Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-12
LOCAL PEACE SEN TlMENT,

While the peace conference held in this
city last night under the auspices of the
Woman's club was we'll attended. and
the papers read were of great interest to
all concerned in the movement, it can
not be said that the car of Russia re-
ceived any encouragement to speak Of.
All the orators who participated in the
debate are men of we'll known piety, and
were doubtless selected for that reason
to hold aloft the banner of universal
peace. With the exception of the Hon.
J.. H.. Durstan. who edits the Anaconda
Standard, they all fill pulpits and preach
the precepts of Christ. Mr.. D%urstan's
work in that line is confined chiefly to
the ably edited editorial columns Of the
Standard.
Quite naturally the clergymen spoke
e%loquently of the blessings of peace. but
tool occasion to justify wars that have
taken place in the past, or that may take
place in the future in defense of the
right, and expressed the belief that the
out Of the cars manifesto is the regen-
Grafton of the human conscience. AS
that work will require some years, to say
the least, the outlook for universal peace
is a little remote, even from the stand
point Of the Butte pulpit.
a still greater encouragement, and one
that is believed to have headed off a set
Of resolutions declaring for peace, was
the able paper read by Mr.. Durstan.
That gentleman's contribution to the
peace conference was a bomb-shell. From
the standpoint Of a man who believes
that the spirit of war is inherent in the
human race, and who objects to the sem
timentalism that would idealize peace.
his arguments We're unanswerable, and
his facts We're marshalled with a mill
tary precision that left 40 room for sue
cessful attack. His paper dealt with the
practical side of life, as illustrated by the
history Of the world; and it is needless
to say that when an opportunity was
given for other speakers to c~riticise it,
the embarrassing silence was relieved
only by the announcement that the audi
ence would join in singing ".America.'
The title to Mr.. Durstan's interesting
paper was a misnomer, for it breathed q
spirit Of unrelenting hostility to the
peace overtures Of the car. and was an
of regulating wrongs through the arbi-
trament Of the sword.
The Inter Mountain cannot concur in
the idea that war is an essential factor
in civilization, Notwithstanding the posi-
ton so ably argued and SO successfully
maintained by the scholarly editor of the
Standard. Civilization has already ad-
vanced the world beyond the era of re-
ligious wars, and conflicts growing out of
the personal likes and dislikes of ruling
~potentates. Those were long steps in the
right direction. The human race is be-
Ing rapidly educated to the belief that
no war is justiiiable unless waged in the
interests of humanity, and in time that
sense Of justice which inspires war will
prevent the occasion for it. This will
come about through the intellectual and
moral growth of the people.
While the field for justiliablc wars is
being narrowed. the field for arbitration
is being correspondingiy enlarged. In
,ernational complications that would
have caused bitter conflicts one hundred
years ago are now adjusted by boards of
arbitration. In the natural trend Of
things, the human race is dritr. slowly.
perhaps. but surely toward an era Of
universal peace. 1t will come in time.
not through legislation but in the evolu-
ton of human progress. The same pro-
cess that lifted the primative individual
from the settlement Of his troubles with
the bludgeon to their arbitrament in the
courts, will in time lift the nations of
earth to a level above the vulgar brutaii-
ties of war.