J >
Peace Conference at the Hague and Its Origin
JEAN DE 111,00 H
A Russian Book
Tiiid its Effect
ICopyrlg-hted by the S. S. McClure Co. )
oUMOjiVJiiNlMLrKN , Holland , July U. An
L.ugiian tiausiatloa of .u. Henri de illoch's
BIUJ.I work ou war has just been secuied lor
puulicaiion In America.
i\ut the czur , but M. de UlocU , is the
lather ot the puaco conference at The iiague.
it wad my good fortune to s > ee him \vueu be
was ou tue very ground and watching the
tiomeudous lesult of his life's labor.
JM. do iiloch la u uiau of ( Jj. Ho Is bhort.
lie is lat. lie is gray-headed , His bearu is
trluiiued closely to his chili. Great shaggy
eyebrows overhang a pair of piercing eyes.
Al. do llloch , when ho becomes the least
excited , is fierce in appearance and in luau-
iier. lie is the last uiuu who wouid at those
times bo , taken for an advocate 01 peace ,
lie is always excited wheu ho is talking.
liarly in his youth he became impi eased
by the awful horrors of war. lie began to
make u study of them , lie considered the
test of war in misery and in money aud he
considered its results , lie found the U\u
incommensurate. Ho took up every phase
of arguments of .men who had planned means
of preventing war. In those days most of
these men were dreamers and their plans
were wild and unpractical. But llloch did
not despair.
lie was fortunate and the world was for
tunate in that he was immensely rich and
could afford to carry ou his studies un-
tramnieled by the limitations of poverty.
Ho devoted his time to many Important
matters in his own country aud became
loved and honored throughout Poland and
Russia. But never for a moment did ho for
got his one mission that of alleviating the
horrors of war.He studied , studied , studied.
His work was unceasing. His arguments
were unending. From every quarter of the
earth ho gathered material on the subject
which always lilled his mind. At lost , eight
years ago , he had absolutely mastered his
great subject. Ho had not satisfied himself
with knowing all about modern wars and
their miseries ; he had begun at the begin
ning. iHIs Information concerning the early
Greek and Hainan wars was scarcely less
complete than the mass of material he had
gathered concerning the Franco-Prussian and
other great armed struggles of his own
time.
UculiiiiliiK Work.
"At last , eight years ago , " ho said to me ,
"I found myself in a position where I could
really begin my work. Everything up to
that time had been preliminary. I then sat
down and wrote my little book. "
M. do nioch'a English Is somewhat diffi
cult to understand at first. He speaks it in
common with about ten other languages , of
which French and Russian ( his native lan
guage ) is his favorite. Ills English accent
Is somewhat gruff , In keeping with the fierce
expression of his face. But there was noth
ing gruff about the way lie said :
"Lot mo bring you a copy of my little
book. "
Ho left the room and came back In about
five minutes with bis arms full of his "little
book. "
There are elx volumes of that "little
book , " and they nro large volumes. The
edition which ho gave mo had been hur
riedly prepared and was a French transla
tion of the Russian original. The pictures
had been lifted bodily from the Russian
edition and their titles were printed in the
puzzling characters of that difficult lan
guage , lie explained them to me until I
'becamo ' confused by their vast number.
There are 1,200 pictures In M. do Bloch's
little book.
Its first five volumes are devoted to an
exhaustive study of war In all Its branches
and In all Its details , They amount prac
tically to an encyclopedia of everything
connected with battles and with fighting
men. No other one man has ever accom
plished so tremendous a work of research ,
Tbo first volume Is a description of the
mechanism of war , H deals with everything
from the cross-bow of the ancients to the
smokeless powder of today. It tells of
fortifications , It deals of features of attack
and defense ; It omits nothing.
Amcrlcii Overlooked.
The second volume Is headed "The War
Upon the Continent. " Unfortunately , and
now greatly to his own regret , M , de Bloch
ALFRED T. MAHAN.
failed to consider America as a fighting pos
sibility at the time this volume was written.
Ho studies In detail the effectiveness of
European armies , discusses their existing
preparations for war , their plans of mobiliza
tion , the- training of their officers , the train
ing of their soldiers , their camps , their
fortresses , the possibilities of night and day
lighting , the general esprit du corps , the
operations of all of them during the wars
which have occurred in the last century ; In
deed , he omits no one thing which might by
any possibility be useful to the student.
This v.-lume alone contains more than 800
pages.
The third volume Is the briefest and the
least Important of his work. It deals with
naval warfare and the subject Is not com
petently treated.
In the fourth volume ho treats of
economical problems and their probaL.o
effect in the war of the future. It goes into
the subject ( of course intensely Interesting
to America ) of the supply and maintenance
of troops. It considers the cost of the
military aa compared with the revenues of
all nations. It shows what tremendous ad
vances in relative cost will mark the war
of the future. It points out the Inequality
of the' preparations for war made by dif
ferent European countries , and It shows the
Influence different factors have on the spirit
of armies and the character of their prepara
tions for war.
