The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-05-20
THE PRICE OF PEACE IS WAR.
A Shiawassee County Girls View Of the
Present Crisis.


Miss Mollie Carruthers at a patriotic
meeting held at Bancroft May 9th. Miss
Carruthers has volunteered her services
to the 'Red Cross" department of the ar
my during the Spanish American wax
Together with being a ready writer, Miss
Carruthers is a splendid type OF the peer
less American girl whose loyalty and pa
triotism are without alloy.
There is, in these days, slight occasion
for the announcement of a speakers sub
ject. Whether speaking privately or in
public we have but one general subject
under discussion. One thought is upper
most in the minds of all, one feeling pre-
dominant in every heart; and this is so
because of the strange and terrible fact
that our country is at war with foreign
nation.
Thirty-three years ago our people laid
down the sword and musket and began to
cover with the flowers of love and Of for
giveness the graves of those who had
fallen in the conflict which we would
have gladly called our last. Since then a
generation has grown to manhood, to
whom war has been unknown except as
mingled history and romance, and who
have been taught to look upon it as last
sresort, to be employed only when patience
has been utterly worn out.
During the lifetime of that generation
: only the arts of peace have been cultivat-
ed, and the love of peace has grown with
the knowledge of its value; but today we
are reminded that "the price of peace
may be war" That is why the feeling
we call patriotism has blazed into sudden
conhagration upon every foot of the re.
public's soil and the deck of every vessel
that sails under the star spangled banner
Could the people of the United States
have peace while wounded hands held out
for aid could almost touch our shores !?
While the smoke of burning homes year
after year hung thick on the southern
horizon? Could they enjoy the bless
ings of peace when the screams of tor
tured neighbors rang in their ears all
day! When their dreams were haunted
by the wan faces of starving children and
the hand held out to feed them was
pierced through with poisoned dart? 1t
was impossible; and those people said,
"This thing shall cease. We will have
peace though the price be war;"
Our country was not spelling for clash
of arms. The citizen of the United States
has as much to live for now as any NOR
tai ever had. He is willing to risk all in
defense of home or his sense OF right and
justice. but has little vanity and does not
long to shed blood to satisfy barbaric
sense of his own importance, sometimes
miscalled honor. That kind Of warfare
he will leave to boastful people across
the Atlantic who maintain their honor
by starving non 'combatants and stabbing
neighbors in the back.
This is not so because our men are care
less of their country's honor, but because
they have calm confidence that it is its
own best safeguard. The honor Of ma
tions is only as that of individuals, OF
which George William Curtis once wrote
these words: "a mans honor is some
thing which is wholly in his own keep.
ing. He can soil it, but except himself,
the whole world cannot smirch it,
The American does not fight for shad-
-ows. He wants a definite object in view,
and then, like the patient president who
represents so well the true spirit of our
patriotism, he waits until war is inevita-
BILE. For this repugnance to armed COM
bat the Latin races call us cold and calcu.
lating and lacking in emotions.
If they could know how the Yankee
boys heart beats almost to suffocation as
he goes on that midnight ride with Paul
Revere, they would understand why our
armies like the sands of the sea spring up
at moments notice. If they could
know what the American feels when he
remembers Valley Forge and Gettysburg,
they would realize that there are ideals
of war beyond their comprehension. The
American breads to be called sentimental
but his eyes are wet with honest tears
when he looks upon tattered battle flag,
for he knows that wherever Old Glory
has been torn with shot and shell his
countrymen have fallen in accuse he can
respect; wherever it has waved above the
storm of battle it was carried for God, for
home and for humanity. He weeps with
pride, but he has never blushed for any
contest:from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, or
from Yorktown to Manila
We have never fought war for con-
quest. The old world has accused us OF
mercenary motives in our championship
of Cuba's cause, but the old world knows
Who does not know women and young