Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-13
UNIVERSAL PEACE.

No question could appear Win greater
force to the intellectually of the world,
in the closing hours of the nineteenth
peace. The convention of the great
powers at The Hague may accomplish
much or little in giving to affairs the COM
plexion of peace, and it may reach no
conclusion worthy the progressive age
in which we live. Be that as it may, the
fact that such a conference is a POSSIBLE
ity-that the leading nations of the
world concur in the object of its meeting
to the extent of sending representatives
to it's councils-is a harbinger of June
days to follow the dark December of his
tory in the upward tendencies of
1t is a mistake-a cruel misinterpreta-
ton of the true functions of the human
race-to imagine that wal is normal ana
that murder is just. Primative man was
compelled to defend himself against the
ferocious wild beasts that abounded on
every hand. He fought in self-defense
and to acquire food. Physical powers
became the greatest of his virtues, for it
was then the greatest of his necessities.
AS he evoluted from these early condi-
tions of the race he laid aside the club
with which he destroyed the wild beasts
human foes to his feet, and through the
enlightening process Of social associa-
tons created a court Of justice in which
to settle the differences between man
and man, and organized governments for
the common defense.
From crude beginnings governments,
like men, ave improved, until racial dis
tinctions have ceased to provoke wal and
prejudices play but a small part in the
controversial affairs Of the world. Mar
velous progress has been made since the
dawn of history. 1t has taken centuries
Of intellectual and moral growth to bring
mankind up to a point where a peace
conference of the nations became a pos
sibility. Continued progress in the same
direction will inevitably lead to the final
come until Christian men are educated
to condemn war, not because the issue
to be settled may be deemed an unjust
one, but because it is murder. SO long
; as legitimate excuses are found for war
so long as war is justified because it is
| right-just so long will the military spirit
most glorious pages of human history.
The literature of all ages is largely
made up of the achievements in war, and
the heroes OF the world won their spurs
in battle. Time was when the gods that
peopled the NEUROLOGICAL heavens of the
past were fighters. Blu as time rolled on
mankind was satisfied to merely call
them heroes. AS civilization continues
to advance, and vanity gives way to
common sense and the tendency toward
the unitarian side of life is strengthened,
the heroes of peace will displace in litera-
ture and history the heroes Of war. The
man who creates will be greater than the
man who destroys. The Edisons of the
not far distant future will out-rival its
Napoleons. The man who civilizes a
savage will be greater than the man who
kills one. War will be limited to self,
defense and be entered into from force
Of duty, just as the executioner carries
is the trend of destiny; such is the
prophecy which the past gives to the
future in the measurement Of the human
race.
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