Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-26
BY JAMES r. SHOTWELL,
Eap,o.1a Hisfnr;op

The question of armament must be
linked throughout with the question
of security. That is because arma-
ments are after all political agencies
and not merely technical entities.
They have to serve the purpose for
which they have been originally
created, which is the purpose of max
ing sure of the safety of the State.
This question of national security
falls into two great divisions. There
are states which have natural Sc.
curity and there are those which must
make up for the absence of natural Sc
curity by artificial devices. Natural
security il at its maximum with us.
Distance and barriers almost impass-
able West and East make the problem
one which Is very little realized. Be-
cause security Is very much like
health in the individual, the more one
has it, the less one knows it. 1t is
only those states which are face to
face with the problem which are really
conscious Of it's reality, just as in the
individual it is only when disease and
the menace of death come that one
appreciates what health has been.
When a nation is faced with the arti-
fetal problem, when it's frontiers are
insecure, when it Is close up against
an enemy, then 1t must have some
substitute for distance, some addi-
tional barrier well as mountains or
other natural impediments along the
frontier. There must be artificial Sc
curity.
War Menace Present.
Now the menace of war will be pres
ent until other means for settling in.
ternational disputes are not only avail
able. but likely to be used in time Of
crisis. Therefore to some degree the
old armament problem will continue
to be before the world, with its dual
possibilities OF defense and aggression.
until the world comes to the point
where it can satisfactorily accept al
ternatives for war.
Until war itself takes on a different
character from the historic use of it
by national states there is very little
hope OF anything more than palliatives
in the line of disarmament. For
tunately, that turn in human affairs
which was coincident with the de-
velopment Of the machinery of defense
was also coincident with a turn in
human affairs in the arts of peace.
The development of modern science
marks a turning point in human his
tory so vast that few of us who live
in these days have any adequate APP
precia ton Of the world which Is be-
ing created in our time. Space and
time, the two conditions of huma n
life, are being fundamentally changed.
and this change has produced a world
community. We didn't realize the ex.
tent of 1t until the war itself show
ed the inextricable entanglements of
different states, one with the other.
Political Boundaries.
In the world of finance-and it il
true of course of commerce and in.
dustry and all those developments of
modern science-the political bound.
aries Of a country no longer coincide
with the real and vital interests which
may dictate even In time of crisis the
extent of the ornaments, the direc.
ton of a policy and the whole determi.
nation of the issue.
The new scientific world developed
entang clements that are conceivable of
expression In terms of peace as well
as in terms of war. That has worked
out in the treaty of Locarno, The
treaty of Locarno states that IL either
of the signatory powers should go to
war. one against the other, refusing
the accepted and agreed means OF