Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-02-27
Think of the Children.

would feel Indifferent If convinced that
the lives of the rising generation
children and grand children ARE very
likely to be made miserable and unhap-
Ply beyond description,-or magma
tion,-beyond any conception except
that which actual experience of great
suffering brings to the afflicted. Mil
lions of the contemporaries of Lincoln
are dead, but there are still thousands
living who had passed beyond the age
of childhood, and were old enough dur
ing his tine to feel and realize the un-
speakable horrors of great war. The
civil war killed, blues and grays, half
million of the best men in the country.
Privation and hardship is the soldiers
lot always, but in that war &c, 600, 900 of
people without commiSsariat, without
a war department worthy of the name,
and without the slightest experience in
caring for large armies, put into the
field, North and South, a million and a
half of raw recruits. They were mus
tered in hastily and without adequate
medical examination. They were on
an average less fitted to endure the
hardships of war than the men who en-
listed for the recent war against Spain,
most of whom had been members of the
national guard, had been selected care
fully therefor, and had had some actual
experience of camp life. These latter
know how much an army of 225,-
600 recruits suffered from neglect and
from the inability and inexperience of
the nation in military affairs, after it
had grown to be more than twice as
populous and six times as wealthy as in
1861.
If young men of today, whose ears
and fancy are being tickled by that
much misused word destiny" as APP
piled to the United States, could read
the hearts of the men and women of
1861 who are still living, and learn the
lesson of that reading, it might be well
for them and for their little brothers and
sisters. Think of the suffering of the
wives, the mothers, the fathers, the sis
tiers, of that million and half of men
and boys who took part in that terrible
struggle. The utmost horrors of war
fell upon these unframed soldiers; they
went hungry often; they fought inces-
sanity, those of the North died in the
hot malarious South as if pestilence
had overtaken the army; the battles
fought were furious and murderous;
eleven of them Melted, killed and wound
ed, from ten thousand to over sixty
thousand men, each. An engagement
with losses of two thousand or three
thousand on each side was regarded as
skirmish But with all the horrible
suffering that it brought upon the sol
diers the writer of this article, who was
one of them, always believed that the
loved ones at home suffered the most
This has, in his more mature years, be-
come firm conviction. The mothers
and fathers and wives, who laid
awake nights tortured by uncertainty,
whose eyes eagerly sought the columns
of war news in the papers while their
hearts stood still in CHASTITY fear, whose
care worn and pathetic faces daily
haunted the post offices, whose only
moments akin to pleasure were those
spent in making up boxes of goodies for
their dear boys in the army whom they
loved better than themselves,-it was
the stricken souls of these that the iron
really entered.
Such is the sad fate which the rulers
of America today may be weaving
about the coming generation. They
haye thrown to the winds that good old
Monroe doctrine which said to the old
world nations Eve do not interfere
with old world affairs, aud you must
keep your hands off the new world. =
They make farce of celebrating Wash
ington's birthday by making it the oc-
casion for extolling those who deride
his advice.
The press of Europe, both English
and continental, recognizes and pro-
claims our abandonment of the Monroe
doctrine. An article in the current
number of the Arena contains extracts
from English, German, Russian, and
French papers showing that this is the
light in which the governments, and
people of Europe regard our war of
conquest in the PHILIPPINES. We quote
one of these. A prominent French
journal says:
The transatlantic democracy has be-
come imperialiStic, and republic
founded on federalism has become \
conquering one. From un International
point of TieSc thiS means a reputation Of The
AoRroe doctrine "
No statement of the inevitable logic
of the position in which the present ad-
ministration has, at least temporarily,
placed our nation, could be more just.
Surely we have no right to say to the
old world nations, Keep your hands of
from the new world when we are en-
gagged in conquering part Of the old
world We have no right to lay down
Monroe doctrine for them and refuse
to be governed by it ourselves
The Russian and German newspapers
express themselves substantially in the