EDITORIALS
While international law has by agreement laid down certain rules regarding the conduct of war, it is recognized that there exists no central authority that is able to enforce compliance with these arguments. But, as regards the right of a nation to declare war for any reason, even for openly alleged plunder and conquest, there is no precept of restraint and no recognized right of interference. Although the right to invade, subdue and appropriate without provocation cannot be established as a right to inherit in any sovereign state by any process of juridical reasoning, nevertheless it is a recognized prerogative which international law does not, and under existing conceptions of sovereignty cannot, forbid. One of the greatest authorities on the subject says: “Theoretically, international law ought to determine the causes for which war can be justly undertaken—in other words, it ought to mark out as plainly as municipal law what constitutes a wrong for which a remedy may be sought in law. It might also not unreasonably go on to discourage the commission of wrongs by investigating a state seeking redress with special rights, and by subjecting a wrong-doer to special disabilities.” But in fact it does nothing of the kind. International law accepts war, independently of the justice of its origin, as a relation which the parties to it may set up if they choose, and which any nation may, if it chooses, impose upon another against its will. The law confines itself to nominally regulating the effects of the relations.—Dr. David Jayne Hill inReview of Reviews.
The above declaration from a well known authority upon international law shows how unsatisfactory is the present status of the recognized law of nations, and how inadequate, not to say impotent, it is to preserve the peace among nations. We glean from other authoritative writers on the subject that the Moral Law which is almost universally held to be binding upon the individuals of a nation with respect to internal affairs must, in the case of the nation as a whole, give way to the necessity of self-preservation, and that under this rule everything deemed necessary to the preservation of the life of the nation is justified. Dr. Hill remarks that even the control of international law upon the conduct of war is wholly illusory, as is evident from the fact that the so-called laws of war cannot be enforced by a non-belligerent co-signatory of the convention in which the agreement is made without the non-belligerent itself going to war to execute such enforcement.
Therefore the nations of the world, regarded as individual entities, are in precisely the same relation to each other as were the individual cave-men of the prehistoric era. Each cave-man was a law unto himself and existed by virtue of his strength and cunning. If one cave-man made a compact with another to unite for mutual defense there was no outside power to make either one keep the agreement save by compulsion, or to respect the life and property of friend or enemy. There was no moral law among the cave-men, and there is at present no enforceable law among nations.
The plan of a World Court for Judicial Settlement proposes to introduce among nations enforceable international laws which would tend to prevent war altogether by compelling nations to live up to the recognized rules of international morality. It would do for nations what civilized institutions have done for the individuals of nations.
This is the key-note of a powerful article by H. G. Wells, in a recent issue of the New YorkTimes. His argument, is that “Man’s increasing power of destruction, unchecked will overwhelm Hope, Beauty and Freedom in the World.”
The submarine and the aircraft have made the horrors of war inescapable by the civil population of any country. The development of destructive weapons during the present war has been marvellous. It seems inevitable that capacity for offense will be so developed in time that no ship will be safe from torpedoes on ocean, river or lake, and that no city or hamlet, or even remote farmhouse, will be exempt from destruction by aërial bombs. What is to prevent a fleet of enemy’s aircraft from burning up the crops of any given region, condemning the inhabitants to starvation? This thought can be expanded ad libitum by those who keep pace with the march of invention, and who realize that just now destructive invention outpaces constructive invention and the science of conservation.
The old scope of war was sufficiently horrible, when it mainly threatened fortresses, battle-fields and men liable to military service. But now its threat is universal, against whole populations, on land and water.
Therefore the question of universal peace is now of vital interest not alone to the statesman, the ruler, the general and the financier, but to “the man in the street,” to the ordinary citizen, to every woman, and to every little child. It always concerned all these in a general way, but now it is brought intimately home to all, because war can at any moment put any individual in imminent personal deadly peril of life or limb.
