The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-05-03
GREAT SUMS.
John Bright on Wars and War Debts

JOHN Bflgnt Oh wars anu W AT DeDtS.
The following is the peroration of
John Bright's recent address at the
University of Glasgow: Would you
believe that if you were to add up all
the expenditure in the country since
the beginning of the century and
during the lifetime of some thousands
of people now living, the expenditure
upon war and war debts, the expendi-
ture of military and naval kind,
what do you suppose it comes to !?
You could not guess, and if told you
you would be no wiser. 1t comes to
the sum of e4,414,0OO,OO0 sterling of
taxes. l say you would be no wiser.
lido not know that we would be anV
wiser from hearing that a man is
worth a million, except that he is a
rich man. We do not know very well
what a million is. But what are
twenty millions, and what are one
hundred millions, or what are a
thousand millions or four thousand
millions? 1t is like speaking of
those great astronomical distances
of which at lectures we hear
so much and know so little. But if
these military expenses have come to
e4, Ala, 100000, how much has the real
government. the civil government of
the country cost during the same
time? 1t has cost e1, O12,OOO,OOO. Less
than one-fifth of all our expenditure
has been in our civil government;
more than four-fifths have been spent
in wars past, or wars prepared for in
future. 1 ask you, then, what of the
people, and what of the millions?
We find poverty and misery. What
does it mean when all these families
are living in homes of one room, to
us who have several rooms and all the
comforts of life? 1t means more than
l can describe, and more than l will
attempt to enter into; and, as need
begets need, so poverty and misery
beget poverty and misery. So, in all
our great towns, and not little
in some of our small towns,
there are misery and helplessness
so much as l have described.
In fact, looking at the past, to me it
is melancholy thing to look at.
There is much of it which eXcites in
me not establishment only, but horror.
The fact is, there passes before my
eyes vision of millions of families
not individuals, but families-fathers,
mothers and children, CHASTITY and
sorrow-stricken, passing in a never
ending procession from their cradle
to their grave. Now have to put to
you question. A friend of ours in
the corner there was little stirred
because some of the subjects on
which treated seemed to take po-
litical aspect. Some one has said that
the two things of all others in the
world that are worth considering,
worth talking about, are the subjects
of religion and politics. 1 want to
ask you whether the future is to
be no better than the past. Do
we march, or do we not. to
brighter time? For myself, it will
not be possible for me to see it; but
you have before you, many of you, the
prospect of witnessing the transac-
lions of the public policy of your
country for forty or fifty, or even it
may be for more, years, to come. On
you and such as you depends greatly
our future. What I want to ask you
| is, whether you will look back upon
the past and examine it carefully;
| look round, then, in the present and
see what exists; and endeavor, if it be
possible, to get a better and higher
tone to our national policy for the fu-
ture. To me it appears that during
the last two centuries q keep myself
to that because. since that time, the
public opinion of the country has had
greatly increased infuence) we trod
in the footsteps of Caesar and
accepted .. the barbarous policy
of pagan Rome; while, at the
same time, with vast and uncon-
scious hypocrisy, we have built thous-
ands of temples and have dedicated
them to the prince of peace. / say
with grief and shame that they who
have ministered at his affairs have,
for the most part, on these matters,
been absolutely dumb. Now 1 ask
you the question: Shall we reverse
this policy? Shall we contrive to
build up the honor, the true honor
and true happiness of'our people, on a
basis of justice, morality and peace?
l plead not for the great and for the
rich; 1 plead for the millions who live
in homes of only one room. Can you
answer me in the words which L
quoted years ago on a somewhat like
occasion, words which fell from the
crowned minstrel who left us the
psalms: ''The needy shall not always
be forgotten; the expectation of the
poor shall not perish forever.