ARMAMENTS AND THEIR RESULTS. BY ANDREW CARNEGIE THE PEACE SOCIETY, 47, NEW BROAD STREET, LONDON, E.G. 1909. ARMAMENTS AND THEIR RESULTS. BY ANDREW CARNEGIE. THE PEACE SOCIETY, 47, NEW BROAD STREET, LONDON, E.G. 1909. Stac* Urn ARMAMENTS AND THEIR RESULTS. BY ANDREW CARNEGIE. ft RMIES and navies exist and increase solely under the plea that these are the best, and indeed the only, means of ensuring Peace. We deal with three of the axioms urged in their justification. FIRST : " To be prepared for war is the surest way to secure Peace." Answer: If only one nation "prepared," this axiom would be sound ; but when one arms others follow, and the fancied security vanishes. Rivalry between nations ensues, and preparation, so far from promoting Peace, sows suspicion and jealousy, developing into hatred, the prolific seed of future wars between nations hitherto peace- fully disposed. 3 2117598 ARMAMENTS AND THEIR RESULTS. Nations are only aggregations of men, and all human experience proves that men unarmed are less likely to quarrel than men armed. Hence in civilized lands they are debarred from arming. Two neighbours have a difference which a friendly interview would have solved ; but one acts upon the axiom, "In time of Peace, prepare for War," and buys a pistol. Hearing this, the other promptly " prepares." The first decides he is insufficiently "prepared" and buys a six-chambered revolver, an action that is immediately followed by his neighbour. With every additional weapon purchased the premium upon their lives would be promptly raised by insurance companies. These " prepared " men have only to meet by chance, when a word, a gesture, misinterpreted, results in bloodshed, perhaps death. Exactly so with nations. The causes of wars, both between nations and men, are generally of trifling moment. So much depends upon their attitude to each other, friendly or unfriendly. If the former, no dispute but can be peacefully settled ; if unfriendly, no trifle but can create war ; the disposition is all. Hence the folly and danger of nations arming against each other, which must always arouse mutual suspicion, fatal to friendly relations. 4 ARMAMENTS AND THEIR RESULTS. Armaments and true friendship are incom- patible. Even nations in close alliance against other nations must always feel the alliance may give place to other and perhaps hostile alliances. Thus suspicion inevitably follows armaments as shadows follow substance. There is no escape, and suspicion is fatal. SECOND : " Our armaments are intended only for our own protection and are no menace to other nations ; they make for Peace." Answer : So say all the armed nations, and it is true that every nation regards and proclaims its own armaments as instruments of Peace only, because these are meant to protect her from the existing armaments of other nations ; but just as naturally every nation regards every other nation's armaments as clearly instruments of war, and not of Peace, because these may attack her. Thus each nation suspects all the others, and only a spark is needed to set fire to the mass of inflammable material. It is impossible that formidable armaments of one nation should not create alarm among other nations ; although all nations may protest they do not intend to attack, yet they may. Thus armaments, either personal or national, on 5 ARMAMENTS AND THEIR RESULTS. land or on sea, so far from preserving Peace inevitably become in time one of the chief, if not the greatest of all, causes of war, since they sow the deadly seeds of mutual suspicion. The gigantic armaments of our own day have greatly added to this danger, which future additions now under way must inevitably increase. Clearly, increasing armaments is no remedy, since they multiply the dangers of war. THIRD : " Armaments are the cheap defence of nations." Answer: Let us see. Last year Britain spent upon army and navy in round numbers Seventy Millions of Pounds ($345,000,000) ; Germany, ^"48,000,000 ($233,000,000) ; America, ^97,000,000 ($470,000,000), ^32,000,000 ($160,000,000) of this upon war pensions. This expenditure was before the day of Dreadnoughts, now costing about $12,000,000 each, say ^2,250,000. The naval expenditure of nations and hence the dangers of war are to be much greater in the future, and the end thereof, under present ominous conditions, no one can foretell. One point, however, is clear. Neither men nor money will be wanting with any first-class Power involved, since for no cause, unfortunately, can the 6 ARMAMENTS AND THEIR RESULTS. populace of every land be so easily and heavily burdened as for that of foreign war, in which all men are so prone to believe their country in the right. The Remedy : Recently, delegates of the eight naval Powers, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Japan, Britain, America, sitting in London, unanimously agreed to establish an International Supreme Court, to deliver final judgment upon all cases of marine captures, each nation appointing one judge. To such of the smaller nations as apply for admission, seven judges are to be accorded in turn, so that the great maritime nations combined have always a majority, which is common sense. These same eight Powers have only to meet again and decree that hereafter disputes between civilized nations shall be settled in like manner (or by Arbitration) and War becomes a thing of the past. 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