Is there a possibility of preventing wars in the future short of the adoption of a counsel of perfection—that is to say, the substantial regeneration of human nature to the moral elevation of the mind that was in the Prince of Peace? There is manifestly only one way to approximate universal peace among men so long as they remain in an unregenerate state. And that is a union or welding of nations into what might be called a World-State.
The model is the nation itself. Internal peace is preserved in a civilized and virile nation by the establishment of constitutional safeguards and of institutions of government. Not all the individuals of a nation can be trusted to keep the peace. The non-peaceable are held in check by laws and by the provisions made for the execution of the laws. To this end nations have legislative bodies, executives and courts. The executives have placed under their command armies and police forces to restrain the wicked. With all the machinery of executives and courts and police forces crime is not entirely prevented, nor violence suppressed. People are assaulted and murdered, but in a well-ordered nation the infractions of the law are trifling as compared with the aggregate of peaceful life.
So in a World-State. War and violence might not be entirely prevented, but the aggregate of peaceful life would be so extended as to save civilization and permit moral and material progress. Mr. Wells well says:
The course of human history is downward and very dark indeed unless our race can give mind and will, now unreservedly in unprecedented abundance, to the stern necessities that follow logically from the aircraft bomb and the poison gas and that silent, invisible, unattainable murderer, the submarine.
The way to achieve a World-State was clearly pointed out by the Cleveland World Court Congress. It is doubtful if any other method is workable than to begin with the establishment of a World Supreme Court for Judicial Settlement backed by ample physical force to curb unruly nations. No one contends that such a tribunal can be made effective without the coöperation of the first class powers, or a decisive majority of them. The task of the United States, after the conclusion of the present bloody war, will be to bring these great nations together in a world-conference to perfect the plan for a World-State.
“Japan has seized this time, when the European powers are engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle for existence, to begin the work of the consolidation of the yellow races. Japanese statesmen have explained her position as that ofmediator between the West and the East. Japan does not desire to be the mediator between the West and the East. She wants to be the East.”
This is the conclusion reached by Samuel G Blythe, in a recent magazine article discussing the demands made by Japan upon China on the 18th of January last. The original demands were somewhat modified before acceptance by China, but in their modified form they virtually give Japan the hegemony of China. China accepted under a tacit threat of war, because China was militarily too weak to resist Japan, and because China knew that she could not look for help at this juncture either from Great Britain or the United States. The British Empire is engaged in a struggle for its own existence: The United States, in a military sense, is almost as weak as China, and faces too many possibilities of complications with some or all of the European powers to make it safe to allow its attention to be diverted by the possibility of war with Japan.
There is no reason to believe that Japan has any aggressive designs upon the United States. In fact, the execution of her design of becoming, as Mr. Blythe expresses it, “The East,” bids fair to occupy her attention to such an extent as to preclude the idea of Japan seeking trouble with this country. But that Japan would stand on the defensive and resist with her full military power any attempt on our part to intervene in behalf of China, goes without saying. If we have war with Japan we shall have to carry the war to Japan, and that, in the present condition of world affairs, is unthinkable.
In the present cynical attitude of the white and so-called Christian nations toward each other, it is not surprising that a heathen nation like Japan should resolve to take advantage of her superior physical strength to push her own interests. She claims to be a civilized nation, and so do Christian nations engaged in the great European war claim to be civilized. But their civilization is not allowed to stand in the way of their ambitions. It is natural that Japan should aspire to be the controlling power of Asia. She is the only Asiatic power that is fit for such a task or that could hope to accomplish such a design.
For Japan to hold her hand now and restrain her ambition when the folly of the great European nations has offered her an opportunity which may never occur again, would be an act of extreme self-abnegation even on the part of a Christian. Can we expect a higher standard of world-ethics from a heathen? Looking the situation squarely in the face, we may expect to see Japan set her foot upon the neck of China and subdue that country politically and economically to her will, for China has no power of organized resistance. We may then expect to see Japan set up a sort of Monroe Doctrine of Asia. She will undoubtedly allow Great Britain to retain India, as Great Britain is already established there, just as we allow Great Britain to retain Canada—but Japan will say to Europe and America, “Hands off!” as to new acquisitions in Asia. She will probably not attempt to interfere with the United States in the Philippines, but if we should make up our minds to abandon the Philippines, Japan might extend her protection over the Filipino Republic to prevent it coming under the influence of any other great power.
