War's 'Vested Interests.'

New York Times 100 years ago today, May 21, 1913:
Mr. Pease Tells Peace Society Many Persons Are Affected by Them.
    LONDON, May 20.—" Welcoming such promising incidents as the new regime of peace in America and the preparations now in progress for the celebration of the completion of one hundred years of peace between Great Britain and the United States" was the prominent phrase of a resolution moved by the President of the Board of Education, the Right Hon. Joseph Albert Pease, and adopted with acclamation at the ninety-seventh annual meeting of the Peace Society, held at the Mansion House to-day under the Presidency of the Lord Mayor of London.
    Mr. Pease was the principal speaker. He said it was a matter of much congratulation to the country that within a few months it would be able to celebrate with nearly 100,000,000 Americans a centenary of peace. He referred to the disappearance of the strained relations which had existed between Great Britain and Germany, and uttered a warning against what he described as one of the great dangers of to-day, namely, the fact that an enormous number of people were pecuniarily interested in the production of armaments, which threatened to become a vested interest, and to get control of the nation, as did the liquor trade a few years back.
    A message form Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary, to the meeting, said that, though these causes were working for war. "I am conscious that there are also greater causes working for and strengthening the cause of peace."