New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-04-03
WAR AND PEACE.


War for wars sake is preached. Men Of sup
posed light and leading openly proclaim IT, They
declare that civilization does indeed get for
ward upon powdercart. not only in the CON
qucs, and settlement; of savage regions. but in
the moral and spiritual development of enlight-
encd nations In prolonged times of peace
virtues decay. Mems minds become narrow
and petty their passions sordd Patriotism
declines. Heroism fades away. The rude
shock Of war is needed to rouse the people from
stagnaton. to renew the nobler spirit. and TO
purify and elevate the national life The most
eloquent singer Of our time has sung:
Is II peace or war? Better, war. Loud war by
land and by sea.
And again he has exulted that
No more shall commerce be all in all. and Peace
Pipe on her pastoral hillock languid note,
And watch her harvest ripen, her herd increase.
Hail once more to the banner Of battle unroll'd
And many a darkness into the light shall leap.
And shine in the sudden making Of splendid
names.
And noble thought be freer under the sun,
And the heart Of people beat with one desire.
So much the poet so much the politician.
But let us see the fact 1t Is not difficult to
find II is writ large on history's page War
Is not publication. II is dcbauchery. War is
not an uplifting. 1t is a degradation. War
does not lead the national mind to higher
thoughts, but to lower and less worthy ones.
1t does not promote spirituality, but bcstaity.
And whatever good II does it does in spite OF
itself and not because Of itself. If one wants
proof of that he has only TO look at The record
of the very war which the British laureate 50
eloquenty acclaimed. 1t destroyed more splen-
hoD m noble
thought, but unloosed vileness; it did not make
the heart Of the people beat with one desire,
but rent It asunder. "The smooth-faced snub-
nosed rogue" did not leap from his counter and
till and strike brave blows for the Fathcrland.
but STAYED where he was TO grow dishonesty
rich on Government contracts while the vic
tins OF his rascality whitened the CrImean val
lcys with their bones. Nay. we have TO look
only nj our own last war. within the memory Of
men not vet grown old. Never was war more
righteous than that for the preservation OF the
Union. But what legacy Of woe Il left TO the
Union # preserved Dsordered currency, reci
less speculation unsound business, social shod
dylsm industrial discomfort. political corrup-
ton. a National decentralization that we shall
scarcely outgrow in three generations II IS
not too much 10 say that nearly every great
social and political evil from which the Repub-
lie now suffers was sent upon it, or vastly az
gravated, by the war.
No: the truth Is that expressed by the Yankee
poet when he wrote:
Ez fer war, call II murder.-There you hev II
plain an fat.
! don't want 10 60 no furder Than my Iesty-
ment fer that:
God hez scd so plump an fairly. It's ez long
ez 1t Is broad,
extf i'll, mt m
take in God.
And the mark and the curse Of the murderer
Cain will uncrringly be placed upon whatever
nation wantonly makes war against It's neigh
Dor II is monstrous thing TO choose war as
a means of gaining what peace would secure as
we'll 1t is monsrous thing TO make war as
a means OF getting rid Of evils, unless those
evils are known to he greater than those which
war Itself would bring. And the magnitude OF
the evils of war is such as to command the
utmost long suffering before mourning them
The time comes, now and then, when war is
inevitable That is only when every other re
sort has been tried to the end and has failed
The man who would deliberately choose war
before that time may pose as a patriot He IS
n traitor to the Faihcrland. He may be known
as n philanthropist He is an enemy OF the
human race
Nevertheless there is time for war as there
Is time for peace. II comes TO the peace
loving nation when 1t has tried every possible
means Of avoiding war in vain. and finds war
forced upon it by It's foe Then 1t Is fitting TO
enter upon the conflict, not with light but
with a serene and confident heart. finding in
the very consciousness Of the wrong thus
imposed upon It the amplcst justification for
striking back with all the might that right
eousness can add to zeal. II on the morrow,
as now seems 70 many probable, Spain shall
force this wicked thing upon us, the challenge
will be accepted without hesitation and without
fear and the campaign be pressed without re-
ienting to an Issue that shall warn all the rest
of the world never again TO wage unhoy war
against great Nation that loves peace much
but loves still more humanity, and honor. and
everlasting justice.