As for China, there is reason to believe that Japan’s protectorate over it, or absorption of it, will be beneficial to the people of that country in many ways. The Chinese have shown no capacity for organization or self-government. They have shown no capacity to develop the magnificent resources of their vast territory. Under Japanese efficiency China will be developed, and Japan, occupied in this task of development, will have no time to meddle with American affairs or to seek to push any colonizing enterprise on the American continents. The passing of Asia under the virtual suzerainty of an Asiatic power that has displayed a capacity for civilization and modern progress may be one of the compensations of the great world war. As for Americantrade in the aggregate, it should be helped rather than injured by the awakening of the sleeping Celestial giant to the touch of Progress.
The present war may prove a blessing in disguise to England if it leads to social reorganization on a more rational and effective basis. The weakness of England, as developed during the past year, has been in lack of unity and organization. There has been not only too much political, but too much class division. The remark has frequently been made, “Why doesn’t England wake up?” There has not been the same effective coöperation among all classes that has been apparent in Germany and in France. The English government has been in times past careless or neglectful in allowing the developement of slums and of a “submerged tenth,” while what are called the upper classes have been too intent on the pursuit of pleasure to give due heed to the privation and suffering of those occupying a lower social scale. This is measurably true of society in all countries, but it is notorious that the “upper classes” in England have been zealously devoted to sports, week-end holidays, social functions and the pursuit of gain, while the operative classes have antagonized them in labor organizations, and the lower working classes have been neglected and thrown upon the poor rates. This has bred social divisions which even the pressure of war finds difficult to heal. If this war is fought through to success by the working people of England, as it must be if England is successful, because the working people furnish the bulk of the army and navy and the toilers in the factories, they will undoubtedly demand a rearrangement of social forces which will give them a more equitable participation in the prosperity of the country. German efficiency teaches the world that no nation can permit the growth within its boundaries of a proletariat that feels itself disinherited.
There are many who think that the proper reply to the sinking of theLusitaniaand the taking of American lives without warning would have been the calling of Congress in extra session and the appropriation of a billion dollars or more for increasing the American army and navy and coast defenses. They argue that this would not have been a measure of war, but on the contrary a measure of peace, as it would have shown that this country meant to protect its citizens and that no nation would ever venture to attack us if they saw that we meant to be prepared. The military authorities say that it will take us several years to place ourselves in a condition to fight any one of the first-class European powers with any prospect of success. Orville Wright says that we need two thousand æroplanes which might be built in a year, and Mr. Lake says we need at least a hundred and fifty submarines, which might be built within two years, and a goodly proportion of them in one year. If we need to prepare for defense, and the preparation takes so long, the sooner we begin the better. As actions speak louder than words, President Wilson’s action in calling Congress together would have conveyed a distinct impression of our resolution to protect our nationals and our national interests, as well against Great Britain as against Germany, which no “note” can convey, especially when the force of the note is undermined by a cabinet officer with the secret assurance to the ambassador of a foreign power that the note was merely for home consumption! Fortunately, however, for the credit of President Wilson’s administration, his cabinet is now purged of such secret folly and treachery.
The view taken by the more sober and serious advocates of stronger armament by the United States is expressed by the publication,The Army and Navy Journal, in a recent issue, underthe caption, “The Duty of the Hour.” It says:
“Is there no possibility of bringing home to official diligence an apprehension of the fact that preparation for defence, so far from involving us in war, is the best defense against war, as is shown by little Switzerland holding calmly on its path of peace in the midst of warring nations? All the powers respect the neutrality of Switzerland because they know that she is prepared to fight for her independence to the last man, and that she is at all times ready for immediate action in defense of her mountain fastnesses, so that she is a power to be reckoned with.”
