25 SEPTEMBER 1915, Page 8

MR. ROOSEVELT AND THE AMERICAN PACIPICISTS.

RECENTLY we pointed out the. very curious divergent movements which are going on now in the United States : on the one hand the most widespread pacificist campaign which has ever yet laid siege to the hearts of a rather sentimental people, on the other hand the production in an unceasing succession of books by soldiers and by students of history and war warning the nation that American security (with the Monroe Doctrine and everything else which is characteristic of American policy) rests on nothing more powerful than mere assertion. We called these movements divergent, but in one sense they may be said to be convergent, for if they are persisted in with the present ardour they are bound to collide sooner or later, and to provide a political issue of first-class magnitude. In a number of the Metropolitan, Magazine which has lately reached us, Mr. Roosevelt argues in favour of maintaining peace in the future by the only sure means—preparedness for war. The article recommends a very definite policy—the abandonment of the Philippines, the maintenance of an efficient Navy, a mobile Regular Army (corresponding to our Expeditionary Force) of two hundred thousand men, and National Service on the Swiss system for home defence, Such a declaration coming from an ex•President of invincible vigour and extra- ordinary personality, who has, humanly speaking, many years of political life before him, is obviously an event of the greatest importance. As we read the article we were astonished that we had not heard of it sooner—that the newspapers had not contained, long telegraphic sum- maries of it. The absence of resounding approval and equally loud opposition indicates perhaps the strength and confidence of the pacificist spirit in the United States. Yet we feel sure that in the end Mr. Roosevelt will have his way, because it is the right way. The time will come when the pacificists and semi-pacificists will no longer be able to ignore him. Some terrible danger to the insecure national foundations, or some political humiliation very keenly felt, will bring Mr; Roosevelt back as director and saviour to a new political generation who, in Pope's words, "shall blush their fathers were his foes."

It is of the moral rather than the political side of Mr. Roosevelt's article that we wish to write now. His manner is very refreshing foi its positiveness. We mean in this way— it is quite common form to write of pacificists as though they were excellent people who, while desiring what we all desire, had merely made the mistake of letting their hearts out- balance their heads, and of trusting rather too much to illusions and visions instead of to practical methods. But Mr. Roosevelt will have nothing to do with such a lenient judgment. In pacificism he sees a deliberate and conscious principle of evil in the world, an immoral, fibreless, lethargic, comfort-loving readiness to palter with unrighteousness, IIe lets off easily enough the thousands, or it may be millions, of dupes who follow the lead of the Chrysostons of academic halls. But for the highly educated men who eloquently preach peace at any price he has no mercy. They are wicked men who teach others how to commit "the oldest sins the newest kind of ways." The United States Government, he says, in spite of the signing of the Hague Treaties which make for civilization and humane conduct, have failed to play the part of signatories. They have been guilty of " criminal timidity." Pacificism has merely provided an anodyne and an excuse. " The peace propaganda. of the past ten years in this country has steadily grown more noisy. It received an enormous impetus when, five years ago, by the negotiation of peace-at- any-price or all-inclusive arbitration treaties, and in the last year by the ratification of the thirty odd peace-at-any-price arbitration commission treaties, it was- made part of our national governmental policy." Ire adds that this policy has probably worked more mischief in the United States than all the crookedness in business and politics combined during the same period. For it has "represented more deterioration in character." The man who preaches "non-resistance to wrong" is "rendering a worse service to his countrymen than any exponent of crookedness in politics." Again, still more strongly: "The deification of peace without regard to whether it is either wise or righteous does not represent -virtue. It represents a peculiarly base- and ignoble form of evil." Yet again : " Every league- that calls itself a peace league is championing immorality unless it clearly and explicitly recognizes the duty of putting righteousness before peace." In fine, Mr. Roosevelt's case is that the gentle- ness which consents placidly to cruelty is a shameful obliquity in any nation, and could not exist as a principle of action except among leaders who were losing their hold on all the realities of right conduct. " They make a solitude and call it peace," said Oaraaitacus of the Romans ; but Mr. Roosevelt says in effect of the American pacificists:- "They consent to a hell upon earth and, because- they have kept out of the war, call it the triumph of human progress."

Mr. Roosevelt goes on to search for an underlying canoe of this mental and moral obliquity. Re discovers it in cowardice " Unfortunately this ruthless and brutal [German] efficiency has, as regards many men of the paciflcist type, achieved precisely the purpose ib was intended to achieve. As part of her pro- gram, Germany has counted on the effect of terrorism upon all anon of soft nature. The sinking of the 'Lusitania' was intended primarily as terrorism ; just as the use of poison gas in the trenches (a use defen3ible only if: one also defends the poisoning of wells and the torture of poisoners)- was intended as terrorism. The object—terrorization—has not been achieved as regards the fighting men of England, Prance, Belgium, Russia, Italy, and Serbia. But it has had a distinctive effect in cowing timid persons everywhere. I do not believe it would have any effect in cowing the bulk of our people if our people could be waked up to what has happened ; but I have no question that it has had a very great effect in cowing that noisy section of our people which has talked loudest about peace at any price, The people who say of the present Administration that 'at any rate, it has kept us out of trouble with Mexico or Germany '; the people who say that we ought not to act about the Lusitania '; the people who say we ought not to have acted on behalf of Belgium, include in their r.mks very many of the persons who are cowed by Germany, who are afraid of what Germany would do if' we stood up for our own rights or for the rights of other and weaker peoples. Recently, in certain circles, some popularity has been achieved by a song entitled 'I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier '—a, song which ought always to be sung with a companion piece entitled ' I Didn't Raise My Girl to be a Mothee- The two would stand oa precisely the same moral level.l• If Germany has shown her degraded character in her con- duct of the war, the United States Government -have been " even more contemptible to submit." We do not adopt Mr. Roosevelt's words or convictions. But no reader of the article will miss the sincerity with which they are put for- ward. Mr. Roosevelt places some concrete cases before the pacific-4sta and asks them to give their answers so that they may find out exactly where- they stand.. If the Japanese took Magdalena Bay, or the Germans St. Thomas, would the paoifioists really act willingly on the all-inclusive arbitra- tion commission treaties, -which would. require them to discuss the matter for a- year without taking any action P Or if American women-were raped in Mexico, or American citizens were murdered in their own country by Mexican raiders, would the pacificists really think it right that the matter should be discussed for a year as a preliminary to action ? If they do mean this,. let them say so.- "Bub- from my standpoint," says Mr. Roosevelt, "such aotion. would be inconceivably base and cowardly!'

Mr. Roosevelt else notices the- stiange mental habit in pacificists which causes them to be as lenient- towards the brutality of other countries' as they are horror-struck by violence among their own people.. But is evil less evil in other countries than in one's own P. Finally, Mr. Roosevelt comments on the popular pacificist saying that "war settles nothing?' One wonders how that saying can thrive in a country which won its independende by war, and by war alone settled the questions of Union and Slavery.