The fifth volume tells of the development
of the idea that may lead toward peace. It
goes Into detail concerning the literature of
perpetual peace among civilized peoples. It
deals with socialism , with anarchy and with
the propaganda of anti-militarism. It tells
of the different Ideas of various countries
concerning causes for war. It discusses the
Influence of armies actually In existence
upon the people of the different countries.
U goes Into the matter of wounds and sick
nesses resulting from war most exhaustively
oven to the point of calculating the pene
tration and general effect of every bullet
now in use by a civilized nation. The mar
velous detail of this volume cannot be de
scribed In a brief artlcl * , . No possible
point Is omitted and every conceivable de
tail Is given In full. The records of Uie
United States government concerning the ef
fects of wounds during the civil war have
never been more completely summarized
than are the studies of M. de Bloch in this
volume.
JtliiKiiltiiilu of the Work.
But It is In the sixth volume that M. de
Bloch says those things which It has been his
mlbsion to say. Over thirty different hcad-
FREDERICK HOLLS.
lugs , each one elaborate In Its detail , ale
covered In this one book. I am not writing
a criticism of M. de Blocli's "War. " I am
merely trying to give an Idea of the magni
tude of the work. I doubt if there la a human
being today who Is competent to criticise
M. Bloch's marvelous book Certainly no one
have In my possession some typewritten
copies In French and English of his notes on
lias ever studied the subject aa he has. I
certain subheads on the one matter of the
Impossibility of aiding wounded ou the field
of battle. His revised and condensed notes
amount to fifty closely typewritten pages.
An extremely brief sketch of what he haste
to say about the penetration of modern
rifle bullets covers forty-three pages.
It IB in the sixth volume that he sum
marizes his arguments. Before it Is half
finished he leaves his descriptions of war
and his data concerning battles and sol
diers and begins to speculate on tbo possi
ble ways of preventing international con
flicts. In order to justify the statement
which I make near the beginning of this
article , that M. do Bloch and not the czar
Is the father of the peace conference , < I
must again call the reader's attention to
the fact that this book alone occupied in the
mere writing eight full years , and that be
fore he could begin writing It ho had to
spend almost an entire lifetime in the
gathering of information. Thus his Idea
long antedated the czar's. His plan of in
ternational arbitration as suggested In this
final volume of bis book is almost Identical
with the plan laid down by the czar In the
call for a peace conference , which he Issued
to the nations of the earth.
After M. de Bloch had 'brought ' in his
"little book" to me he spoke very freely
concerning the international European situ
ation. He discussed the terrific burden of
armament which the nations of Europe are
obliged to carry and talked of the awful
hardships which compulsory military serv
ice works upon the citizens of the countries
where It is practiced.
Of himself he would Bay nothing.
At the Mountain House
i
Puck : "Isn't It magnificent ? " exclaimed
the enthusiastic boarder. "I've always
wanted to see a storm In the mountains.
You remember Byron's lines , of course ?
"From peak to peak , the rattling crags
among.
Leans the live thunder. "
"It sort of worries me , " replied the other
party.
"Why ? Are you afraid of lightning ? "
"Rather. I am afraid the landlord may
charge for this storm In his bill. "
ANDREW D. WHITE.
A Famous Feud
Senator Chandler of Now Hampshire , who
has just had a warm controversy with bis
colleague , Senator Galllnger , over civil serv
ice reform , was tbo central figure in a
famous controversy. In the senate In 1879 , of
which ex-Senator Ingalls writes In the Sat
urday Evening Post of Philadelphia. The
pending question was a bill pensioning Mexi
can soldiers. As this would include all
southerners who fought in that war , the bill
orovoked a sectional debate. Senator Hoar
offered an amendment excluding Jefferson
Davis from the operation of the act. This
precipitated a crisis. Senator Garland
eulogized the president of the confederacy
and Senator Hoar retorted , "Two of the
bravest officers of our revolutionary war
were Aaron Burr and Benedict Arnold. "
Senator Lamar jumped into the breach
with an Impassioned speech , concluding with
these words : "When Prometheus was bounJ
to the rock , it was not an eagle , It was a
vulture that buried his beak in the tortured
vitals of the victim ! "
During this eulogy and exculpation of
Jefferson Davis the northern senators sat
in silence ; the boldness of the performance
was paralysing ; such an emergency had not
been anticipated. No one was ready. Tbo
passionate and excited spectators In the gal
leries wondered "why no champion of the
north took up the glove.
Toward the clcso of the debate a note
fluttered over the balustrade of the north
east gallery , and , wavering in the hot air ,
was caught in its descent 'by ' a page , who
carried it to Senator Chandler of Michigan ,
to whom it was addressed. It was written
on a leaf torn from a memorandum book ,
without signature , and begging him In God's
name to say something for the unlou sol
diers and for the north.
