The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-04
CANT OF ARBITRATION
REV. j. CUMMING SMITH THINKS 1T
NAUSEOUS AT TIMES.
MOOted AngIO-American Alliance a
Safe One-BrutaIism, World over,
Must BE Ended.

At the Tabernacle Church, yesterday
morning, Rev. j. Cumming Smith preached
to the Indiana company of volunteer en-
gineers. He had for his theme THE Mill
tarism of Millenniums," and said, in part:
And now, when we brood upon the vast
growth of Gods thoughts in men, when we
see clearly that more the course of the
world is toward the regency of justice and
the summer times of love, there comes in
thought that mars the outlook for a mo-
ment. We are in the thick of strife. Our
national enthusiasm is martial. Our sons
are to-day at the front, amid bursting shells
and dying comrades. The whole scene
stands for war, and war stands for brute
force, mask it as you will, and the brute
force calls back the early epochs of undis-
guised savageries. Many noble men feel
that the war is step backward, return
to methods unworthy Of our high time. So
It seems, but only to those who refuse room
to the larger view.
1.-THE appeal to brute force came only as
last resort. Our President had used every
art of diplomacy to reach an equitable ad
Justment. Our leaders felt that the genius
of our century is a settlement of all QUAR-
rels at the tribunal of a humane reason.
But the inertness, the .opaqueness, the
match for our American liberation. Then
came war. Now, when the war sets seal
upon the cause Of right. pray don't .lull
your minds into the dream that an era of
peace will dawn. cannot gauge the pass
ing events, cannot see how other empires
are quietly entwining their interests in this
nor the farewell utterances of Jesus and be
blind to the fact that this war only opens
the gates for larger conflicts; and even If
those coming conflicts may be settled at the
bar of reason 1t will only be because in
the background of reason looms up the
awful majesty Of brute force, after all.
THE ANGLO-AMERICANA ALLIANCE.
History, we know, is simply toilsome
human struggle toward the bests in every
FORM But many do not know that these
races that stand for the best things have a
right to blend their influences and make
the best things rule. by the best way, if
possible, but to rule, in any event. Who
have right to oversway men If not those
who stand for weight Of mind and poise
of sagacity? Therefore, the mooted alli-
ance between England and America is safe.
Wisdom, liberty, equty-these things are
abstract until they find shrine in the heart
and sure impulse in organization. But let
the two nations avoid the error of forming
an alliance on any basis except congeniality
on the supreme principles, and let them
keep the latchstring on the outside for ev-
cry race to enter which avowS the same
dominate, even If it calls for coercion. Sue
coed in Quelling the strife by love If you
can, but If this method fails, then bring in
some lower power and force defiant tribes
to toe the line. If good man has an over
supply of goodness he will charm the cut
throat from his murderous intention; but
magnetic piety as to win over the lurking
enemy, then let him use what lower power
he has rather than succumb to a malign
force. Arbitration implies coercion, the
adoption of inferior persuaSiveS over BRAIN
less races when the broader methods fall
fiat. The cant of arbitration is at times
nauseous. 1t matters not how heightened
mans ideas of rectitude are, If grizzly
bear stands up and threatens him with an
embrace as an introduction to something
still warmer and if the advocate of peace
talks arbitration. the bear will likely agree
will just step inside. The lower races
have divine and infinite possibilities, but
they still dwell on the animal plane: The
war with Spain opens the programme of war
between the hemisphere where men are in
telligent, gentle, progressive, scientific, and
the opposite hemisphere. where men are
coming to feel that there is something ON
nous and far-reaching in the contest.
Statesmen are catching sight of storm in
the perspective of the future. Let Santiago
and Havana fall under the valiancy of our
troops, let our flag float over the Philip
pine islands, let us have coaling stations
on the sunny Pacific, but all this is but
the prelude to inevitable controversies. The
better half of the world must come into
deadlock with the baser half. We cannot
defer the conclusions which this meeting
will involve. We have no right to back
down from or dread the coming contest if
the ideas we have won at such cost in our
CORY past are the only ideas that can pledge
peace on earth. The weak have claims on
the strong, which If spurned will make the
strong weak. The whole world is drawing
together, tucked up as the four quarters
of blanket are hot summer morn
when the man wakes up. Difficulties must
emerge from these crowding conditions
And now / affirm that if the Cuban war
is but an episode a mere preamble to the
history of sharp collisions between the two
opposite halves of mankind, then we ought
to enthrone spirit of arbitration, but at
the same time build ships to enforce
that principle when low-lived races dispute
it. In the nature of things no race can long
hold its own unless it holds, or is held by
the best things. In the nature of things the
superior tribes have right to take the
lead, although it is one of the ironies of
history, that interiors too often oVershine
for the hour their weightier fellows. But let
us not be cheated by local inequalities. Man
specific is often insane, but man generic is
sane. The plot of these ages when shorn
of all its surface phases means strenuous
struggle toward true equalization; not the
idea that all men shall be equal, but the
idea that a mans external conditions shall
exactly match his interior equipment and
character. l am an optimist and believe in
this movement toward the best types
Therefore. we believe that the races which
stand representatives of the noblest and
urbanest cultures will soon have to league
their forces in championship of these prin-
ciples of liberty and not scorn a recourse
to the basic tribunal of brutalism if neces-
a last extreme n