| Show The Price of Puttees Is the Disarmament Proposal All That It App Ap- Ap pears p ars to Be on First Consideration Need to Study How to Comprehend European W World Realities Great interest attaches to the sea sen- proposal sent out from Wash Washington Washington Washington ington inviting all governments to reduce educe their reduce their armaments by third one Such a step would save from rom 10 to 15 billions of wasted dollars to the peoples peoples peo pea ples pies of the world during the next 10 years Now of course every advancement made toward the goal of disarmament disarmaments is s helpful All of us realize that another anther an other ther struggle resembling In extent the he cataclysm of 1914 would make the he present harassed economic state of f mankind look like a golden a age e and nd surely most of us are likewise I aware ware that peace is a moral necessity I Inow now prayed for tor ardently by virtually every very group of Christians whether mindful or not of the papal plea i against war But to indorse these generalities is by no means to approve I of f all methods devised to effect speedy disarmament Two sorts of evidence deserve consideration con con- in weighing this query First First what would the situation in Europe be if U armaments were curtailed curtailed cur cur- tailed by third one-third Here a dual re re- is in order The relative strength of the most strongly armed nations would be considerably lessened less less' lessened ened not only because of special changes o. e. e g g. the change in the ratio of ot French armaments to Italian arma arma- but means but primarily because of th the loss oss of offensive power If France had an army and navy two-thirds two as powerful as those now at its command It t could protect its frontiers but incase incase in inase case ase of threatened attack by two foes it could not undertake a major operation opera opera- ton lion against either Next comes a still graver difficulty If the European nations dismissed a third of their armed men the effect on unemployment ment nent would be alarming In the twinkling winkling of an eye tens and hundreds of f thousands of men would be tossed out ut to swell the ranks of the jobless and nd a host of other people who earn earna a livelihood because the cantonments exIst would also be destitute And Andt I it t is hardly deniable that military service ervice with pay is preferable to idle idle- ness ess on a dole for financial as well as psychological reasons One may mayie be ie permitted to doubt that curtailing the fie army would save much of any any- thing hing It is even more certain th that t Frances France's consent to reductions such suchs as' as s those proposed can hardly be gained unless some compensatory gain of f diplomatic security is offered Second it seems evident that European European Euro Faro peon nations may reasonably dislike getting retting this kind of advice from the United States The point need hardly be e stressed In theory there is little reason eason why American counsel should not lot prove acceptable when g good d. d But ButIn Butin Butin in practice One variety of talk emanating ema ema- from Washington now usually makes the citizen of a continental naion nation na na- tIon ion a trifle annoyed and nd hot around he the the collar This talk invariably has hasa a moral flavor not to mention a suggestion sug sug- that money could be saved in n this or that way The aroma is a trIfle rifle stale and seems most discernible immediately after some refusal to discuss really vital economic prot lems Small wonder to our minds that hat its final effect is not to conciliate hostile nationalistic moods throughout through- through out ut Europe but rather to set one such mood against another more violently than han ever This fact is one thinks think evIdent to all who know the existing state late of ot public opinion in Europe and andie the ie time has come cometo to suggest earnestly that hat the practice of sending peace sermons to Paris and elsewhere be abandoned i To be sure a change in the general attitude of France is very much to be desired If the western world is no noto not notto notto to break up into a series of airtight national compartments each of which will repudiate its in international obligations obligations obliga obliga- while abandoning its efforts to share in international trade the French simply must make a few f ices flees But how about ourselves Unless Unless Un Un- less all economists and banks who have discussed the subject are badly mistaken the United States is far tar more moro dependent than is b France on flourishing world commerce We say that we cannot reduce wartime edness Is it any less natural that Paris should decline to sacrifice a large part of its political hegemony I We declare that mountainous tariff barriers are our defense against in in- I creasing unemployment Can we rightly look upon the Germans as utterly ridiculous when they tell us that giving military training to half hall halfa halla a million men would be a remedy against joblessness This country needs a good many things Among them is surely a course in training to comprehend European and world realities We have become a creditor nation We Weare Weare Weare are also a people whose ships circumnavigate circum circumnavigate circum- circum navigate the globe Fortune has played into our hands to an extent undreamed of in the history of the greatest dynasties But we do not know how to extend credit how to trade how to act diplomatically Our conceit is no longer great but we westill westill westill still perform as if we were conceited It is all a sign that our observation and thinking are not mature Ex Excerpts from an editorial in The CommonweaL Com Com- |
