IS IT PEACE? by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Feb 3, 1887

IS IT PEACE?

By Editor

ELSEWHERE in this paper the reader will find articles bearing on the present war preparations in Europe. Scarcely a day passes but that some new feature is not reported. For instance, "The German army possesses a new explosive called roburite. It is reported to be stronger than melinite. The method of its manufacture is a secret. It is exploded by intense heat." Again we learn that "the Austrian war budget is to be increased twenty-five million dollars." We are also told that the Austrian Landsturm will supply one million additional men, and that the rules which have just been published show that nothing except blindness, deafness, or dumbness, will exempt men from the service. All agree that no such war preparations have ever before been made in Europe, even when war had been declared, whereas now there is general peace.

Some of the comments made by the daily papers concerning these things strike us as being decidedly strange. The S. F. Evening Bulletin says:—

"Never in the history of Europe have war preparations been made on so large a scale. Yet who can say that these preparations may not tell in the interests of peace?"

The Oakland Evening Tribune says:—

"Everything portends war. A spark may ignite the combustible material at any moment. Such preparations for war have not been known in Europe for many years; but each nation being prepared may be the very cause of preventing war."

We fail to see any promise of peace in preparations for war. The peaceable men of a community are not the ones who always go armed. Men do not carry weapons unless they expect to use them at some time. True, they may not have any definite hostile determination, but they go armed so that they may be "prepared" when any provocation is given. Men who never intend to fight, never carry arms.

So with nations. Where there are warlike preparations, there is expectation of war. The nations of Europe are not members of any peace society. They have been known to fight when they had less strength and less confidence in their strength than they have now. They are extremely jealous of one another. The increased preparation of any one nation will not frighten the others into greater desires for peace, since they all are keeping equal pace in the work of arming. These preparations mean nothing else but war. It may not come for some time; the longer it is delayed the greater will be the preparation; and when at last the spark is dropped into the magazine, there will be such a commotion on the continent of Europe as the world has never seen. It will then be demonstrated whether or not the people of the United States can, as the Tribune says, look complacently on and profit by the struggle. It is now almost too soon to be so positive in regard to that matter. w.