--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Joseph M. Tanner collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 17 number: 7 published: 1914-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Joseph M. Tanner, "The Peace that is no Peace," *Improvement Era* 17, no. 7 (May 1914): 621–622.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1707unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1707unse start_page: 621 end_page: 622 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1707unse publication_year: 1914 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Peace that is no Peace The Peace that is no Peace BY DR. JOSEPH M. TANNER A man in Wall Street the other day was heard to say, "That war in the Balkans is ended, and Europe now rests in peace." The great national treasury departments in the governments of Europe have relaxed from their policy of hording gold, and are permitting vaults to open a little so that money might be turned into circulation for the benefit of the people. The relief which is felt is rather from the cessation of this hording policy than from the outward flow of gold. What makes the present situa- tion so critical is that along with increasing national indebtedness there is an increasing hording by governments of money, the world's standard money, gold. Every actual war, indeed every war scare, increases the hardships of the great masses whose existence every year depends more and more upon the free and easy circulation of money. The farmers are decreasing in proportion to the consumers who prefer the opportunities of the city to the toil of the farm. Then, too, it must be remembered that the farmers, like business men in the commerce of our country, are growing more dependent yearly upon the free circulation of money. Every war scare, to say nothing of war, brings its distress upon almost every man, woman and child in the land. Formerly wars did not hurt us if they were not close at home. About the cry of war we were not concerned. That condition is all changed. The interruption of business in one part of the world makes itself felt all over the glode. We are our brothers' keepers as we have never been before. The right of the people in any part of Europe to fight effects materially the right of the people in this land to enjoy a comfortable existence. Whether, therefore, war today is carried on in the papers or in the battlefields, we are all made indirectly to suffer. The peace of Europe is not lasting. In the nature of things it cannot be lasting. We are constantly thinking of war, we are talking of war, and there is an old, old fallacy that somehow or other war brings good times to those actually engaged in it. There are many scores to settle, alleged wrongs to avenge. Russia has not forgotten her humiliations. Russia's monu- mental effort at this time to make herself the first military power of the world is not the result wholly of her humiliation by Ja- pan. When, after that conflict, Russia was comparatively pros- trait, she suffered humiliation at the hands of Germany and Aus- 622 tkPfeOVfiMENT ERA tria, which she has not forgiven, and which she is not likely to forgive until she has tested her ability to avenge herself in a pass- age at arms. Russia is, therefore, today one of the greatest menaces to the peace of the world. In the south, Bulgaria is not satisfied. She entered the Balkan wars the strongest and proudest of all the allies. She won great glory on the fields of battle. She was crushingly humiliated by the treaty of Bucharest. If the Bulgarians have always in a measure hated the Greeks, they hate them doubly so now. Almost every Bulgarian cherishes the coming of that day when every particle of dishonor which he feels shall be wiped out. To wipe out that dishonor, to regain national respect, means war with Greece. That war may be post- poned while alliances in southern Europe are brought about. A curious world is watching the diplomacy of Bulgaria. The for- mation of new alliances and of strange bedfellows are being made they will lie down behind bolted doors. One of the signs ; of the times is the constant happening of the unexpected. This is an age of electricity.A spark may be swept through the air. It may be extinguished in the winds of heaven, or it may be carried to some heap of war material that will explode into one of the most dreadful wars the world has ever witnessed. His- torians have now come pretty well to agree that the war of all wars is yet to come, that human destruction on the battlefield in the past has been comparatively nothing with what the world is seriously awaiting. We never know. We lie down at night to enjoy dreams of peace, and we may wake in the morning to hear the bugle call of battle. We are getting ready to fight. It is a part of military strat- egy to be ready to fight on the shortest possible notice. To be ready to advance battalions on the battlefield within an hour is the ambition of every military strategist. We are rapidly being burdened by conditions that are fast becoming unbearable. These conditions cannot last forever. From this, human wisdom finds no escape. The bands of oppression cannot be lifted. It is argued they can only be broken. To break them means explosion, up- setting all the stable conditions of society and involving ourselves in deadly struggle. A break will come, who can doubt it? Are we, therefore, not concerned more with what shall be done with the remnants of our broken life, national, social, and individual, than with the possibility of our present existence? Look at the situation as you will, there is no escape from deadly perils to our national and social life from which no man offers even a sug- gestion of relief.