Читать книгу Our National Defense: The Patriotism of Peace - George Hebard Maxwell - Страница 8

"The purpose of this organization is to enlist all American women in arousing the nations to respect the sacredness of human life and to abolish war. (1) The immediate calling of a convention of neutral nations in the interest of early peace. (2) Limitations of armaments and the nationalization of their manufacture. (3) Organized opposition to militarism in our own country. (4) Education of youth in the ideals of peace. (5) Democratic control of foreign policies. (6) The further humanizing of governments by the extension of the franchise to women. (7) Concert of nations to supersede 'balance of power.' (8) Action toward the general organization of the world to substitute law for war. (9) The substitution of an international police for rival armies and navies. (10) Removal of the economic causes of war. (11) The appointment by our government of a commission of men and women, with an adequate appropriation, to promote international peace."

That platform is a well condensed outline of a very comprehensive program. It covers the whole ground. Some of the things it advocates ought to be possible of accomplishment within a few years. Others will require generations. For example, it is well to frankly face the eventual necessity for it, but democratic control of the foreign policies of Germany and Russia, for instance, must be worked out by the people of those countries, possibly through bloody political revolutions.

However, faith and not skepticism was the reason for publishing this platform in full. The tenth plank, "Removal of the economic causes of war," would include many features of the plan proposed in this book. As embodied in the book, the plan is specific. The platform is a generalization, and might include many other plans.

But it will be observed that the platform does not suggest any plan as to what should be done by the Woman's Peace Party in the event of war or to safeguard the country from the dangers of actual war. They must concede that war may occur, pending the partial or entire success of their campaign to establish universal peace throughout the world. But they propose no plan covering the contingency of war.

They likewise leave that to the Militarists.

So, although we have plans galore to promote peace, we have in case of war no plans except those of the Militarists.

They have three plans:

First: A standing army large enough for any contingency.

Second: A standing army, reënforced by state militia.

Third: A standing army with a reserve composed of men who have served a term of enlistment in the regular army.

None of these plans could be relied on for national defense in the event of war between the United States and any one of the great world powers. That will be fully demonstrated in the subsequent chapters of this book.

To insure the national safety as against such a contingency, a standing army of over 500,000 men would be necessary. It would cost this country $600,000,000 a year to maintain such a standing army, and the army itself would be a more dangerous menace than a foreign invasion.

The utter worthlessness of state militia as a national defense in the event of war with a first-class power is strongly set forth in the warning by George Washington quoted in a later chapter.

The impracticability of a reserve force like that proposed by the Militarists is clearly shown in the article from which quotations are made in a later chapter by Honorable James Hay, Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs of the House of Representatives in the Congress of the United States.

The situation when analyzed is certainly a most extraordinary one and can only be accounted for on the theory that the people of this country are not informed as to the facts and assume that we must be prepared for war, and able to defend ourselves in case of war, by reason of the stupendous expenditures we have been making for over ten years for the military branch of the government. To the average man it would seem as though $250,000,000 a year ought to be enough to provide for the national defense.

The situation would be different if we had any assurance that the United States would never again be involved in a war. In that event we would need no plans for national defense.

But we have no such assurance.

The Peace Advocates give no guarantee against war.

The Militarists believe war inevitable.

Neither insures peace and neither is prepared against war.

The people are between the upper and the nether millstone.

We cannot be certain of peace.

We are undefended in case of war.

The situation is illustrated by the old darkey's coon trap that would "catch 'em either comin', or gwine."

The frank belief of the Militarists that war must be regarded as inevitable is well expressed in the following quotation from a recent editorial in "The Navy," a journal published at Washington, D.C.

"Since the beginning of the war in Europe, the assertion has been repeatedly made that this is the last great war; that the peoples of the world will be so impressed with the wanton destruction of life and property, that there will be organized some form of international arbitration that will prevent future wars. Not so. The war now raging between the nations of Europe is much more probably but the first of a series of tremendous world-wide conflicts that will be fought by the inhabitants of the earth for national supremacy, until the supremacy is obtained by a single people, or possibly by an amalgamated race, the ingredients of which are just now being thrown into the melting pot.

"The wars of the past will sink into comparative insignificance when future historians compile statistics of coming conflicts among the nations of the earth."

Whether all this be true or not, there is enough foundation for such beliefs to make it imperative that the comprehensive and complete plan set forth in this book should be adopted to harmonize the peace propaganda with plans for national defense in case of war.

It can be done and it must be done.

The plan proposed in this book will tremendously strengthen the peace propaganda and there is no reason why every Militarist should not heartily approve and accept it, unless he is making a profit out of the manufacture of war machinery or dependent on it for employment.

In that event we must strongly appeal to patriotism and try to induce the surrender of personal profit or benefit in order that we may preserve the nation and promote human welfare.

Anyone who rejects the possibility of war must be blind to current events.

Sad indeed it is that it should be true, but none the less it is a staring fact that every theory that war between civilized nations had ceased to be possible has been rudely shattered by recent events.

Every prediction that there would be no more wars has proved false.

Every plan heretofore proposed to prevent war has thus far proved futile.

Every influence relied on to put an end to war has proved a broken reed.

The Socialists have inveighed against war.

Now they are voting war loans and fighting in the armies.

The labor organizations have long proclaimed their opposition to war.

The war is on, and they are apparently giving little attention to it.

Again and again it has been declared that kings make wars and the people fight them.

That is all very true, in the past and in the present, but once more the people are doing the fighting.

We have been told that the workingmen of the world have power to stop war.

No doubt they have, if they would use it, but they will not do so.

While this greatest of all the world's wars was brewing, the workingmen were busy manufacturing the machinery of destruction.

And they are still doing it.

And they will keep on doing it, as long as wages are to be earned that way.

