BY
JOHN EDWARD OSTER
A militarist is a blind, heartless, soulless, murderous, irrational
being. He is not a man. He is a savage either in heart or manners or
both, and is not even a brute, for a brute kills only in self-defense,
or for the want of food. He has the feelings, thoughts and inclinations
creditable to the worst beast, but not to civilized man.
Without the slightest doubt, the lowest occupation that a man can have
is to be a militarist, and it matters not if it is his vocation,
avocation, or, whether he is merely an abettor, accessory or accomplice.
When he becomes active he is a soldier and then he can no longer
distinguish right from wrong, and as far as humanity is concerned, he
ceases to think, and is not allowed to reason under any circumstances,
and his only alternative is obedience to the commands of his superior,
or he is shot with less compunction than a stray dog.
Uncompromising obedience is the first law of militarism, consequently,
he obeys without hesitation when ordered to fire on his fellow citizens,
on his nearest friends, on his fond children, on his aged parents, or
even on his beloved wife. When he is ordered to fire down a crowded
thoroughfare where poor non-combatants and emaciated victims of military
rule are clamoring for bread, he instantly obeys and sees the wrinkles
of old age filled with gore, and the gray hair of fathers and mothers
stained with red blood, and streams of life blood gushing from the
mangled breasts of helpless women, feeling neither pity nor compunction
of conscience.
The militarist is responsible either directly or indirectly for the
state of mind which causes these cruelties. The mind is so calloused by
the spirit of inhumanity which the militarist fosters, and by the
atrocities which according to his reasoning he rightfully practices,
that without giving a thought, he will, when appointed as a member of a
firing squad to execute an illustrious hero or public benefactor, shoot
him down without hesitation, although knowing that the bullet kills one
of the noblest men who ever lived on earth.
The militarist thinks in terms of bloodshed, and measures everything in
terms of force, hence, his encouragement of the use and application of
murderous machinery and methods by the nations of the earth.
The militarist is responsible for the existence of the soldier, whose
mind, conscience, life, and very soul are in the keeping of his
officers, for all that was human in him, all that was religious in him,
and everything that constitutes the distinctive qualities of manhood was
sworn away when he took the oath of enlistment.
The mind of the militarist is bounded on the North by Blood, on the East
by Envy and Hate, on the South by Sorrow, Horrors and Distress, and on
the West by Demolition, Destruction, Devastation and Gore.
The militaristic mind travels in a trench by stage coach, lives in a
cave, reads ancient tomes by candle light, thinks of the enemy skulking
about, and fears that an antagonist is lurking in every nook and corner,
and that behind every tree and fence foes are lying in ambush. It is
blind to everything that has happened since the dawn of civilization,
and is seemingly ignorant of the results of progress and of almost every
matter of common knowledge regarding civilized conditions of life. It
requires proof of what every mind knows—that we are not bloodthirsty
cannibalistic enemies—and in spite of that construes plain English
language and International Law to mean something entirely different from
what Webster ever imagined or any other mind would deem possible.
Be it remembered, however, that while the Militaristic Mind lives under
the conditions before stated, the Militaristic Personage uses
electricity, the telephone, telegraph, aeroplane, the Palatial Hotel,
long range telescopes, high explosives, rapid firers, and all other
modern conveniences and luxuries produced by civilization, which the
Militaristic Mind ignores—the owner of the Militaristic Mind being
entirely distinct from the Mind itself, and quite fully aware of changed
conditions.
The Militaristic Mind is unable to see anything but fighting, which in
reality is wholesale murder, but as he sees it, it is merely right being
packed up by might, as was believed in the dark uncivilized days when
wild tribes first banded together for purposes of massacre on a larger
and more effective scale. It teetotally objects to change in the
settling of disputes between nations, and still wishes to annihilate the
enemy who has the unbridled audacity to disagree, and still wishes to
continue smashing and cutting the enemy to pieces rather than recognize
civilized methods of settling international misunderstandings, methods
in harmony with the times.
To the Militaristic Mind the idea that life is more sacred than property
is the most abhorrent possible. The Militaristic Mind, however, has
great merits and shows great possibilities when occasionally it breaks
from its fetters, and would be a very excellent sort of mind if it was
only humane as well as inhuman; but being the latter apparently prevents
it from being the former. But there is hope for the Militaristic Mind.
It has been getting so many shocks and severe jolts in the past few
months that a fissure must soon appear in it through which common sense
and the ideas of modern civilization will penetrate and seep in, and in
time undermine its rock-ribbed precedents and prejudices.
Freed from the smoke, rust, and cobwebs which now enmesh it everybody
will admire and respect it, instead of being, as nearly everybody is
now, irritated by it.
Everything considered, no man can fall lower in the scale of humanity
than a militarist—it is a depth beneath which we cannot go, for the
greatest thing in the world is man, and the greatest thing in man is
mind, therefore, one who concocts and schemes to destroy ruthlessly and
wantonly, the greatest thing in the world, is the worst enemy the world
contains, and the rock bottom of the depth has been reached by this arch
murderer.
There is no such thing as being neutral in this regard. Every individual
is either a militarist, or he is opposed to it. When the sheep are
separated from the goats, one camp or the other will be supported by an
extra member, and that extra member is you, therefore be sure and be
counted on the right side.
Having to choose between the two alternatives of safety and war, or in
other words between peace, good will and hell, strange to say, some
choose the worst, which seems incredible and leads one to think them
helplessly hopeless. The time is at hand for the population of the world
to recognize the fallacy of force and the perniciousness of that
abominable, detestable doctrine, by inaugurating conciliatory methods
appropriate to the present standard of civilization.
