East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1904-12-07
Foreign Policy.

Foreign POncy.
In treating of our foreign policy
and of the attitude that this great
nation should assume in the world at
large. it is absolutely necessary to
consider the army and the navy, and
the congress, through which the
thought of the nation finds its express
sion. should keep ever vivid in mind
the fundamental fact that 1t is impos-
sible to treat our foreign policy,
whether this policy takes shape in the
effort to secure justice for others or
Justice for ourselves, save as condi-
toned upon the attitude we are will
ling to take toward our army, and
especially toward our navy. 1t is not
merely unwise, 1t is contemplate, for
a nation, as for an individual, to use
gh-sounding language to proclaim
its purposes, or to take positions
which are ridiculous If unsupported
by potential force. and then to refuse
to provide this force. If there is no
intention of providing and keeping
the force necessary to back up
strong attitude, then II is far better
not to assume such an attitude.
The steady aim of this nation. as
of all enlightened nations, should be
to strive to bring ever nearer the day
when there shall prevail throughout
the world the peace of justice. There
are kinds of peace which are highly
undesirable which are in the long run
as destructive as any war. Tyrants
and oppressors have many times
made a wilderness and called it
peace. Many times peoples who were
slothful or timid or shortsighted, who
had been enervated by ease or by lux
ury, or misled by false teachings, have
shrunk in unmanly fashion from do
ing duty that was stern and that
needed self=sacrifice, and have sought
to hide from their own minds their
shortcomings their ignoble motives,
by calling them love of peace.
The peace OF tyrannous terror, the
peace of craven weakness. the peace
of injustice, all these should be shun-
ned as we shun unrighteous war. The
goal to set before us as a nation, the
goal which should be set before all
ihdllhilihs lHt VI TIE
peace of Justice. of the peace which
comes when each nation is not merely
safeguarded in its own rights but
scrupulously recognizes and performs
its duty toward others. Generally
peace tells for righteousness but If
there is conflict between the two. then
our fealty is due first to the cause of
righteousness
Unrighteous wars are common. and
unrighteous peace is rare but both
should be summed The right of free
dom and the responsibility for the ex-
ercise of that right can not be di-
vorced. One of our great poets has
well and finally said that freedom is
not gift that tarries long in the
hands of towards. Neither does 1t
tarry long in the hands of those too
slothful, too dishonest, or too unin-
telligent to exercise 1t. The eternal
vigilance which is the price of liberty
must be exercised sometimes to guard
against outside foes; although of
course far more often to guard against
our own selfish or thoughtless short
comings.
If these self-evident truths are kept
before us, and only II they are so kent
before us,,,w shall have a clear idea
of what our foreign policy in its larg-
er aspects should be- It is our duty
to remember that a nation has no
more right to do injustice to another
nation, strong or weak. than an indi-
vidual has to do injustice to another
fndixffdno1. hot
applies in one case as in the other.
But we must also remember that It
is as much the duty of the nation to
guard its own rights and its own in
terests as 1t is the duty of the indi-
vidual so to do. Within the nation
the individual has now delegated this
right to the state. that is. to the rep
resentative of all the individuals, and
II lis maxim of the law that for every
wrong there is remedy But in In
ternational law we have not advanced
by any means as far as we have ad-
vanced in municipal law. There is
yet no judicial way of enforcing a
right in international law.
When one nation wrongs another or
wrongs many others. there is no trib-
unal before which the wrongdoer can
be brought. Either II is necessary
supinely to acquiesce in the wrong,
and thus put a premium upon brutali-
ty and aggression. or else II is neces-
sary for the aggrieved nation valiant
iy to stand up for its rights. Until
some method is devised by which
there shall be degree of interna-
tional control over offending nations.
IL would be a wicked thing for the
most civilized powers. for those with
most sense of international obligations
and with keenest and most generous
appreciation of the difference be-
between right and wrong, to tisarm.
II the great civilized nations of the
present day should completely disarm.
the result would mean the immediate
of barbarism in one
form or another.
Under any circumstances a suffi-
cient armament would have to be
kept up to serve the purposes of in
ternational police; and until interna-
tional cohesion and the sense of inter-
national duties and rights are far
more advanced than at present, a ma
lion desirous both of securing re-
spect for itself and of doing good to 1
otners' must have q force adequate