Show ARMAMENT ARl AND PEACE WAR WAR-is iR is a calamity Everybody hates and fears It The statesman who denounces It Is 15 always sure of loud applause from the galleries When he turns upon armament there is renewed applause from the same source To oppose armament in the popular popular lar bellef belief is to fight war But this view is not unanimous A not unimportant body of thinkers holds that armaments instead of provoking war tend to prevent it the standpoint of this school disarmament is both a menace to peace peace and an economic blunder Military equipment the friends of preparedness preparedness pre pre preparedness point out creates an enormous de demand dc- dc mand for commodities especially metals No military establishment is complete without plenty of copper quantities of steel stores of ot lead and supplies of mercury zinc vanadium and other of the less common metals To disarm would be to cut of off a large de demand demand demand de- de mand for tor mine products and miners It would further overcrowd the outlets where technological improvements have cr created a aw w superfluity of labor OV Over J and n under armament the preparedness preparedness prepared- prepared u ness ness ness people aver are purely purel relative If It all nations increase or decrease their equipment on en the same scale tile trie Inducement to fight is neither greater nor less They may be mistaken The Influence of armament on war warts waris is a question of ot psychology Disarmament may be in t tie the e interest of peace c t But there is no doubt a after ter we weighing the arc arguments ar- ar c gume tS dispassionately that all the logic is 18 1 not on the side of the disarmers |