Jl Magazine for your Reading Table
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS' PAGE
1UCRETIUS
thought it pleas
ant to stand upon
the shore and
watch others bat
tling for life in
the waves. For so pagan a landsman
there would doubtless be an added pleas
ure in the knowledge that the drowning
man was a very distinguished admiral.
Admiral Mahan, in his recent editorial,
The Folly of the Hague, in the Semi
Monthly Magazine, makes implications
that cannot possibly be dealt with on a
merely naval basis; all kinds of religious,
moral, humanitarian, legal and commer
cial implications, by the side of which
the problems of all the navies in the
world are utterly insignificant. And
this is the terrible part of the matter from first to last, Admiral
Mahan shows that he is utterly unaware of the vastness of his own
subject-matter.
In all seriousness, I say that the welter of fallacies in his advocacy
of armament took my breath away. Such reasoning, such opposition
to the universal peace movement arises often from a mistaken form of
patriotism; but the noble spirit of true patriotism is not dead, not even
stationary amid our developing
world. The day of serfdom is
over. The little day of everlast
ing fire is over. Duelling has
become a laughing-stock be
tween individuals, and it will
soon seem as great a folly be
tween nations. But the spirit of
patriotism, like the spirit of re
ligion, has moved onward, devel
oping, passing beyond the old
boundaries of nationality as once
it passed beyond the boundaries
of the family and the tribe.
AND what is the argument of
the so-called Pacifists? It i3
simply this: that the law of our
progress has been an unbroken
one from the earliest times to
the present day, and that we
must continue in the same direc
tion, not rest on our present
achievement. The shuttles of
commerce are weaving us into
one body as surely as religion
tells us that we are all members
of one another. The lightnings
that have brought Berlin and
London and New York nearer
to one another today than were
London and Bristol fifty years
ago have made civilization more
like one vast cosmopolitan in
tellect, in which the individuals
answer one another as thought
answers thought, rather than a
collection of independent units.
And against this view of.'a
great world-movement which is
slowly and surely taking place
under our very eyes, what argu
ments do the militarists ad
vance, what arguments does Ad
miral Mahan advance? He says
that the statesmen of the great
civilized Powers can only be pre
vented from international crime
by fear. He says that force cre
ates fear and that fear insures
peace. He follows this up by
WAR RUMORS AND
CHRISTMAS REFLECTIONS
A Reply to Admiral Mahan 5
By Alfred Noyes, English Poet and Peace Advocate
BIG BEN he's as good
to look at as he's
pleasing to hear.
He will call you every day,
either way you say, with a five
minute call, or ten successive
half-minute rings.
Hie Hen is made .in La Salle, Illinois, U. S. A.
by Westclox. He's easy to wind, easy to read,
and pleasing to hear. Price JS2.50 anywhere.
saying that the hideous car
nage in the Balkans would
have been prevented if it had
not been for the fear that the
great Powers had of each
other. And then he laments
the fact that they did not on the spur of
the moment organize themselves into
just such a judicial body as he says it is
impossible to create in times of compar
ative security, just such a judicial body
as the Pacifists are in sober earnest en
deavoring to create. He compares the
statesmen, the senators of Europe, with
the lowest criminals of the city slums,
criminals whom it is hopeless to think of
keeping in check, he says, except by the
police and the organization of law.
And, then, straightway, he speaks of
these senatorial criminals as the administrators of justice!
Next, he protests against all attempts to organize any system of law
between nations, and gives, as a final reason, the fact that it does not
already exist.
It would be a crime against civilization for the great Powers to
abandon their power to bring about such an organization. It is, how
ever, their duty to bring it about. These two ideas are not incom
patible, as Admiral Mahan seems
to think. They are simply com
plementary to one another. Nor
does this movement towards
unity destroy the "profession for
our sons" which is so furiously
maintained by certain unimagi
native classes in Europe. In
that international force, who
' knows but that Admiral Mahan
himself, representing the great
est Republic that the world has
ever known, might find a more
glorious work ready to his hand.
He would not then be forced to
justify the justifiable, while the
fields of Europe sicken the sun
with the dead and defiled bodies
of women and little children.
AT the present moment there
is a private international or
ganization which is an insult to
humanity. Perhaps Admiral Ma
han will tell us what relation to
justice the international ramifi
cations of Messrs. Krupp may
bear. Perhaps they oil its ma
chinery with the best butter, as
the Dormouse of Alice in Won
derland argued. But I am quite
sure that Admiral Mahan, schol
ar, seaman and patriot, has only
to give that side of the case a
moment's consideration, to repu
diate as sternly as any Pacifist,
those evil influences which are,
in -Europe at any rate, the chief
t obstacle to the realization of our
. Iiope and faith in the future.
That hope and that faith are
destined to be realized as soon
as a few very simple facts have
become part of the common con
sciousness. The world is not
yet thoroughly awake, but the
dawn, grey and immense, is al
ready upon us.
CONTEXTS CurYIMUlTKD, 1013. 11V Till: AUCOTr Jt IlltlOiiS COlll'.VM
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