He read the anonymous note brought from
the gallery. The black fury of his eyes
blazed from the pallor of his face. At the
first opportunity ho obtained the floor and
delivered a tremendous philippic against
Jefferson Davis. It was evidently wholly
unpremeditated , and therefore the more ef
fective.
He said : "Mr. President , twenty-two
years ago tomorrow , in the old hall of the
senate now occupied by the supreme court
of the United States , I , in company with
Mr. Jefferson Davis , stood up and swore
before Almighty God that I would support
the constitution of the United States. Mr.
Jefferson Davis came from the cabinet of
Franklin Pierce Into the senate of the
United States and took the oath with mete
to be faithful to this government. During
WEST END OF THE LAGOON , GREATER AMERICA EXPOSITION.
SETH LOW.
four years I sat In this body with Mr. Jef
ferson Davis and saw the preparations going
on from day to day for the overthrow of
this government. With treason In his
heart and perjury upon his lips ho took the
oath to sustain the government that ho
meant to overthrow.
"Sir , there was method in that madness. (
He , In co-operation with other men from his
section and In the cabinet of Mr. Buchanan ,
made careful preparation for tbo ovcnt that
was to follow. Your armies were scattered
all over this broad laud , where they could
not bo used in an emergency ; your fleets
were scattered wherever the winds blow and
water was found to float them , where they
could not be used to put down rebellion ;
your treasury was depleted until your bonds ,
bearing G per cent , principal and Interest
payable in coin , were offered for 88 cents
on the dollar for current expenses , and no
buyers. Preparations were carefully made.
Your arms were sold under an apparently
innocent clause in an army bill providing
that the secretary of war might , at his dis
cretion , sell such arms as ho deemed it for
the interest of the government to sel'l.
"Sir , eighteen years ago Jast month I sal
in these halls and listened to Jefferson Davis
delivering his farewell address , informing
us what our constitutional duties to this
government were , and then he left and en
tered into the rebellion to overthrow the
government that he had sworn to support !
I remained here , sir , during the whole of
that terrible rebellion. I saw our bravo
soldiers by thousands and hundreds of thou
sands , aye , I might say millions , pass
through to the theater of war , and I saw
their shattered ranks return. I saw steam
boat after steamboat and railroad train after
railroad train arrive with the maimed and
the wounded ; I was with my friend from
Rhode Island ( General Burnsldc ) when ho
commanded the 'Army ' of the Potomac and
saw piles of legs and arms that made
humanity shudder ; I saw the widow and
orphan In their homes and heard the weep
ing and wailing of those who had lost their
dearest and their best. Mr. President , I
little thought at that time that I should live
to bear In the senate of the United States
eulogies upon Jefferson Davis living a living
rebel eulogized on the floor of the senate of
the United States ! Sir , I am amazed to
hear it and I can tell the gentlemen on the
other side that they little know the spirit
of tbo north when they come hero at this
day and with bravado on their lips utter
eulogies upon a man whom every man ,
woman and child in the. north believes to
be n doublo-dyed traitor to his government. "
Typewritten Records
The permanency of typewritten records Is
a subject of no llttlo Importance , says the
Albany Law Journal , and It is worthy of
note that a series of experiments Is being
conducted In Bcston with a view of estab
lishing the relative value of the leading
brands of typewriter ribbons. Robert T.
Swan , tbo state commissioner of public
records for the state of Massachusetts , Is
doing some good work In this direction , lie
IInds that of the different colors used for
typewriter ribbons , the red , green , ' lue mid
purpre are not permanent , black being the
only one that will stand the tests to which
ho subjects the writing.
The legislature of Massachusetts , which
recently adjourned , passed an act permit
ting typewritten records to bo accepted as
olllcial when approved by tbo commissioner
of public records , New York , Pennsylvania
and New Jersey having previously taken
similar action. In older words , no such
records will bo accepted unless the mate
rials used arc up to the standard , and the
commissioner Is expressly authorised by
the statute referred to to withdraw Ills ap
proval1 at any tlmo when bo shall find that
the articles used fall below such standard
This Is a very Important matter which
should bo acted upon In every state , for the
fading of public records BO as to become
Illegible is something that ought to bo care
fully provided against , otherwise It wore
much better to keep In force the provision
that legal records shall bo written anl'y with
pen and ink.
It Is possible , wo think , to produce typewritten -
written records that are quite as permanent
as any produced by writing with a pen , and
In view of the greater legibility of the
former , as well as their economy of produc
tion , It Is desirable that this should bo dono.
While the states generally bava no official
corresponding to the commissioner of pub
lic records In Massachusetts , it ought to bo
made somebody's business to supervise the
matter of permanency of public records ,