The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1895-10-18

In reply to The apostr0phe to war re-
Gently delivered by Eugene Ware, the
Kansas poet, Mrs. Mary E. Lease has
written a letter. She says:
Mr. Wares address, if delivered in one Of our
state insane asylums, might provoke feeling
Of pity, but when addressed TO our boys and
girls who have already gained admittance
through superior mentality to that department
which creates an aristocracy Of intellectually,
it deserves a passing notice. Leaving aside the
graceful friYOIities, the quivering patriotism,
and poetieal tendencies, the address is full Of
bFutalities which would lead humanity back TO
the primeyai barbarism and brute force which
NC left behind US 5000 years ago. That cult
waited man, reasoner should deliver such an
address to the youth Of today, is proof that the
earth is shaking under our feet. We can not
stand still; if We do not go forward we must go
back. Strange and terrible, that after 1909
years of Christianity leader Of thought should
seek to lead us back to the primitive barbarism
Of the worlds childhood.
A century ago, before the world was brought
into elbow room by steam and electricity, war
might have been iustifiable because of ignorance
and prejudice, but in this day Of enlightenment
andcommon schools and cheap literature when,
as Emerson says, Every man carries in his vest
pocket revolution, war is not only Unjustif-
able, but criminal. We are living in an age of
thought. Man. coming up through long ages
from that debased condition of brute force and
violence. is looking toward the promised land,
where the ripening harvests shall not be torn by
shells, crushed by cannon wheels, or watered by
the blood of brothers slain.
War increased our territorial domain, but at
what fearful price. War biotted out chattel
slavery, but robbed US of our financial In
dependence. War eBtaiIed upon generations
set unborn burden of debt and sacrifice. War
has placed the mortgage of usuFy upon the pro-
ductiye energies of the future. Human greed
not only reigns supreme, while nations are at
war, but is in nearly every instance the cause Of
war. While men were marching to the front of
cruel bayonets and submitting themselves to be
periodically shot, greed sliced the public do
main, destroying the greenbacks, created mar
ket for gold and issued bonds.
Human greed today would resort to war
rather than give up its ill-gotten gains. But
humanity is awakening the doctrine of love
which Christ brought into the world is lighting
up our pathway to Altruria. We are to become
brothers, and as brothers we will avert blood
shed and suppress violence. War with its wrong
and CHASTITY shadows shall disappear down the
low horizon of the past. We are to become
fathers and mothers and hasten the day when
the least Of these little ones shall not hunger in
the CRIME, when the mouth of hunger shall be
filed and every chill shall be flushed with
warmth.
The first step toward Femedying any evil Is
that the people should know that evil if they
know, they will cure. The solution OF the prob
lem of progress, the advance of the race, the
abolition Of war, the Inauguration of peace and
justice, the hope of the world, lies in the Chris
tian education OF the people, from where all
power is derived and in whom all power should
rest.
Instead Of going back to the animal age of
man and war with its cruelties and carnage, let
us strive to usher in that era when the words of
the prophet shall be fulfilled; "They shall beat
their swords into plowshares and their spears
into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift sword
against nation; neither shall they learn war
any more,