Switzerland is a poor country and does not greatly tempt any of the belligerent nations by her wealth. The Swiss are tough fighters, their country, by reason of its mountainous situation, is a very defensible one, and its subjugation would undoubtedly cost any power more than the conquest would be worth. The case is very different with the United States. This is the richest country in the world, actually and potentially. Any power which could occupy its coast cities would be able to levy indemnities which would richly pay them for the financial cost of any war. Human nature being what it is, such wealth is a constant temptation to any predatory power. The ocean does not protect us as it formerly did, but on the contrary affords a convenient highway for invasion. Such wealth as ours needs protection in the present status of world-morality. There is no thought of aggression on the part of our people. The United States will never arm for aggression. But it should be strong enough to keep its goods in peace and to save its population from the horrors of invasion.
William James’s essay on the moral equivalents of war advocated conscription for peace of all youths, rich or poor, to do the hard, rough and disagreeable work—the labor of the mills, the coal, iron and other mines, the work of railroad building and transportation, to man the fishing fleets in December and the harvest fields in August, the digging of tunnels and foundations, the erection of the frames of skyscrapers, and the varied work of land reclamation and cultivation. This of course would have to be done under a system of State Socialism, as everybody is naturally looking for the easier jobs. But the plan would hardly work under the present system of individualism and freedom of choice in occupation and the pursuit of happiness. But one thing the State might do, in organizing its educational facilities, is to give more attention to and provide more facilities for a vocational education. There is a surplus in all communities of clerical labor and of people who are seeking to do what they call brainwork, rather than muscle work. But the need of the world is for strong muscle workers, for manual skill combined with intelligence. Our schools afford ample facilities for the acquirement of book education, and the importance of book education has been so magnified that the lighter tasks have come to be extensively regarded as in some way more genteel than the harder ones. Sentiment, however, is changing, as is shown by the fact that skilled mechanics as a rule command better pay and steadier employment than the mere clerical workers. Applied science and skill have come to occupy so important a place in our modern social life that the skilled manual worker is now the real aristocrat among workers. This trend in the distribution of tasks will do away with the need of drafting men for the hard work. The higher pay and the higher honor of such work will steadily draw the superior brawn and brain of our youth into what may be aptly called the manlier occupations.
The fact is recalled that Dr. David Starr Jordan, one of the most prominent of the pacifists who decry armament and preparedness, said in an article on “War and Waste,” published in 1913: “What shall we say ofthe Great War of Europe ever threatening, ever impending, and which never comes? We shall say that it will never come. Humanly speaking, it is impossible.”
Prophecy, by a mere mortal, is always exceedingly dangerous. We all hope, and we may firmly believe, that the United States will never be compelled to engage in another war, but to make a definite prediction that war will never come to us would be folly.
If war is ever to come, the question for this country to solve is, whether we shall prepare to meet it before it comes, or after it comes. Hudson Maxim, who has recently issued a large book to argue for preparedness, is seemingly quite hopeless that his advice will be taken. He says:
“Pacifism has ringed the nose of the American people and is leading them, blind and unknowing, to the slaughter. War is inevitable. It matters not that if this country could be roused, it might be saved. When it is impossible to vitalize the impulse necessary to the accomplishment of a thing, that thing is impossible. So I say, war is inevitable and imminent. The American people could not now be roused sufficiently to avert the impending calamity even by a call that would rift the sky and shake down the stars from heaven! Fate has decreed that our pride shall be humbled, and that we shall be bowed to the dirt. We must first put on sackcloth, ashed in the embers of our burning homes. Perhaps, when we build anew on the fire-blackened desolation, our mood may be receptive of the knowledge that we must shield our homes with blood and brawn and iron.”
Let us hope that this dismal prophecy will not be fulfilled. Let us hope that it is as wide of the mark as was Dr. Jordan’s prophecy that there would never be another great war in Europe. Yet if one is to play the prophet, it is better to prophecy evil things that put us on our guard, than smooth things that cause us to run heedlessly into danger.
