. More important, however.
than the amount of tonnage scrapped and
he<sums Immediately saved is the principle
OF limiting navies by international agree
ment, upon basis of the relative needs Of
national Defense as cOntrasted with unre-
strained competition. For so long as those
needs are safeguarded, it matters little or
nothing in the way of defense whether ma
TONS fighting fleet be large or small. II
Britain, America and Japan are all and each
secure with navies of l525, 900, $4,000, and
$4,000 tons respectively, why would they
not be equally secure with one-half or one
third of that tonnage? SO great a reduction
would hot be deemed advisable now; but
with the principle fairly at work, there prob
ably would be no great objection to still
more drastic reductions a decade hence.
While competitive building was the rule,
there was no prospect of reducing either the
cost or the danger of ornaments; conflict,
bankruptcy, and chaos doomed grimly ahead.
But when the rule of reason and justice as
expressed in the new naval treaty prevails,
then virtual disarmament becomes not only
possible but altogether feasible.
Something of what this signifies to the
economic interests of all concerned and, as
well, to the cause of world peace and good
: will may be inferred from considering what
the probable drift of events would have been
! il the Washington Conference had not been
armament
not adopted. Instead of billions of expense
being cut from national budgets and hence
from tax demands upon the earnings OF the
rank and file, billions would have been add
ed and instead of war being rendered less
likely, it's flames would have been famed
continually higher. Each of the naval powers
would have been moved to ever-increasing
strains of competition. AS the New York
World wildly and truly pictures it: I'VE
would have gone ahead with a programme
for the greatest navy in the world. Japan
would have gone ahead with her programme
to prevent us from building too far ahead OF
her. Great Britain would have had to in
crease her naval programme to prevent Japan
and America from understanding her. Then
about 1924, or so, we should have had to
make a new programme to keep Japan and
Great Britain from catching up with us. And
they would have had to make more pro-
grammes in order to catch up with as" So
the wasteful stride would have continued
Congress and the British Parliament and the
Japanese Diet screwed up to the point of
spending hundreds and hundreds of millions
OF dollars it would have been necessary to
run an unending series of scares. In order
to make people pay the taxes, people in each
country would have had to be kept in a state
CT palpitating excitement about the sinister
plots, the hidden spies and the tremendous
ambitions of the other two nations Every
time the three powers disagreed about any
thing they would have had to wonder wheth-
er the great war was about to Begin
And who doubts that in such an atmos
phere the great war inevitably would begin:
The least and the most that nations could
expect IRON constantly pouring their treas
ure into competitive ornaments, each striv
ing to Guido the other in engines of death
would be a world catastrophe more bitte1
than that which befell in 1914, and more
calamitous to civilization. Before the Wash
ington Conference met, the minds of mel
everywhere were burdened with that appre
hension now they cheered with evidence:
of wiser spirit and better purpose at worl
among the governments of the earth. Com
petition that leads to war begins to Civ