Every piece of shrapnel that crashes into a human brain, or tears a human heart, or mangles a human hand on a battlefield has been laboriously and patiently made by some other human hand working for wages in some factory.

Some manufacturer has thereby made a profit.

And the money to pay that profit was loaned to some Christian nation for its war chest by some sanctimonious pawn-broker of the class described in "Unseen Empire" by David Starr Jordan.

It is civilized warfare, among civilized nations, in this age of civilization, sustained by civilized legislative representatives of civilized people, conducted by civilized soldiers, equipped for human destruction by civilized business men who furnish machinery of war that is manufactured by civilized workingmen.

And the workingman makes wages, the business man earns his good dividends, the banker gets his snug profit, and the man at the top, "the man on horseback," who started the bloody orgy gets dividends, honors, special privileges, and greater power as his share in this twentieth-century massacre of humanity by the so-called humane methods of modern civilized warfare.

It is the hypocrisy of it all that makes it so revolting.

And if it were not that so many are making wages or salaries or profits or dividends out of the whole organized scheme of modern warfare, it would be much easier to put an end to it. That is the vital point where the women of the world should strike first if they are to end war.

It is the private profit made from war by a few that makes it so hard to stop the ruin by war of the many.

The awful waste of war has been made clear, and yet the most monstrously wasteful war of history is now being fought.

It has been urged that the huge debts owing for old wars made new wars impossible, but stupendous new war loans are now being made.

The people of Europe were said to have reached the limit of endurance of war burdens, but they are bending their backs for a heavier load.

America has expressed deep sympathy in the past for the war-ridden and burden-bearing nations of Europe, overlooking apparently, at least in recent years, some important facts.

Germany makes no hypocritical pretenses to being a nation of peace. She is avowedly a nation of warriors and believes in war.

But she gets something for what she spends besides soldiers and battleships.

While she has been perfecting the most stupendous and perfectly organized war machine that has ever existed in the world, she has perfected just as gigantic and splendidly effective machinery for conducting the affairs of peace.

Her people may well smile in their sleeves at us when we condole with them about the heavy war burdens that have been loaded upon them. They have at least got something effective and efficient for their money. We have got practically nothing.

Germany has, it is true, spent huge sums for armament, but at the same time she has developed her internal resources, constructed vast public improvements, planted great forests, and built a system of waterways that is the marvel of the world.

Have we done the same? No.

Why not? Because we are told by the guardians of Uncle Sam's exchequer that we cannot afford it. We spend so much money on our army and navy—a quarter of a billion dollars a year—for which we get nothing in return—not even national defense—that we are told we cannot afford to enter upon any great plans for internal improvements, or stop floods, or regulate rivers, or build a genuine waterway system.

And the people stand for it, and allow themselves to be "led by the nose as asses are."

This, of course, is very gratifying to the speculators and exploiters who are gathering into their own capacious grab-bags what is left of the natural resources of the country.

When this reason is added to their interest in armor-plate factories, it may account for some of their zeal for militarism. And of course they realize the necessity for a good large standing army that will keep the people from being troublesome when they discover that their heritage has been stolen from them. Any little incident like the French Revolution would be excessively annoying to the intrenched interests in this country. An army looks good to them, and the latch-string is always out, socially, to the members of the military caste who greatly enjoy the hospitality of the gilded caste.

Every one who looks at all four corners of the situation in this country understands why every pretext is seized upon to get bigger and bigger appropriations for the army and navy. A navy provides a big profit in armor plate and an army provides protection for that profit.

The Wizards of Wall Street are wise.

They see a long way ahead. The people never see very far. They are easily scared by a hue and cry about unpreparedness when naval or military appropriations are wanted.

They readily swallow the bait of economy, when the interests desire to defeat an appropriation that is needed to develop natural resources belonging to the people that are coveted by the Water Power Syndicates, or an appropriation that is needed to build waterways which would make competition for railroads.

Water Power Syndicates and Railroads and Armor-Plate Mills are all controlled by the same coterie of intrenched interests. They understand each other and work together perfectly without even the necessity for a gentleman's agreement.

The people have been asleep a long time but some day they will wake up.

For years the Gospel of Peace has been proclaimed to the world from the United States. During that period we have been busy building battleships and piling up great private fortunes from making armor plate. We have been urging disarmament while spending millions to increase our own armaments. We have been advocating arbitration while constantly increasing our military expenditures.

Since the day when Congress in a frenzy of patriotic outburst voted fifty millions in fifteen minutes to start our war with Spain, the peace propaganda has been vigorously prosecuted and in that period we have had war after war: the Spanish-American War, the Russo-Japanese War; war in the Philippines, war in Greece, war in the Balkans, war in South Africa, war in Algeria, war in Morocco, war in Tripoli, war in Mexico, war again in the Balkans, and now nearly all of Europe is ablaze with war and its flames are reddening Asia and Africa.

It gives one an unpleasant, gruesome feeling to think about it. The substance seems always to have been on the side of war, the shadow only on the side of peace.

That is no reason why the movement for peace should be abandoned, but is it not a reason for completely changing the ideals and methods of the peace movement, and adopting a plan such as is embodied in this book for a constructive peace propaganda, that will strengthen the peace movement, and at the same time solve our most difficult internal social and economic problems and make sure that if war ever does befall us we will be found not unprepared, not unarmed, not unready, not undefended?

If everything were done that the most extreme Militarist advocates, we would still be undefended, and we will remain so until our whole military system is constructed anew, and a real system of national defense organized as outlined in this book.

The Frankenstein of war can be controlled.

But it can only be controlled by organizing a system of national defense against Nature's destroying forces, which can, by touching a button, be instantly transformed, if need be, into a force for national defense against a foreign invasion or to uphold the rights or honor of the nation.