Winston Churchill, the young English statesman, once began to raise a mustache, and while it was still in the budding stage he was asked at a dinner party to take out to dinner an English girl who had decided opposing political views.
“I am sorry,” said Mr. Churchill, “we can not agree on politics.”
“No, we can’t,” rejoined the girl, “for to be frank with you I like your politics about as little as I do your mustache.”
“Well,” replied Mr. Churchill, “remember that you are not really likely to come into contact with either.”
After his first lecturing tour in this country Matthew Arnold visited old Mrs. Proctor, the widow of the poet Barry Cornwall, and mother of Adelaide Proctor. Mrs. Proctor, giving Mr. Arnold a cup of tea, asked him, “And what did they say about you in America?” “Well,” said the literary autocrat, “they said I was conceited, and they said my clothes did not fit me.” “Well, now,” said the old lady, “I think they were mistaken as to the clothes.”
Ol’ Mistah Trouble, he come aroun’ one dayAn’ say, “I gwinter git you, so you better run awayI likes to see you hustle. Dat’s de way I has my fun.I knows I kin ketch up to you, no matter how you run!”I says, “Mistah Trouble, you has been a-chasing meEver since I kin remember, an’ I’se tired as I kin be.So I’se gwinter stop right yere, an’ turn aroun’ a-facin’ you,An’ lick you if I kin, an’ fin’ out jest what you kin do.”Ol’ Mistah Trouble, he looked mightily ashamed;He acted like a buckin’-hoss dat’s suddenly been tamed;An’ den he turned an’ travelled off, a-hollerin’, “Good day;I ain’t got time to fool around wif folks dat acts dat way.”Washington Star.
Ol’ Mistah Trouble, he come aroun’ one dayAn’ say, “I gwinter git you, so you better run awayI likes to see you hustle. Dat’s de way I has my fun.I knows I kin ketch up to you, no matter how you run!”I says, “Mistah Trouble, you has been a-chasing meEver since I kin remember, an’ I’se tired as I kin be.So I’se gwinter stop right yere, an’ turn aroun’ a-facin’ you,An’ lick you if I kin, an’ fin’ out jest what you kin do.”Ol’ Mistah Trouble, he looked mightily ashamed;He acted like a buckin’-hoss dat’s suddenly been tamed;An’ den he turned an’ travelled off, a-hollerin’, “Good day;I ain’t got time to fool around wif folks dat acts dat way.”Washington Star.
Ol’ Mistah Trouble, he come aroun’ one dayAn’ say, “I gwinter git you, so you better run awayI likes to see you hustle. Dat’s de way I has my fun.I knows I kin ketch up to you, no matter how you run!”
Ol’ Mistah Trouble, he come aroun’ one day
An’ say, “I gwinter git you, so you better run away
I likes to see you hustle. Dat’s de way I has my fun.
I knows I kin ketch up to you, no matter how you run!”
I says, “Mistah Trouble, you has been a-chasing meEver since I kin remember, an’ I’se tired as I kin be.So I’se gwinter stop right yere, an’ turn aroun’ a-facin’ you,An’ lick you if I kin, an’ fin’ out jest what you kin do.”
I says, “Mistah Trouble, you has been a-chasing me
Ever since I kin remember, an’ I’se tired as I kin be.
So I’se gwinter stop right yere, an’ turn aroun’ a-facin’ you,
An’ lick you if I kin, an’ fin’ out jest what you kin do.”
Ol’ Mistah Trouble, he looked mightily ashamed;He acted like a buckin’-hoss dat’s suddenly been tamed;An’ den he turned an’ travelled off, a-hollerin’, “Good day;I ain’t got time to fool around wif folks dat acts dat way.”Washington Star.
Ol’ Mistah Trouble, he looked mightily ashamed;
He acted like a buckin’-hoss dat’s suddenly been tamed;
An’ den he turned an’ travelled off, a-hollerin’, “Good day;
I ain’t got time to fool around wif folks dat acts dat way.”
Washington Star.