Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-12-18
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NATIONALITY. WHAT is ir9

From time immemorial mankind
for offense and defense have been
bound together by tribal, feudal and
national ties. Designing men have for
ages fostered both segregation and
aggregation as best suited their am
bition. When prominent men have
been unsuccessful or have fallen In
battle, new claimants for power have
risen and made other combinations,
obliterating by conquest old lines of
demarcatlon, and erecting new ones
as their sway becomes enlarged by
conquest or decreased by conflict.
There was ostensible excuse for the
rivalries, jealousies, hatreds and wars
of the nations Of antiquity, for they
were less stable and perhaps more ag-
gressive than is modern society and
national organization. Yet feuds and
controversy are just as potent now in
the full blaze of nineteenth century
civilization us they ever were In human
history, howbeit assertive aggressive
ness may be modified by the some
what changed conditions.
1t is nevertheless surprising how an
imaginary line can be made to efface
the natural desire for human blending,
when rulers fan the flame of hatred
upon any pretext, real or unreal
Earring interests, encroachment upon
ostensible rights or to accomplish
commercial ends and the lust for ter
ritorial expansion-each has had its
influence. SO weak nations have yield
ed to superior numbers or to more
astute diplomacy. Quarrels have been
fomented like that between the wolf
and the lamb in the fable; the stream
tsaid the wolD was rled by the drink
ing lamb, although the waters ran
from the former to the latter.
1t is as difficult today to give a
really philosophical reason why the
American Indians should live or have
lived in tribal enmity, instead
of tribal unity. as to tell why
Europe should be one vast
camp Of armed men, watching each
others movements and living in hourly
anticipation of war, as If that ought
TO be the normal condition of the
grandest civilization ever known on
earth.
How much of this division, this semi
isolation, is artificial? How much of
it is the product of interested king
craft, priestcraft and the machina-
tions of politicians and so-called states
men, who have controlled the ignor-
ance, the prejudice, and the so-called
patriotism of their respective peoples?
Why should peace simply exist by suf-
ferance between France and Germany,
or by power, as between England and
Turkey, or the inherited and perpetu-
ated rivalries between any two adj
joining or separated nations, running
down from generation to generation?
Would not the people of France, Switz-
erland and Germany fraternize if they
were Independent OF rulers who really
fatten on the established idea that their
interests are as diverse as their lam
guage, which after all owes much of
its individuality and maintenance to an
isolation which all admit is largely
artificial?
IL Is this diseased, perverted condi-
ton OF division which compels distinc-
ton, establishes custom houses, sub
sidizes the press, creates standing ar
mics, saps industry and well-being
through excessive taxation, and makes
nations brand their neighbors as for
eigners and enemies, and leads through
misrepresentation to that hatred which
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