Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-03-29

is necessary thht the NAVY should be
increased. We have something to pro
teet. We have more to defend upon
the seas than many countries. If we
had nothing to protect, then there
would be no necessity for a navy. We
have more to protect upon our coasts
than any nation. My friend from
Kansas argues that we do not need to
create navy for another reason apart
from the expense. He says that we
are not liable to find ourselves en-
barking in a foreign war Now. | am
no prophet and no son Of d prophet.
but ! defy anyone to show any good
reason upon which such a prophecy
can be based if we are to Judge the
future by the history OF the past.
1t is true that after the wars of the
French Revolution had terminated in
1915. and the world for thirty years
had failed to witness a great European
war, many prophets as to the worlds
future many p9ople Who hoped ia
see psace prevail all over the universe.
began TO predict that war would never
come again, and that the nations
might DO away with cannon, with
ships Of war, with forts, and FORTH
cations But Mr. Chairman, the peo-
pie who made those predictions were
people of the same character as nv
friend from Kansas. They were Wis
ionaries, doetrinares, and idealists.
They forgot human nature They
thought man was as he ought to be,
not as he is.
They forgot as long as the oppor-
| tunity is given to man to quarrel man
will quarrel; that as long as tempta-
ton to plumber - before him. and al
long as his nature remains unchanged.
50 long man will plumber and fight.
What has happened since 1S4S? The
student of history will tell YOU that
in the last fOrty-fve years, with all
our civilization, with all our ellighi-
ment, with all the progress that we
have made in the direction of he COS.
pei Of peace and humanity. there has
been more Of war in that period than
the world has ever b5hcld before in
the same length Of time, more destruc-
ton OF hEman life and human proper,
ty than has bsen witnessed in any like
period in the more than five thousand
years of human existence.
Take our own country In 1860 no
| one believed that We were on the verge
/ Of the greatest civil war that the
world had ever seen; and a prophet
like my friend from Kansas. occupy
| ing at thai time a seat in the House
| of Representatives, would have made
| the same prediction that ne has made
! here to-day as to what was 10 occur in
! the wav Of fighting within the next
| two or three years. We all know the
! sad mistakes made by the prophets ct
those days, and we still suffer for our
! belief in their ability to predict
! In 1867 when our civil war had end
! ed, when half d million lives had been
| lost and more than five thousand mil
| lions of property had disappeared
| through the rayages of war never to
1 return again to the possession Of our
/ people, when it might have been sup
/ posed that We had had enough OF war
! to do us for many centuries, we were
! ready to again plunge into strife if
| France and her soldiers had not gath
/ cred up their bag and baggage and
! cleared out Of Mexico
Our government, in pursuance of its
1 historic policy was then prepared
| with the almost universal assent of
! our people to send a great army to
! Mexico to aid the Mexicans to drive
the foreigners from their soil. Thus
at the risk Of war with enc Of the
most powerful of nations, we were
ready to maintain the1-lnTQlability Of
the Monroe dcGH1ne" NY fffe1%
tells us that we are in no danger Of
war. In 1875 when the crew Of the
Virginius was captured in Cuba, and
when those men were taken ~ the
Spanish soldiers and shot down with
out trial or hearing, wave of indig-
nation rolled over this country north
south, east and west that. before its
power was realized, or its meaning I'M
derstood, had almost plunged us into
a war with Spain.
Continued in to-morrows issuc).