The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-07
TOO MUCH MILITARY SHOW
Correspondent Thinks People Are
Unnecessarily Warlike.
Editor of the State Journal:

TO the Editor or the state journal:
The refusal of member of the Uni
ted States congress to recommend the
appointment of a cadet on the ground
that military education is Teaching
the Art of Murder" and the finding of
800 concealed pistols, mostly dangerous
weapons, on the school boys of Kokomo,
Ind, one city of 10000 population, is
certainly food for the most serious
thought and sober reflection. There is
no sense in so much military anyhow.
Is it not fact that American volunteer
soldiers in the Revolution, during the
great Civil war and in the late Spanish
American unpleaSantneSS acquitted
themselves equal to the veterans fight
ing beside or against them? The writer
has watched the real soldiery of this
country, the United States regulars, the
state troops and the ZOuaveS perform
their evolutions and maneuvers under
the eyes of the president and generals.
He has also seen the prize drills of the
knights Templar Free MasOns, Odd Eel
lows Militant, Amplified Rank of the
Knights of Pythias. Uniform Rank of
Workmen, Woodmen and other pseudo
military organizations with implements
of blood in their handS-guns, swords,
spears and battle axes-and the &C
couterments of war on their persons.
They are the very flower of the nation
and are the finest armed and drilled
men on earth. Not enlisted for one of
three years as in Germany, Austria OF
Russia, but many of them for life.
Then there is the Grand Army of the
Republic and the Sons of Veterans,
while in the public schools. private
academies, and even in some of the
Protestant churches of the east are
Boys Brigades," Differed, trained in
the tactics and armed with Shapes
rifles. The writer does not know the
number or strength of the various Cath
ole military civic societies. The trier-
NAL conclaves, encampments and re-
unions are many and spectacular. II
=
and suggestive Therapeutics then the
United States is about the most warlikv
people on earth. 1t is one vast military
camp of marching and counter march
ing forces. At this moment there is a
pent up spirit of carnage and destruc-
ton, magazine of powder, shot and
shell only awaiting a spark to ignite or
an opportunity and occasion to burst
forth in awful fury. If it be true that
whatsoever a man soweth that shall he
also reaD, then what will be the in
evitable harvest of all this deployment,
panoply of war, glitter and glare2 Every
boy that gazes upon it worships it. II
the fathers carry guns and swords, Is
it any wonder the sons carry pistols and
knives? No people can constantly gaze
upon all this and not come to look upon
strife and combat with complacency. To
Christians and advocates Of peace this
is a serious subject. They rejoice at the
recent great Peace Congress and the
organization of an International board
of arbitratiOnN representing so many
governments, foreshadowing that time
so long foretold when nations shall
learn war no more; when swords shall
be beaten into plowshares and spears
into pruning hooks; when peace shall
cover the earth as the waters do the
great sdeep. 1t points to the Universal
Brotherhood of Man; the prophesied
millennium; the era of good will, when
the Golden Rule will govern in the lives
of men. The black angel of combat and
carnage will surrender to the white
angel of mercy. The dirge and the
requiem will be swallowed up in peans
of joy and anthems of gladness. The
wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the
leopard shall lie down with the kid, and
the calf and the young lion and the
failing together. The COW and the bear,
their young ones shall sleep beside each
other and the fierce lion shall eat straw
like the OK. And the sucking child shall
play on the hole of the asp, and the
weaned child shall put his hand on the
cockatrice's den. There shall be none to
hurt or destroy for the earth shall be
full of the knowledge of the Lord. The
plowman shall overtake the reaper. and
the floors shall be full of wheat, and all
shall eat in plenty and be satisfied.
What the locust hath eaten, the canker-
worm, the caterpillar and the palmer
worm, shall be restored. Then will be
heard the worlds grand chorus: GLORY
to God in the highest, who hath dealt
so wondrously, peace on earth and good
will toward men,"
NJ NJ RTTTT FTP