The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1898-07-21
INTERNATIONAL
: : = ARBITRATION.
COMMENTS ON WAR AND ITS RE.
SUITS.
Present Day Thoughts.
BYG. GRosvENOR DAVE.
copyrighted by Dave & Tabor.)

(Copyrighted by Dave & Tabor)
1t is we'll for us who feel that we are
right In favoring international arbltra-
ton, to remember that it is bound to
encounter stubborn opposition. Yet
this is only part of the conflict that has
always been waged and whose issues
are progress. On the one side the chill
dren of dawning light have ever favored
moving out of the old ways into the
new, on the other side has been the cry
of the conservative, "Our fathers dld
not do so ; we Will follow in their steps J"
And so between the play of progressive
ness and reaction there has been gradu-
al and lasting movement forward. Op-
position should be welcomed as serving
to clarity thought in regard to our be-
lief and therefore as holding down the
desire for change to those advances
that are feasible and wise.
*
In order to be properly patient with
Opposit1On we must remember that the
world has passed through number OF
stages of development and that there
always lap over into the later some who
belong to the earlier ones. Thus though
the men who rejoice In slaughter live
under the peaceful benefits of our mod
ern civilization, yet they have hearts
dwelling back in the time when life
was lightly esteemed, when the glory
of strength was not to restrain oneself
but to crush the weak, when the weak
had no rights save, as it were, to gnaw
discarded bones beneath the tables OF
the muscular.
~
In relation to war these dwellers In
past ages use all sorts of specious argu-
ments to conceal their lack of progress
They say that war brings out fine quai.
tiles, which at once confirms our BELIEF
, regarding the backwardness OF these
men, for the world has grown towards
, the fineness OF vision that sees heroism
in the undramatic, unpraised doing O
: duty in the patient love Of burdeneo
! mothers in the silent battle fields o
: the heart where fights with bad i'm
= pulses are waged. Compared will
these things the herolsm OF war i
purely occasional and casual. N
d praise is too high for such an inciden
= as the Hobson one at Santiago, bu
. such incidents multiplied hundred
fold would not equal the heroism Q
's daily life that any countryside or Cit
e could show.
These opponents OF ours also say tha
1t war has always been and therefore
~ wavs will be. This is an inconcluslv
:, argument. The eternal hills were her
u before us, but it is the glory OF man
'e change the face of nature to suit h
S. needs. The hills he can rend, the va
of levs he can fill, the rivers he can turI
Infantile ignorance always has bee
equally dense, but it is the crown
,g our race that a child-mind starting no
1e AZ feebly as that of any ante-diluvla
st infant, in few years can stand on IL
IS apex of human thought. Darkness a
er ways has been, but by fat, by candle
to by lamps, by gas, by electricity ha'
ne we successfully conquered 1t and turl
IN ed its hours into use and STIMULI
st. The thing that always has been has
We promise of always being OF lasting al
ne essential value else would these le
ur of ours still remain our only method
ke progression. So may we dare to no
'st that war will be purely transltory IN
benefit. On the other hand l wou
not insist that arbitration would
snre to usher in new heaven and
new earth. It would simply prove
III other one of the slow but permane
;h- steps by which the race has CLIMB
zen awav from the bone-splitting savage
ose Of the cave-dweller towards the star
ard of a creature that is uprlgl
on thoughtful, regardful OF others.
ry. x.
rue Another most common and shall'
eth argument in favor of war Is that
ro- clears off surplus population and tt
rid eases up some of the competition
~, life. There are several strong rep
.o to this uncompassionate view OF
no matter First let us say that no ci
du- lied nation selects the tramp or al
,ity element to fight its battles. In
de- own case, particularly, instead OF
army being made up even OF oft-sco
afu- lnes of the population, 1t is In Its
to. t1rety carefully selected body II
por- walks of life that are lucrative.
,du- therefore in any nation the proof
,ao eased competition should be forthc
'nie ing surely it should be in ours.>
Is granting that series OF disasters, q
ung hevond all imagining, should rem
the $4,000 men year II wouiu oe ~, eI
one fourteen-hundredth OF the WI
and therefore purely infinlteslmal
its influence upon the crowded
strained conditions OF life. Let u