Is there not among our politicians who sustained the Blair Education bill some one whose voice may be heard in behalf of peace? Is Col. Ingersoll too much of a pessimist to believe that American moral power will be sufficient in time to calm the world’s agitation? Let him espouse this cause, and he will find it more practical by far than riding down the ghosts of an effete theology. Let Henry George turn his attention to this question, and he will find in it even more than in the question of sovereignty over the land; for every acre on the globe, if confiscated to-day, would pay but a portion of the boundless cost of war. The blood alone that has incarnadined all lands is worth vastly more than the dead soil into which it has been poured. Let Dr. McGlynn, who has already entered on the perilous path of the reformer, look at this question in the light of religion and philanthropy, and he will find it more worthy of his attention than any other practicable reform, for it is practicable now and here to roll back the warlike policy from its approach to our national government.
Are not such questions as these worthy of the profound attention of such men as Rev. Dr. Miner, Rev. M. J. Savage, Rev. J. K. Applebee, and Rev. W. H. Thomas of Chicago? They are not theological dilettanti, but earnest thinkers. Should not every Universalist and every Quaker realize that it is time for them to stir when our nation’s destiny is under discussion, and that their voices should be heard at Washington?
The proposition is made and sustained by the influence of Mr. Tilden, to place this country in the list of mail-clad warrior nations, and it is rather a fascinating proposition to those who entertain pessimistic ideas of man, and believe that all nations are ready to slay and rob when they have a good opportunity.
Capt. F. V. Greene, late of the U. S. engineering corps, appears as the advocate of American fortifications, and at the Massachusetts Reform Club he presented his views substantially as follows: The United States have 3,000 miles of Atlantic and Gulf coast, 2,200 on the lakes, and 1,200 on the Pacific, and have cities on these coasts aggregating a wealth of $6,000,000,000—all exposed to a hostile fleet, which could in a short time destroy everything within cannon-shot from the water, and drive five millions of people from their city homes. The fortification board estimates $120,000,000 as the sum necessary to supply cannon and forts for protection, which is but two per cent upon the amount of property protected.
This is a very satisfactory statement of the case from the average standpoint, which is not the ethical. But in the first place I consider it morally sure that this country will never have a foreign war if it models its national policy on the Divine law; and secondly, whenever war is foreseen as probable in consequence of an intolerable spirit of aggression and the refusal of the hostile party to submit to arbitration, a sufficient number of cannon can be cast and placed on floating batteries or behind iron walls to protect every endangered point. It would be necessary only to know that our foundries were adequate to the task; and the fact that such an armament was preparing would be a sufficient warning to avert a hostile movement. Yet the costly steel cannon, which require such enormous appropriations to prepare for their manufacture on a large scale, are not absolutely necessary. It has been shown by recent experiments that dynamite shells of 150 pounds can be thrown two miles and a quarter by air pressure or steam pressure from light, slender-built cannon, or steel tubes of unusual length, which may be enlarged to compete with the most formidable artillery. A single steel-clad vessel of the Monitor type with such an armament could destroy a squadron.
But let arbitration be known as our fixed national policy—let us secure also the co-operation of other nations pledged to the arbitration policy, and war would be almost an impossibility.
Capt. Greene’s exposition of the necessity of coast defence was clear and forcible, but his concluding remarks gave a glimpse of peaceful purposes. “He supplemented his speech by remarking that the United States will probably be called on before long to be the arbitrator between the nations of Europe. The latter cannot stand the financial strain much longer, and inside of twenty years we shall probably be the equal in population and wealth of any two, if not three, nations of Europe, and to us will be referred all their disputes for settlement. When we become the referees of the world we must have the force behind us, so that when we give a decision we shall be able to enforce it; and this can only be adequately effected by a perfect system of coast defences.”
Commander Burke of the U.S. Navy, who followed Capt. Greene “thought that if the Irish question be settled satisfactorily, there will be no danger of a war with England unless we desire war. He had been advised that the English people, Great Britain and her colonies, look to the Americans to assist them in case of war with any foreign powers, and there is a strong sentiment of friendship for the American people for that reason, if for no other. He believed that the use of high explosives, by which war could be rendered more dangerous, would result in reducing the probability of war.”
Certainly if the United States would lead in a pacific policy, Great Britain, under Gladstone, would unite in the movement, and arbitration would ere long become the policy of the world, and would not long be the established policy before disarmament would follow and the sword be buried forever.