The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1868-11-20
VICTORIES AND VICTIMS OF PEACE
AND WAR.

AND WAR
There are few persons who seem to
be aware that triumphs of peace are not
4 less glorious than those OF war. There
are probably few still who stop to con-
slider that peace has its victims as we'll
as war--that the garments Of these
peaceful heroes of the people whose lives
are devoted to the production Of wealth,
are sometimes "rollcd ia blood" like
those of the warrior mentioned in the
sacred writings. Yet both of these
propositions are facts capable of mathe-
NAUTICAL demonstration, and ought 10
command the attention Of the political
economist and Christian phianthropist.
To convince ourselves that the tri-
umphs of peace are not less glorious than
those Of war, we need only to glance at
our gss-ighted cities, our railroads, with
their immense trains of steam drawn
cars, our electric teegraphs, spanning
our continents, bringing, by means of
cable laid on the bed of the Allan
tic, the Old World and tho New within,
what is equivalent to, tear shot" Of each
other; our ships bridging the same vast
ocean, our poaderous machines, with
which we can cut a massive bar OF iron
into ribbons thinner than n wafer, our
million fingered engines, which can fab.
ricate the most delicate and beautiful
productions Of the loom, at So tritling a
cost as to render the coarsest hand
woven materials far too dear.
Those are some of the triumphs of
peace. the victories of our peaceful
wealth producers. No one will dare to
affirm that they are less glorious than
those of war. But who can believe that
the Olive wand of gentle peace is ever
stained with the crimson current of life,
or that her garments, like those of the
warrior, are sometimes "rolled in blood"t
Yet are We not painfully reminded,
every now and then, that this is an un-
dcniablc fact 2
Many accidents, on land and sea, are
constantly occurring, which contirn the
truth of the aphorsm that Gin the midst
of life we are in death" Many occu
pations materially shorten the lives of
those who follow them. Many victims
are annually offered up on the alters of
science and trade Yes, indeed, it is a
melancholy fact that our second propo-
stion is as true and as capable of dem
onstration as our first.
Take, for example, the following sta
tistical returns Of mining accidents IN
England last year. Not less than ,l9O
persons lost their lives in coal mines.
The number of males employed in this
peaceful warfare was 333,llG, and the
quantity of coal raised to the surface by
their labor was l05, 07l,743 tons. So
there was one life lost out Of every $50
persons employed and to every $4,000
tons raised. In some places tho fatal
accidents appear to have been much
more numerous than in others. Thus
we find that in North and East Lanca-
shire one life was lost to every 3l9 en-
ployed; in West Lancashire and North
Wales, one to every 22+; and Cheshire,
one to every 294.
The triumphs Of peace, though not
celebrated with the same pomp and pa
geantry as those Of war, arc beyond all
question more glorious. And although
as many lives may be sacrificed on her
affairs, still peace has, in every way, the
advantage in the comparison we are
drawing Peace is the producer Of
wealth and all its attendant blessings
war the destroyer. Peace is the reflect
ed glory Of the abodes of the blessed
war the incarnation Of all that is evil.
Peace extends her sccptrc over the
world, and ''the desert rcjoices and
blossoms as the rose" War sounds her
bate-inspiring tocsin, sunmoning man
kind to fields of slaughter, and makes
''the fruitful place wilderness"
IN. Y. IfercantHe Journal.