Peace Is Near, But Nations Arm.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 2, 1913:
New German and French Military Preparations Make Europe Wonder.
MUCH OPPOSITION AT HOME
But the Increase of Armaments Is Taken as a Serious Matter and a National Duty.
ENGLISH CAMPAIGN A JOKE
Airship Scares and Compulsory Service Proposals Fail to Excite the British Nation.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, March 1.— While the prospects are growing daily brighter that peace will be reached in the Balkans and no other crisis come to menace peace, it seems anomalous that the nations of Europe should be increasing their preparations for war.
    Yet such is the fact. Doubtless it has its excuse in the theory, "Si vis pacem, para bellum." (If you want peace, prepare for war.) Germany, according to the latest estimates, is preparing to spend $240,000,000 on extra military expenses over and above the regular army and navy budget during the next four years, while the French military authorities are asking for a first appropriation of $100,000,000 for a similar purpose, with every likelihood of more being wanted later.
    In both countries there is a strong current of opposition to the increased military expenditures. This is indicated not only by the fact that the powerful Socialist Parties of France and Germany have issued a joint protest, but also by the vehement denunciations of a considerable part of the press of both countries.
    For the moment, however, the militarists appear to have the upper hand. Great as was the rejoicing with which the boon of a reduced military service was welcomed in France, the feeling which is described as "the New Spirit" animating that country, is declared to be responsible for a complete change of view on the part of young Frenchmen. The result of general inquiries instituted by The Paris Temps, as already reported, prove that if the Government decides to return to the old system of three years' military service it will be necessary that "this additional blood-tax be borne in a spirit of cheerful sacrifice by the young men whom the proposal will affect."
    In France and Germany the campaign in favor of an increased military expenditure has an acknowledged "raison d'être." It is a campaign, moreover, that is carried on with a full realization of the seriousness of the issues involved and with methods that even among those in disagreement with the policy urged command serious attention.
    England is in the throes of a similar campaign, but it is being conducted differently. The British agitator lacks two things. The first is a sense of humor; the second, the capacity to convince the country at large that their objects are national and not merely partisan politics, masquerading in the garb of the purest patriotism.
    There is, of course, no suggestion that men like Lord Roberts are not thoroughly convinced of the necessity of compulsory military service, but an exception is made of the few who honestly believe that England must prepare for the day when all her resources will be taxed to the utmost.
    The average Englishman is inclined to look for the "nigger in the woodpile" — in other words, the desire to turn the Liberals out of office and put the Tories in.
    The two camps are clearly defined. Appeals to Mr. Asquith were made this week by the National Defense Association. The conservative papers asserted that the association was a non-partisan organization, but the Liberal press rejected the assertion with contumely. As one of them put it, "Conscription is an old Tory heresy, like protection."
    "Poor John Bull!" says another Liberal organ. "He is having a very bad time of it just now with the various groups of people who are trying to wake him up. 'Two keels to one or you perish!' cries one group. 'Airships at once and hundreds of them, or you are done for!' cries another. 'Compulsory service and at once, or you cease to be a nation!' cries a third.
    "By sea, by land, and from the air hostile battalions are descending on him, and a thousand voices implore him to get up, shake himself together, and open his pocket to provide himself with the special patent panoplies which are necessary to his safety."
    A Tory paper takes up this challenge, and parades it as "the spirit of the Laodicean press, when all the world is acting and every expert is trying to arouse the British nation to the necessity of protecting itself against attack"
    So the merry newspaper war goes on. It is unnecessary to make any prophecies as to which side will win eventually, but for the present, at any rate, the honors remain with the Liberals. The navy leaguers, for one thing, have come a heavy cropper this year, having utterly failed to make any impression on the public mind. This is partly due to the growth, of Anglo-German friendship and the obvious determination of the two peoples not to be hounded into hostilities and partly also to the acceptance of the British Government's proposed naval ratio by Admiral von Tirpitz on behalf of the German Government.
    Failing in one onslaught, the Tory watchdogs of England sought to attack in other directions. One was a demand for compulsory military training, which is, of course, a euphemism for conscription, a hateful word to English ears. Another was an effort to scare the country into an aerial panic. Newspaper readers have been regaled each morning with stories of mysterious airships circling over ports and inland towns. These could not be British, as poor Britain does not possess any that could perform the evolutions described. Therefore, they must be German.
    Writers to The Times and other papers painted in lurid colors the possibility of a fleet of German airships hovering over London and dropping bombs. One expert acknowledged that it was not easy to make a hit with a bomb dropped from an airship, but gravely argued that a whole fleet of them dropping twoscore or so bombs apiece could not possibly miss all London.
    It is proverbial that ridicule kills in France. When the mysterious aerial visitors supposed to come from across the North Sea proved to be nothing more than a fire balloon, set afloat on Yorkshire Moor, England laughed. It is suggested that the Government should make the Yorkshire gamekeeper, who exploded the mystery, an Inspector of panics.
    Looking over the files of one of the chief panic-mongers, one reads:
    "It is now established beyond all question that the airships of some foreign power, presumably Germany, are making regular and systematic flights over this country. That an airship did pass over Selby Abbey on Friday night, making its way for the east coast, is undoubted."
    Terror was piled up with every circumstance. First the lights were seen. Then the noise of the engine was heard. Then they saw the body of the ship. It had three wheels, one on each side and one in front, and a faint throbbing noise came from it. If it had not been for that gamekeeper somebody would inevitably have heard men conversing in deep, guttural tones in the clouds. As a Liberal journal remarks, it is on the basis of hoaxes like this that demands for $5,000,000 for new airships, such as appear in the Tory press to-day, are solemnly produced.