The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-08-16
BRYAN ON ROOSEVELT.

President Roosevelt in his recent ex-
temporaneous speech at West Point
gave expression to a sentiment which
suggests an inherent barbarism that
will have to be taken into account in
weighing his purposes and predicting
his future course, says VIM. ]. Bryan
in the Commoner. His address on
strenuous Life" delivered some three
years ago showed that he gave to vir-
tue the ancient rather than the mod
ern definition and placed physical
courage above mental greatness and
moral worth. But when in his West
Point speech he laid aside all restraint
and in fit of animal enthusiasm
said "a good soldier must not only be
willing to fight: he must be anxious
to fight. do not want to have any
thing to do with him if he is not
when he said this he turned light
upon his inner self and revealed n
moral deformity which must shock
carried away with the bloody and bru-
tai gospel of imperialism. If "good
soldier" must be anxious to fight"
then it naturally follows that an adj
ministration which desires to develop
good soldiers should surround cadets
with influences calculated to infuse in
to them Il fighting spirit-an eagerness
for blcod-letting. If the preside nt real
ly means what he says we may ex-
pect that his second term-if he has
one-will be made forever illustrious
by the inauguration Of new regina
at the military academy and in the
army. The ten commandments and
the Sermon on the Mount will be dis
carded and the yellow-hack novel sub
stituted for thenl-for "Thou shalt not
kill" and "Blessed are the peace-mak-
ers'' could have no proper place in a.
school designed to train men to be
anxious to fight"
The president entirely overlooks the
distinction between the exercise of
force in defense of right and the
use of force for the creation of a
right. All the force employed by gov
eminent, under the American theory
of government, is employed in the de-
Tense of rights previously ascertained
A small army is necessary to enable
the government to protect the inaliena-
BILE rights of it's citizens and the acad-
envy at West Point is the training
school for officers. 1t teaches those
things which are considered neces-
sary in war, namely, care of the men
in camp and on the march, and ta'c-
ties. These cadets are not selected be-
cause they are by nature ferocious,
they are not kept chained like savage
dogs and let loose occasionally to graf
ify their passion for mischief; they are,
on the contrary, men who are edu-
Gated as precautionary measure and
kept in readiness for possible contin-
gency. 1t is no reflection upon the
courage, the efficiency or the patriot
ism of an officer in the regular army
to say that he hopes that the army
will never be called upan to kill or
even wound single human being, any
more than it would be a reflection on
a fireman to say that he hopes that
there will be no confagration in his
city.
1t is unfortunate for the country
that the president should have held
before It's embryo soldiers the lowest
rather than the highest ideals Of mill
itary life. There have been many
great soldiers during the last nineteen
hundred years-great Christian SOL
diers-who have loved peace. and yet
who have in an hour of peril won glory
for their country and themselves.
These should be eulogizcd and emulat-
ed; evil and only evil can come from
;dcalizing th2 blocd-thirsty soldier