The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-06-18

law. and systematic fnvasions OF the
rights of the people. We began right
but a century has seen sad departures
from the government instituted by the
great and wise master-builders. There
have been signs repeated Of wide cor
Eruption and the accursed rule of the
boss. Professor Wilson no doubt sees
the decadence and Astounding corrup-
ton. He writes:
Democracy is a principle with us.
mot a mere form of government. What
we nave ~blundered at is its new appli-
cations and details its successful COM
oinaton with efficiency and purity in
government action. We tell ourselves
that our partial failure in these things
has been u to our absorption in the
tasks OF material growth; that our
practical genius has spent itself upon
wealth n the organization Of indus
try. But 1t is to be suspected tina
there are other elements in the singu-
lar fact"
He seems to think that about all thai
we have that is good was derived from
England. But that old country
progressed very slowly and has
learned the lessons at poor pace of a
liberal, enlightened government. 1t
has retained laws that are a disgrace,
1T has u recently attempted popular
and rot much over one-third
OF its men can vote now after all of Mr..
Gladstone's most earnest, dauntless
efforts to enlarge the electorate. OF
monarchies by far England is the best.
Professor Wilson writes that England
did not have what we should call local
self-governmert unit 1888, outside her
boroughs. Until 1888. influential coun-
try gentlemen appointed justices of
the peace by the crown upon the nom
of the lord chancellor, were the
governing officers Of her counties.
Practically every important matter of
local administration was in their hands
and yet the people OF the counties had
no voice in their selection"
That sort Of thing will not satisfy or
Americans who are liberty low
ing by birth and enlightened. Even the
English wearied of it. But what a
prodigious time it was to get England
as advanced as it is-more than a
IiiouodIlu years VI SlTlIS, OIL DIOOOy
wars, of revolutions. Strange to say,
Professor Wilson is a believer in ex-
pansion for this country. We do not
know that he accepts McKinley's ideas
as the best, but he clearly favors the
march-of going out to
carry to the east the ideas and princi-
pies of the west. But if they are not
right ideas and sound principles it will
be worse for the people who have them
forced upon them. He justifies the
Philippine war. and urges the playing
Of a leading part in national aggran-
dizement. He says and you may Judge
if we have correctly represented him:
mo nation could live any longer to
itself. the tasks and the duties of
neighborhood being what they were.
Whether we had a material foothold
there or not, it would lave been the
duty of the United States to play a
part and a leading part at that, in the
and Transformation of the east.
might not have seen our duty, had
the Philippines not fallen to us by the
|willful fortune of war; but it would
been our duty. nevertheless, to
play the part We now see ourselves OBJ
|liged to play"
We think the able president of
i oc-ton university is nearer the mark
in a recent address. He said:
I'VE ask ourselves if we see the ma
'tions armed to the teeth and making
war upon weaker nations whether we
are living in the twentieth century Of
the Christian rea. We see that the ma
lions foremost in the service of the
Prince OF Peace are not studying
things that make for peace nor things
wherewith they should edify an
other, but are studying the things that
make for war and the mean by which
may destroy one another"
Look at recent events in China-at
the i~mmorralities, the lootings, h aw-
full brutalities, the hideous crimes per-
.petrated by the Russians n others.
War has been made as horrible, as Sa-
tanic, as shameless by so-called Chris
nations as it has been in other eras
of this s~in-cursed world. In the name
of peace there have been Jour or five
years the most relentless, cruel, devas-
|tating was, and the result is men of
sensibility and mercy and fear of God
are so stated with the blood and horrors
that they cry out for relief, for peace
Indeed. Chain up Moloch and shut the
doors of hell. President Patton said:
1--WE rather pride ourselves upon the
skill with which we are able to dispatch
men, and the exploits Of the soldier in
the field are told with a f1ippancy which
would indicate among Christian people
that the killing of another human be-
ing is the simple pastime Of the SOL
der"
a Frightful
Will often cause a horrible buIn.