Note and Comment by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 15, 1911

Note and Comment

By Editor

Prepare War

THE Washington Herald of May 30 contains two editorials, whose synchronous publication does in itself illustrate the very conditions against which one of these editorials protests. One of these editorials is titled “A Lesson for British Jingoes.” It commends the speech of King George of England on the occasion of the unveiling of the memorial to Queen Victoria, because of the sentiments of peace and friendliness expressed by the king toward the German emperor and nation. The emperor was present on the occasion. The editorial calls attention also to the utterance of the German emperor at the Guildhall meeting in London in 1907, when he declared that peace between Germany and England would be his unswerving purpose. The editorial closes with this remark:—

It is surprising that Germanophobia continues in England in the face of such utterances. The declarations of two such men as the kaiser and his first cousin, the king of England, ought to be sufficient for any one but mischief-makers, who thrive upon sensation, or who wish to further their own selfish interests, no matter at what terrible cost.

Such utterances ought to be sufficient for peace between the nations, thinks the editorial writer, and we wish they might prove so in spite of the fact that these same two nations are spending money as never before, and building ships as never before, whose prows are pointing toward each other, and whose deadly guns are trained in the same direction. The anomaly of talking peace while preparing for war with such feverish haste was never before so strikingly manifest in the history of the world. The second editorial mentioned is headed “In Peace, Prepare War,” and reads:—

The “Wyoming,” launched a few days ago, and her sister ship, the “Arkansas,” are the largest battle-ships ever designed by any nation, and carry the greatest destructive power with which any vessels have been equipped. This is not all. At the naval parade in the English Channel next month, on the occasion of the coronation exercises, the United States battle-ship “Delaware” will be the largest war-vessel present, even out-rivaling the “Neptune,” the boast of the British navy. . . . Nor is this all. Only last week announcement was made of the results of the gunnery practise and tests in our navy, showing that the gun crew of the “Michigan” had made a new world's record for gun-fire at sea, and that the average of the fleet indicates an approach to perfection that challenges any navy of the world.

And yet despite all this, the United States is offering the nations of the world a far-reaching plan for international peace. It stands ready to negotiate treaties of arbitration that should reduce the possibility of war to a minimum.

At the same time it does not fail to realize the fact that it is worth while to be prepared if trouble comes.

How clearly does the Word of Inspiration picture such a time as this and such conditions as these! They shall cry, Peace, Peace, when there is no peace—talk peace, and at the same time lay the most ingenious plans to hurl each other’s navies to the bottom of the sea; talk peace, and invent the most ingenious and terrible instruments with which to shoot each other’s armies to pieces, or drop death and destruction out of the sky upon armies, cities, forts, and ships. The preparations for universal peace and universal war go on side by side, if not almost hand in hand, and the climax of each of these plans of operation is near at hand. This synchronous movement of these antagonistic ideas makes possible the fulfilment of that scripture: “When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them; . . . and they shall not escape.”

At the present moment, treaties of universal arbitration are under consideration between the United States and England and the United States and France, while Germany and Japan have both signified their readiness to consider the ratification of similar treaties with this country. This all looks toward the establishment of universal peace; and the great Hague Peace Palace—a standing invitation to a supreme court of the nations of the world—looks toward the same felicitous consummation. At the Grand Army memorial services at the United States National Cemetery at Arlington, Va., on May 30, President Taft, while eulogizing the bravery and self-sacrifice of the country’s soldier dead, deprecated war in the strongest terms, and expressed the hope that erelong the nations would refuse to go to war, and would settle all their disputes by arbitration. He looked for the time when duels between nations would cease as truly as duels between individuals in our country have ceased. The hope is a commendable one; but when the machinery for the establishment of such a condition has been perfected and placed, we may expect to see the quick and certain fulfilment of the Scripture prophecy previously quoted. Then will the world have, as never before, cause to cry “peace and safety,” and then, too, as never before, will the world have perfected its engines of ruinous, sudden, and terrible war. We are moving toward that culmination with rapid pace.