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Show Gladstone and Disarmament I. Universal Peace, the Grand Old Man Declared, If It Eve- Came Would Be Based Upon Strength, Fear and Power. "I never read of the proceedings of peace conventions or associations without wondering what would have been the result had Gladstone taken part in the proceedings. For it was my good fortune to learn from his own lips what he thought of disarmament and universal peace," said Senator Chauncey M. Depew at a time when universal peace proposals were assailing assail-ing the ears of the nations. "It happened upon an occasion shortly after Gladstone had resigned the office of premier in June, 1S85. I was a guest at a dinner in London at which were assembled some of the leading men in British public life, one or two governors of the Bank of England, Eng-land, and two or three of the great financiers of Europe. Mr. Gladstone was there as the f uest of honor. "Before the dinner had gone far I began to learn at first hand of the manner in which Gladstone collected that fund of detailed information which made him the wonder of everyone ev-eryone in Europe who knew him. He turned to one of the financiers. " 'How much gold do you expect from Australia this year?' he asked. "When he was told the amount I have forgotten what it was, several millions he turned to another financier. finan-cier. " 'How much gold is India going to send us?' he asked. 'Are they producing pro-ducing any gold In the Lahore district? dis-trict? How do they transport the gold from the mines at Lahore to the seaport?' "The answers called for received, ' Mr. Gladstone's next question was put to me, and when I had answered as best I could regarding this country's production of gold, similar questions were directed to others at the table. Then, for a moment, the Grand Old Man was silent. 'Ah,' he said, breaking break-ing his silerce, 'the world is producing produc-ing about an hundred millions of new gold a year and England ought to get at least half of it.' He had in his mind for future reference and use. "The conversation was changed and some one, spoke about the question of disbanding the armies of Europe and :urtailing the building of navies. " 'How large a standing army has Germany?' asked Mr. Gladstone of one of the gentlemen near by, and receiving receiv-ing the answer he asked successively of as many men how large were the standing armies of France, Italy and Russia. Then he turned to me. 'Mr. Depew,' he said, 'you have no standing stand-ing army in the United1 States worthy of the name. You have Qnly your militia.' I told him that his information informa-tion on the subject was correct. "Gladstone was again silent for a moment or two, evidently, making mental computations. At last he looked up, and as he did so began to speak in that wonderfully deep and perfectly modulated voice of his. " 'Well, gentlemen,' he said, 'the standing armies of Europe number one million men. I speak in round numbers; the figures are approximate ly correct. Therefore, in view of that fact, I tell you that In my opinion opin-ion the talk of disarmament is absurd, ab-surd, because it is impossible. The day is many generations distant, and the nature of individuals, as well as of nations, must be greatly changed before disarmament will ever he a fact or anything else than a vague, hypothetical condition. We may have peace, hut it will be peace based upon strength, fear and power." (Copyright, 1910, by E. J. Edwards. All Rights Reserved.) |