A PEACE SUGGESTION
IN A WARLIKE GUISE—AN EFFECTIVE POLICY OF NAVAL DEFENSE FOR THE UNITED
STATES AT A MINIMUM COST
Samuel Lake, who is called the father of the “even-keel submarine,” a
device the use of which has given the German submarines such terrible
efficiency, gives some interesting views of the future of this terror of
the seas in an interview published in a prominent daily paper. We have
all seen during the past year how mechanical and chemical invention has
added to the horrors of war. The query most vital to the future of peace
is as to whether the further development and perfection of such devices
will not make war so horrible that it will be impossible.
Mr. Lake is the head of a great submarine shipyard at Bridgeport, Conn.,
and speaks with the authority of an expert.
He expresses his firm belief that when the submarine is fully recognized
and when the governments of the great nations fully prepare themselves
for defense and offense with such craft, “there and then naval war will
cease!”
Submarine preparedness will not end marine warfare merely by making it
horrible, for horrors do not deter men from belligerency, but by making
successful operations by other naval vessels impossible. Mr. Lake thinks
that Germany has been moved to keep her fleet locked up in safe harbors
more by fear of the allied submarines than by fear of the allied
dreadnoughts. It is to be noted that the Allies have not made such
effective use of submarines in this war as the Germans have, but this is
not because the Allies are not equipped with these under water craft.
They have, in the aggregate, more than Germany has, but they have had
few German sea-going craft to operate on. The German merchant marine was
swept from the seas at the very outset of hostilities, and the German
fighting craft, except the submarines, have been kept safely hidden.
Applying his theory to the elucidation of a proper defensive policy for
the United States, Mr. Lake says: “The United States can make itself so
strong that it will be practically beyond attack by providing itself
with a sufficient number of submarines of a defensive type.” In this
view the creation of a big submarine navy by this country would not be a
policy of aggression, for the submarines can not be effectively used to
attack shore defenses or to land armies abroad, but it would be simply a
provision of prudence to guard our own shores from hostile fleets and
hostile armies.
A fleet of submarines, provided with sufficient freeboard and buoyancy
to permit themselves to ride at anchor comfortably in all weathers,
fitted with submarine signals, searchlights, sound-receiving apparatus
and wireless, if there were enough of them to form a cordon about the
city or harbor to be defended, could not, in Mr. Lake’s opinion, be
beaten.
He estimates the number needed for the effective defense of our east and
west coasts at one hundred and fifty, the cost of which would not be
more than the cost of five super-dreadnoughts. He also believes that the
speed of the submarines can be developed to 25 knots an hour, which is
the maximum speed of the larger and heavier craft of the great navies.
This would enable them to surround the big battleships coming near our
coast, and in many cases to pursue them farther out to sea. The smaller
ones could be shipped by rail if it should be found necessary to quickly
concentrate a fleet of under sea boats at any particular point on sea
coast or lake or river. These smaller submarines Mr. Lake calls
amphibious boats, and they would be in addition to the large submarine
craft stationed in or near the harbors. In a comprehensive statement of
the general merits of this plan of national defense, the inventor says:
“The moment a hostile fleet appeared near any port, submarines could
be rushed to that port in such numbers as were deemed necessary—and
they would ‘get’ the hostile fleet. No doubt about it.
“Really, for coast defense, such a fleet of submarines could be more
speedily mobilized than the fastest fleet of battle cruisers and super
dreadnoughts.
“If an attack threatened Charlestown, submarines could proceed by rail
from New York at thirty-five miles an hour, in certain safety.
“Delivery of such boats as I refer to could begin within nine months,
and three or four a month could be delivered thereafter, using only
existing facilities.
“We have plenty of shops which could turn out the gasoline engines
they would need. Diesel oil engines are superior for a boat can be run
twice as far on a given quantity at one-fifth the cost, and the heavy
oil used in Diesel engines is non-explosive, but the disadvantages of
gasoline could be largely overcome by carrying the fluid in tanks
outside the boat. Thus a supply for 500 miles of cruising could be
carried without danger.
“I believe this suggestion for the provision of amphibious submarines
to be the most important suggestion for the defense of the United
States which has been made in many years. It offers the quickest, the
most effective, and the least expensive defense so far imaginable.
“Our capacity for turning out craft of this type would be enormous.
“All lake and ocean yards could build the hulls, all the automobile
and boat engine building plants could build engines for them, and
there are several electric appliance and storage battery plants that
could build the electrical equipment.
“To my mind, the day is close at hand when the only safe place for a
battleship will be an interned pond closely protected against land
attack.
“And let us consider the cost of maintaining such a defensive fleet in
time of peace, comparing it to the cost of the conventional modern
naval fleet. To man a submarine of the coast defense type will require
twenty men, while the amphibious submarines which I have suggested can
be manned by crews of ten men each.
“Say we had fifty of the amphibious boats. That would require a total
of 500 men. Estimate the force necessary to man the coast defense type
at 3,000 men. Thus, less than 4,000 men would give us a perfect
defense for every harbor in America, and, I think, could prevent any
invading force from landing elsewhere on our shores.
“The system would be immensely superior to our present coast defense
system, each fort or group of forts of which defends only a small
radius of territory immediately adjacent thereto. This submarine
defense, through its mobility, would defend not only our harbors, but
every inch of our shore line.”