| WHY
should you
fear Germany? What is the imaginary line that separates one nation
from another, if all are the children of one Father?
Are you
a follower of Moses or of Christ? Moses said, "An eye for an
eye," but Christ said, "Return good for evil." Which
needs Dreadnoughts to back it, the law of Moses or the law of Christ?
Do you
three great Kings, George William and Nicholas, wish to keep your kingdoms
by righteousness or by power? Did Napoleon keep what he had won by
power?
Suppose
that you now believed the right is might, that love and kindness are the
masters of hate, and started to put it into practice. Do you not
think that all other potentates would follow you and be grateful to you,
that you had had the wisdom to take the first step?
Suppose
that your Majesty try to get the leading nations each year to allow
one-tenth of their armed forces to disband. Think of the reduction
in taxation. Would not this strengthen your power at home? If
all nations agreed, the units of fighting men that remained each year
would have the same relative strength as now, and if the nations desired
it, the disbanding could stop at the ninth year, the remaining one-tenth
to be under a flag created for the Hague Tribunal, called THE FLAG OF
PEACE. Under this international world's flag, the army and navy
hat remained could be used to carry out the Tribunal's decrees if needed.
Now
while this fixed plan was under way, each nation could prepare its
officers and men for the new conditions they would meet when their turn
came to retire from the employment of the goverment. They could
establish schools in all camps and barracks, where trades could be
taught. Instruction could be given regarding the resources of the
colonies; horticulture, vine-culture, bee-culture, farming, dairying,
etc., could be taught teh men, and when they were disbanded they would at
once have useful knowledge to put in practice in their new walks of life,
as they left the army of war and enlisted in the army of peace.
Truly,
as the war ideas left their minds, they would not be left empty, but would
be filled with higher thoughts of conquering industry, of building up the
greatness of their Fatherland and the colonies.
Thus
Universal Peace would be established forever, and the world would take its
lesson from Norway and Sweden, when they settled their differences without
bloodshed.
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