The Courier. (Genoa, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1900-08-17
Serious Business.


These wars that civilization is wag-
ing with semi-civilized, barbarous and
unmilitary peoples are not as success
ful from the civilized point of view as
they ought to be.
The British, invincible in war as they
are unapproachable in peace. went up
against the elodhoppers of South Africa
"a pastoral people whom the Zulus
threatened to wipe off the African map
the unconquerable British tackled
this job and are still at it, after nj, ,
months of the deadliest fighting the
empire has ever experienced, and,
although they are virtually the victors,
it is a victory that entailed the humili-
alton of employing five British soldiers
to whip one Boer.
Then the screaming eagle of America
swooped down upon the cringing rat
of the Philippines.
The rat lodged and the eagle swooped
again.
The rat is still lodging and the eagle
is still swooping, and the end Is not
yet.
We have been at it more than year
with sixty thousand veterans, armed
with the guns of precision that modern
civilization places in the hands of her
butchers, and apparently posterity is
destined to pay its share of the war tax.
Now the allied forces of modern civ
ilization have mixed up with what
they supposed to be an unorganized
mob of hollow-chested, knock-kneed,
opium stupefed, superstition-haunted
semi-barbarians.
The allies have been surprised to
learn that the contract they have I'M
dertaken in the effort to partition
China is one of such magnitude that
they are already beginning to doubt
their ability to deliver all the goods.
At the outset it was proposed to give
everybody what they wanted, because,
it was argued, if any of the robber ma
tions were deprived of any portion of
the spoil rightfully belonging to them,
they would quarrel among themselves.
They are not thinking now of that
quarrel among themselves.
They find that the Chinese have
been preparing for war; for long
time.
1t is ascertained when it is too late to
prevent the trade that civilization has
been supplying the heather Chinese
with the latest improved weapons of
destruction, and it is revealed that
some of the best soldiers of civilization
have been instructing the Chinese in
the use of these weapons.
Civilization is amazed.
We laughed at Great Britain when
she found this same condition of pre-
paredness in her war dealings with the
Beers.
Great Britain laughed at us because
we couldn't conquer horde of naked
Malays in the swamps of Luzon.
All the outlander nations of Civiliza-
tion laughed at both of US.
Now nobody laughs.
1t is very serious business.
1t is gradually dawning upon the civ
ilized intellect that gun is gun, and
that any man, civilized or uncivilized,
who gets behind the gun is the equal
of another similarly situated.
1t does not require much practice to
shoot straight, and discipline is merely
matter ofroutine constantly enforced.
Great Britain has proved in her
South African campaign that over.
whelming numbers of properly armed,
we'll disciplined men may eventually
win the majority of battles, and the
acceptance of that theory of modern
warfare renders the Chinese problem
more vexatious, for the Chinese are
more numerous than all the civilized
nations combined.
There is but one hope for civilization
in this war with the multitudinous
Chinese.
1t is said that the Chinese have been
more successful in diplomacy than in
war.
If the Chinese will cease warning and
resort to diplomacy, civilization will
have a chance to escape from the trap
into which it has stumbled.
An escape is not as desirable as a
complete conquest would be, but it is
better than being skinned alive and
thrown to the dogs that snarl in the
wake of a Chinese ware 80
Let us pray that the Chinese may
''resort to diplomacy."-7he Post Mag.
dzine.
The Republicans have been having
warm time this week. but II is