WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 16 June 1880, Page 2

WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?

(From the Spectator.) We confess that perfectly useless and very feminine platitude is the one which rises first to our lips, as we read tliat Prince Bismarck has asked the Federal Council r 0- another Corps d' Armee, a. d has stated as I.i _ reason that France and Russia are increasing their armaments. Here is the strongest military empire in the world, which conquered Austria in sevtn weeks and France in as many months, which can already call all healthy males to battle, for which tbey have all been trained ; which possesses an army so officered and so organised that no army in Hurope would venture to meet it on equal terms ; which is not only great in the world, but so dreaded tbat its diplomacy has taken an unfortunate accent of command — and still its ruler, who himself controls all policy and is tbe centre of all great political enter* prises in Europe, publicly declares tbat he must haye more men, and thafc tbe empire is not safe. And it is certain, in the present condition of German opinion, that he will obtain them, as oertain as that when be has obtained them Bussia wil! add to her artillery, France wil! begin accumulating cavalry, Austria will call out new regiments of Slavs, and Italy will incur fresh debt upon larger and larger supplies of ironclads and cans nons. What is to be the end of it all ? Already the whole youth of tbe Continent gives up three years of its best working time to sterile drilling. Already tbe peace armies number two m llions of men, five times the largest army Imperial Borne ever maintained ; already the expenditure exceeds £120 000,000 a year, without counting loss of labor, That is to say, the interest at 4 per cent of three thousand millions sterling is wasted npon armaments ; and, if we allow only 10s a week for the average value of each con» script's labor, £50,000,000 a year more is expended in unproductive toil ; and the total capital sunk in a non-productive en'erprise is more than four thousand millions* Imagine what statesmen like Peel or Gladstone, or even Dc Freycinet, could do for mankind with that sum ; and yet, if they expanded it, tbe interest would be less than the sums now spent on armies in time of ' peace.' They could cover Europe with railways, or make enlightenment universal, or extinguish the horrors of pauperism, for tbe cost of 'he armies only. And what is the result cf it all? Security p The Kings, as Mr Bright with humorous exaggeration said at Birmingham, pass their time mainly in congratulating each otiier on their es« capes from assassination, the nations feel as insecure as if they had no defence, and the working populations are distressed till tbeir irritability shakes all governments. There is deep unrest everywhere, a sense as of overfatigue, a popular looking- forward, not for a miU lennium, but for some colossal eatas« trophe, such as a European war, in which all prosperity shall be submerged, a tension such as half makes statesmen wish that the catacylsm would come and be over. The world is devoting its knowledge, its treasure, and its youth to preparation for war, until, to sum up the situation in one terrib'e though mercantile sentence, the stock of hope held by mankind has declined throughout the world by ten per cent. Well may the Peace Party shriek louder than ever. We cannot believe its theories or accept its doctrines, but if ever they seemed true, if ever tbe facts were on tbeir side, if ever it was impossible for sober men to answer them, yet speak the truth, it is so now. We, who hold that war has been, and may be again, God's instrument for securing the triumph of the right, are forced, like them, to exclaim that through war the situation of mankind is becoming unendurable. And we see ahead no prospect of amelioration, no gleam of blue in the sky. Germany will not disarm, and until she disarms Furope will go on increasing and perfecting her forces. Prince Bismarck's death may make no difference, for the weaker men than he who will succeed him may lean as much as he does upon material power : and the nations, all armed, will snarl as fierely, though tbe great disturber is at rest. There is no chance, to human eyes, from a religious revival in the interest of peace : on the contrary, thafc Christianity which believes in the Sermon on the Mount is temporarily dying down. The hatred of tbe people for the system, though it is growing, till it is full grown does bnt tempt their rulers to enlarge their means of compulsion and repression— -that is, their armies. They arm against their people as wel! as against the enemy. The ' strain ' nf which so much is said, and which, according to the Times is one day to produce disarmament, is fel f : but its it. fluence is n"t in the direction of fewer battalion*;, German?, winch feels it most, showina her mental exhaustion not in a decrease of conscripts, but in a decay of political interest, a deeper pessimism in philosophy, an angrier resignation to destiny in tbe daily business of life. ' Strain!' There is strain everywhere visible and recognised, and the Eussian autocrat decrees that this year tbe conscripts be one hundred the usand more, and the German philosopher argues that there sboubM c forty more batteries, and the Italian tradesman grant- another company *. er regiment, and the French peasant or his

