The age-herald., 1898-04-12
AMBASSADORS OF PEACE
 MINISTER'S OF WAR
By JAYF. DURHAM.

l
 has taken possession of the peace
 at-any-prtce people. The arguments which have been advanced against
 this country going to war with
 Spain are enough to make a patriotic citi-
 zen hang his head in shame One must
 admit that among some people in this coun-
 try there Is indeed a poor quality of patri-
 otism. The murder of 266 sailors-Ameri-
 can sailors, by the Spaniards-is of so little
 consequence to the peace-at-any-price peo- | pie that they would make it appear the
 most triffiing event in American history
 It would, according to their idea, be a great
 outrage upon humanity, religion and civil
 ization to go to war about so insignificant affair. The people who have been talking | this way come from all parts of the coun- | try. Many have paid their own expenses
 to Washington to talk in this manner to the president of the United States. They be- l long to what they call themselves the "old- | est and best families" The real respect | able element. The er-than-other-peop element. The aristocratic element. The real simon-pure-blown-in- ele- | ment. That class of people who make | prayers longer than the moral law on Sum- day, and cheat, rob, steal, lie, debauch and | engage in other degrees of infamy on Mon- | day and other days of the week. This
 class of people has been represented | l pride of government, than has cannibal l for the teachings of the New or Old Testa- | ment.
 There have been within the past two | weeks moro than one thousand ministers | from the various states preaching peace 1 to the president. If there is any class of | people who know little about national af- | fairs and have a poor estimate of what | nation should do to maintain its fight | ing honor, it is the clergy. It never sees | but one side of a question at a time and l usually the wrong side of that These are l not mere statements, but historical facts. The clergy has protested against wars that l have made empires and republics It was I the clergy ehat protested against the war l of the revolution. It said it was wrong to 1 go to war. Most fervent prayers were of l fered up against going to war with Eng l land. The clergy would have the people l slaves under the heel of tyrant king. l What was the result? The people did | what the clergy did not want done The | shackles were broken. Freedom and lib- l erty was the reward. An infant republic l reared it's head, which is today the pride l of the civilized world.
 1 War is not sentimentality. War is busi- | ness. War may mean victory or defeat. | It may mean enlargement of this coun- l try's possessions and it may mean the 1 changing of the map of the world. It may mean the overthrow of the Spanish l dynasty. It may change that nations form l of government. It may mean the driving l of the queen regent and her son-possibly 1 future king-into exile and poverty It 1 may mean the overthrow of this republic. l It may make an empire out of the United | States. The people whose forefathers I fought against the tyranny of kings in the
 name of liberty may become a kings sub l jects fighting for liberty. This, however, l is not at all probable: but wars have often I produced results quite different from those | anticipated. While the church people have l been protesting against war, it might be we'll to ask how many ship loads of pro- visions have been sent to Cuba in the name | of the church to feed the starving thous- l ands of women and children?
 
 l How much medicine has the church sent l to those sick and dying people? How much | money has been raised in the name of the l church with which to relieve the sufferings l of the reconcentrados-driven to the point | of starvation by General Weyler? If the | clergy as a body makes it's protest against | war which will be waged in the name of 1 humanity, 1t should have placed itself on l the altar at some sacrifice In the name of | humanity before war begins The Ameri- | can people have been generous in their charity toward the suffering Cubans. l Money, provisions and medicines have been l contributed from all classes. No one sect 1 or class has monopoly in dispensing char | ity to the Cubans It has come from the | rich and the poor. It has come from the believers in the apostolic faith and the , l Protestant alike. Each have been hospft- | able in their individual contributions. What l has the church done as church? How much money has the clergy itself contrib l uted to starving humanity on the island 1 of Cuba? How much money have the 1 churches of Birmingham raised to feed the starving reconcentrados?
 l
 | If the church is not willing to fight, in l the name of humanity and to avenge l assassination, let it then, jn Gods name, l keep out of the way aud allow the patriot | ism of the people an opportunity to act | Spain has offered more insults to the | United States than all ofher nations of the l world, and yet the clergy would not have | American manhood to resent of them | Would 1t have the American people bow l in submission. humiliation and shame? | Would 1t make towards of men and mark l the degreda ton of women? It can truth l fully be stated that many thousands of | letters have been sent to the president by | the "peace-at-any-price' people protesting | against war. No one should be blamed for preferring peace to war providing peace | can be maintained without a sacrifice of | honor There are times when peace Is only maintained through the agency of war. 1 This may be one of those times. No matter how much the country may be benehtted l by war, it will not be enough to recom- pense for the horrors, sorrows, grief and distress that follow the fortunes of war.
 
 Where war may produce one glow of life | in a factory, it may open an hundred | graves. Where war may be instrumental | in creating sunshine of prosperity, 1t may | make thousand widows. and five times l that many orphans. Where war forges | gun, 1t may make desolate a thousand fho hon de of 1irnQ | turned backward the coming tragedy be- | tween Spain and the United States might be averted. That the United States has | a just cause for war no sane or patriotic person will doubt. In the opinion of the people their cause is just. They are armed | with truth and justice. None can truth | fully say that the better counsels of req | son on the part of the United States has not prevailed. The president has been criticised and rghtfully so. As much by l rt, friends by the anposition.