The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-04
AFTERMATH OF THE WAR
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL sIGNIFI-
CANOE OF RECENT CONFLICT.
The Feet of the Country Set in New
Paths-Important Part Taken by
Newspapers I'm the Evolution.

DR.. A. w. Brayton. in Indiana Medical
The progress sof the world has been so
rapid tho past summer that not even the
monthly reviews can marshal and sum-
marize it's social and political rev.
olutions. For over half a century
the philosophers OF history have
been attempting to explain the results
to liberty, fraternity and equality" of the
great social and political revolutions-the
secession Of the American colonies, the
French revolution, the upheavals of 1S4S.
The civil war has scarcely taken its
place in history when new questions affect
ing the entire course of empire face Eu-
rope and America, brought about apparent
~ ia tho most artless and accidental man
ner. Cuba, province of a decadent Latin
nation is adjacent to the most powerful of
American states. A quarter of a million of
innocent people were being ruthlessly
starved as an incident of internecine war
upon one of the richest and most produce
tive islands of the world. A battle ship of
the United States is as ruthlessy destroyed
in the harbor of Havana; national indigna-
ton is melted and war is declared. At this
time the war is essentially over; peace ne
gotiations are under way as the result of
the destruction of the war fleets of Spain
and the seizure by the United States of her
colonial possessions in both hemispheres.
We deplore this war as all wars are de-
plored, because of the loss and misery they
bring. But nations are sometimes as help
less as individuals. and they are doubly
helpless if they do not help themselves The
war came without our seeking or desire. 1t
is the movement of the world spirit; the
-
Spain and the middle ages cannot tarry in
the West.
What will be the effect of victory upon
the victors? Upon the colonies set free of
Spain? Upon our relations with the Eastern
world?
Here is a fine opportunity for speculation
IA better opportunity for diplomacy and
craftsmanship. for truth and justice. The
United States has come out from its sea-
walled gardens and faced new duties and
knowledge, and it is widely distributed but
it is. after all, of the old kind Of knowl-
edge, known to our first parents-the knowl-
edge of good and evil; there is no other.
New occasions have made new duties; the
obligations of individuals to each other and
OF nation to nation We're never SO great and
so manifold as at the present. We are face
to face at the end of the century with
problems worldwide, embracing alike the
high civilizations of Europe and the bar
barians of Oceanica; the "gentiles'' as we'll
as the. lesser breeds without the law"
There is but one hope and one way out of
our our dihsculties and that is the way his
tory h2s taught us-the way of education
OF the masses of men.
EQUAL TO THE BURDEN.
Happily for us there is no people having
so much intelligence of public life and of
practical affairs as the people of the United
States. To quote remarkable passage
from Goethe: what else is culture but a
higher conception of political and military
relations? Every thing depends for a ma
ton upon the art of bearing itself and right
ly using the present occasion"
The American people are experiencing an
evolution. The temptation will be to go too
fast and too far, to be guided by the emo
ton OF patriotism rather than the light Of
reason. But our people are intelligent, and
we may trust to their knowledge and con-
science. Their leaders watch the tide of
public opinion, and, in dealing with the
problems of an easy victory, will act with
the tact, temper Judgment and moderation
the problem demands and the world ex-
poets.
This is the day of the reporter and the
chronicler. There are at the 'front.' fight
ties-the troops and navy, the officers, and
the correspondents. The newspaper corps
is really o division OF tie army, and their
service has been OF incalculable benefit
They give the news, and they also discuss
1t. Congress, the state governments, the
people at large recognize and respect this
ter of Roosevelt and the "round robin of
Shafter's generals We're written for the
press, with a view to reach the people and
at once enforce upon the War Department
at Washington the great peril to our troops
at Santiago by disease and the Immediate
necessity or their removal to the north.
The generals used every means to save
their troops, and the best means was the
would have been impossible; it would have
been treason and urt-martial-possibly
death. In no other country could an army
make an appeal to the people through its
officers and by cable dispatches and CORE
spondence. And their work has told; the
great body of regulars and volunteers who
recuperating in northern camps and hos
pitals The newspaper men have stood be-
tween the army and disaster. They deserve
we'll of the people. AS there is no such
army as the United States volunteer and
regular troops, SO there are no such news
papers in any other country-papers with
such liberty Of publication and with such
power to collect the news and discuss the
problems involved. They are the greatest
powerful allies of justice and liberty in
times of municipal, political or military
peril.
LITERARY AFTERMATH.
After time, when the blare of the trum-
pets has ceased, the troops returned to
peaceful life. and the vexed political ques-
tons raised by the Spanish war settled by
the regularly appointed diplomats, we will
hear from the heavy guns of history and
economy and the philosophers of history
Bryce will have something to say, and it
will be kindly and just, as we know from
his History of the American Common
wealth." Won Hoist of the University of
Chicago, who knows all about the French
revolution and who, German descended and
educated though he is, has written a stupen-
dous work upon the American Constitution
VIII add few chapters, no doubt modifying
recent views he has expressed. And Lecly
TO whom the world is indebted for the His
tory OF European Morals from Augustus to
Charlemagne, and who but lately has writ
ten a pessimistic work upon democracy
may bestir himself to add a more hopefui
chapter. There are others-some of them in
indianapolis, who write editorials for the
daily papers, and those who read summary
essays before literary clubs and political
conventions.
But after the smoke and thunder of the
great guns of public opinion have fioated
away above the struggling earth and harm
lessly disseminated themselves throughout
our bound of time and space will be heard
the calm AMI enduring voices of the poets.
who, after all, are the men of the most
practical sense and insight. They may not
be heard at once; it is current statement
that the awakeners of souls have for a time
retired to the shades and left the world
desolate.
Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning, Emer-
son and Arnold speak no more but their
written word is left forever. And we are as
sured by high authority that in the author
of the "Recessional'' the world still has a
living seer Lowelrs feathered words have
proved "graci memory to buov I'm and