representatives, votes that there be 8 large extension of cavalry, and that there be no chaplains in the army. All men share the craze, tiil we might say that the very trees voted themselves to make carbon for tbe powder. The strain is like tbat strain of the muscles which men try to relieve by Lickiug ou'. N 0 doubt the tension is too areat to last, but how will it be relieved P Not by a diminution of numbers, but by tbat decline in tbe energy and brain to u.e them, in that laboriousness of drill and practice, which always follows such efforts, and which reduced tbe Prussian army that won Bossbach and Zorndorf to the Prussian army which lost Jena. There is no hope for mankind in that form of relaxation which does not diminish the burden, but only saps the strength of tbe muscles by which, in theory, the burden is at last to be made useful. A bad army burdens the people as much as a good one. Then tbey talk in the Times, and other such reservoirs of platitudes, of ihe growing wisdom of mankind, which is to limit the armies. We speak of this generation, not of a future Utopia, and ask, Where are the .igns of the wisdom P Where is the ra. 3 in Europe, the country, the ruler, which is absolutely refusing to join in tbe mad struggle, which is diminishing its equipment, or even thinking that it would be well if equipment were reduced. Why, even in En^laud, statesmen, with votes in supply to cirry, are no longer vexed with Mr Uichard ; they know so weil that his aggressive peacefulness will be regarded as a mere couns.l of perfection, useless for our aue and circumstances. It used to be said that ' war is a game which, were tlieir subjects wise, kings would not play at ;' but the subjects are ruling, and spending themselves in preparations for this very game. There is not a country in Europe — not even Eussia — where, if the people were convinced of the fol!y of this wild straining after an impossible security — were ' wise' in the poet's sense — the Government could avoid disarmament ; but the people approve, or at all event,-? sanction, every addition to their military power, and in most countries tbe rage for it, the craz*. for more men, more cannons, more fortresses, increases witb the s-uljeel 's education and experience, that is, with bis presumable ' wisdom.' The most ' educated * people in the world — the Germans— set the example of the largest armies The growth of knowledge affords no ground of hope. Science has been seized by the soldiers, tii! electricity conveys orders for war, and steam is called on to carry commissariat and cannon ; and in the farthest corner of Africa, flying enemies, hid ng in caves, are blown up, like Czars of Bussia, with dynamte. The greatest feat in railroad making of our day has been performed by Sir B. Temple, in laying down 130 miles of railway in 101 days \ and' it is done in order that we may bold down Candahar — where we have no business to be*— and attack Herat — whither it is almost lunacy to go, And finally, to exhaust a subject so dreary that readers are reluctant fo dwell on it. we see little hope eyen in the desperate remedy of exhaustion. The military preparations which so press on the nations are not intended for war, but against war, are on so vast a scale that their own authors shrink from using tbem, and are so perfect that when used the nations are too dazzled by the results to see the cost. Europe may remain twenty years thus loaded down with armor without a war. It is the special aggravation of tbis new waste of human energies that it is interminable, that it settles nothing finally, that the consequence of war is not peace, but a condi** tion of further preparation, in which victory and defeat alike are used as argu? menfs for further preparations. Germany is victor, and becomes a camp ; France is vanquished, and becomes a parade-ground. Germany is united, and must therefore be drilled ; Italy is united, and must therefore be drilled ; the Balkan peninsula is disunited, and must therefore be drilled. Whatever the circumstances, or the sacrifices, or the hopes, there must be more and ever snore men d -lied, more expenditure on preparations for war, more devotion by rulers to military work, m«re surrender o r citizens to disciplinary training. It is as if men had agreed once m^re that war was their primary business, and that all the obj cts of lie ought, in common wisdom, to be postponed to that supreme object of ins fluting dea'h so speedily and seien*. tiSc illy that it should be safe to return home, — and devote the remainder of life to labor, for the purpose of rewarding more and yet m^re drillmasrers.