Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-12-28

pect that the world will ever reach that
state of perfection which will make
every man and every nation tamely
submit to the dictates Of a board of arbi-
traitors, irrespective of the BUSINESS of it's
findings. China, the oldest known ma
ton fifty illustrates and exempllfies that
peace is synonymous with stagnation,
and when practiced to the exclusion of
all ideas of wal tends to the homogeneous
in all things, while war Or ideas con-
comitant with war tends to the hetero-
geneous, and the higher civilization
comes from the advancement from the
homogeneous to the heterogeneous. We
see China today, with her 1OO,OOO,O 900
people, lying helpless. dismembered and
outraged by the mere handful of those
who, but a generation back, was a mere
savage horde, but who, since that time,
have been industrious in learning the
arts and practices of the science of war.
Would you have America like China
helpless and unable to cope with other
nations of the earth in the enforcement
of those things found necessary to be
best for the worlds progress? Then you
would put her upon the peace footing of
China. If you would have her the say.
age, mercliess, c%onquering enemy to
other nations that Japan has shown her.
self towards China, then you would make
every man a soldier and not a civilian.
but if you would have her attain the
highest place as the worlds greatest ma
ton, you would have her become so
powerful in peace and so we'll prepared
for war as that she would be respected
and loved by her people at home, re.
spected and feared by nations abroad,
because of her practices of the arts of
peace and her constant readiness to en-
gage in the science of war. Every man
who is a soldier by education, and a
civilian by precept and practice becomes
a better citizen. Yet to attain this happy
medium is a problem over which the
learned have grown gray, and the good
have gravely pondered.
England, Germany, France and Russia
enforced peace by large, standing armies,
which tend to deplete the revenue of the
country and widen the distinction be-
tween the soldier and the civilian. We
of the United States have, we think,
done more towards the solution of this
problem than any other of the worlds
nations, by establishing in each state a
system of citizen soldiers, known as the
state militia. While our standing army
is a mere handful, yet, through the state
militia, our war footing compels all other
nations to respect the forces we are able
to exert.
The training a member of the state
militia receives, as such better fits him
to understand his duties and obligations
under the constitution of both state and
nation he is sworn to protect and de-
fend, and %instills in him a greater love
for the flag of his country, makes him a
better officer in the enforcement of the
DEGREES of her courts, and tends to a
higher development of both his physical
and mental we'll being. We have seen
the necessity Of the citizen.soldler on
more than one occasion. In the mob
rule threatened at Milwaukee, when
"Uncle" Jerry Rusk was governor, by
his heroic conduct and the prompt action
of the state militia, order was restored,
peace maintained, and property and life
protected. At Chicago and st. Louis
when the spirit Of destruction in a strik-
ing mob ran rampant, the presence of
the state militia of Illinois and Missouri
was felt IN the side of law and order
throughout the whole country. More
recently, the conduct of the state militia
in Pennsylvania called forth encominm
from every lover of law and order. And
in last summers strike, the mere fact
that the militiamen of every state we're
trained soldiers at the command of the
chief executive, done more to prevent
bloodshed and protect property, than a
standing army three times the size of
our present n could possibly have
done.
A nation composed as we are, of an
aggregation of states, has a right to Q K
pect that each state in the aggregation
will do all within its power to at all
times be in readiness to protect the in
t%erests, not only of the state itself, but
also of the general government, as we'll.
Every thinking person will readily adj
NIT that this can best be done by the
maintenance and perfection of her militia
forces. The militia of the state is not,
and ought not to be-, party organization,
amenaSS