FOREIGN MARKETS FOR ARMAMENTS

In the near future there is to be a Congressional investigation of American munitions industries, and it is to be hoped that no pains will be spared to bring to light the truth about these firms whose practices constitute so serious a threat to world peace. If the investigation is given the publicity it deserves, there might conceivably be adopted legislation restricting if not prohibiting the shipment of armaments beyond the borders of the United States.

A few facts concerning the munitions industries are already known. During the World War certain French firms were actually supplying Germany with armaments. Vickers, Ltd., the great English firm, recently admitted that one of its largest customers is Germany. American firms have a seemingly inexhaustible market in China, and the French are similarly indebted to Japan. No one is so foolish as to think that the war between Bolivia and Paraguay to being fought with South American armaments. It is difficult to see why the practice of selling munitions to countries hostile to one's own is act the highest treason, nor why it is not a crime against mankind to make war possible by supplying instruments to those countries unable to produce them of themselves.

It is, of course, true that wars will not cease through lack of armaments, but it is no less true that the possibilities of war are relative to the nations fighting strength. The making of modern munitions involves huge expenses, and if the factious South American countries, and the opposing elements in China were forced by the stoppage of foreign supplies to build their own arms factories, and had to rely on their own output, they would think twice before going to war. Moreover, the curtailment that would result from diminished markets would of itself relegate the armament industry to a far less significant position in national affairs than it now occupies. The production of armaments should be regulated in each country to the point where it is just sufficient to meet the country's defensive needs; further production for export should be regarded as a crime against civilization.