The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-06-10
The Dream of Peace.

BY ALFRED CECIL.

War is the stern. sharp. surgery of
nations" remarked one of those writers
who seek to make phrases concerning
present conditions, rather than to put
forth such well considered thoughts as
will stimulate thought
The German warrior, yon Moltke is
accredited with saying: War Is holy
1t is Of divine institution. 1t is one of
the sacred laws of nature. 1t keeps alive
in men all the great and noble senti-
ments: honor, self-forgetfulness. virtue.
valor. In word it prevents the race
from falling into a materiaism most
hldeous."
But a great Frenchman, whose name
will be read with tender sympathy and
profound reverence long after the name
of the Teutonic llackey of Blood and
lron." is felicitously forgotten, unless
human nature shall grow worse instead
of better, went out of his gentle literary
way to answer this Infamous blasphemy
against God and man.
| Therefore" said Guy de Maupassant
| TO gather a herd of some four hundred
| thousand men; march day and night
"ithout respite' tnlnk OF nothing, study
| nothing, learn nothing, read nothing, be
of no earthly use to anyone, rot with
dirt, lie down In mire, live like brutes In
continual besotment,. pillage towns
| burn villages and ruin nations Then.
melting another similar agglomera ton of
human flesh, to rush upon 1t, shed lakes
OF blood, cover plains with pounded flesh
mingled with muddy and bloody earth.
pile up heaps of slain: have arms and
legs blown off. brains scattered without
benefit to anyone, and perish at the cor
ntr of some field while your parents
your wife your children. are dying of
hunger-this Is what is called not falling
into the most hdeous materialism"
Tolstoys View Startling.
In curious opposition with the views of
the Tuetonle barbarian and the human
tartan Frenchman. we have recently the
utterance of the emi-barbaric Russian,
Count Tolstoy. This man, though once
a gallant soldier, deprecates war; and
even-thank God there be such men in
Russia just as there were truly patriotic
Americans, who abominated our news
paper-created war with Spain,-this no.
BILE Russian goes so far as to entertain
the notion that victory by the Japan
ese over his countrymen might not be dis
advantageous to the chief cause of man.
kind, the cause of civilization With this
idea by itself | have no present concern;
| am neither pro-Russ nor pro-Japanese
/ cannot forget the debt my country
owes Russia for Its help In our darkest
hour. when observation-disclosures perfde AL
bioni-and France were at one in trying
to divide us. At the same time | recog-
nize Japanese progressiveness, and Jap
anese pluck. and japanese racial sagaci-
ty In forcing fight at the most Oppor-
tune moment. to preserve their national
entity or autonomy. In brisf. I am no
bigot; or, at least. try not 10 he. But |
would like, now | have ths chance. to
spread few ideas about peace, which
ADLER men and women may make more
universal.
Universal peace has been the dream of
poets from the time Virgil wrote his re-
markable eclogue that some pious pa
tristic writers were inclined to construe
as a prophecy of the dawn of Christian
ity forced from the gentle lips of an in
spired pagan. Even among superlativeiy
aggressive nations like the Roman and
the English II Is noteworthy how often
this aspiration has been voiced not
not merely by the dreamers of dreams
and the seers of visions but by countless
of the more practical members of socie-
ty and the wide enthusiasm which has
been manifested at the mere idea of tenn
porary arbitration clearly shows that
this dream Is making some Roadway to-
ward actually of realization some time
in the civilized world.
Gunsmlth Is Largest Employer.
Yet against this cheering sign must be
set the ugly fact that the largest en-
ployer of labor in the world is a gum
smith. a cannon-molder. Krupp of Ger
many has more than 20 600 men on his
pay roll and. as thirty-four governments
are his customers. these men are never
idle still, this man in the prime OF life,
whose vast fortune has been built on the
Punishment of munitions to the bust
ness of wholesale. legalzed murder. Is
one Of the kindest of human beings
Krupp has been like father to his
workmen. In wars greatest foundry this
German has put into practice the golden
rule to such an extent that his workmen
live In model houses and enjoy schools
baths. libraries and theatres. with hos
initial for their care when sick and with
pensions when old age has rendered them
useless. Besides. he has never shown the
slightest desire TO be familiar with the
nobility and has repeatedly refused to
accept title
Is It possible. also. this mans dream
that the death engines in which he deals
viii before long become so terribly effec-
tive that war itself viii suffer annihila-
tion BY reason OF the completeness Of d.
structiveness at which the means Of war |
fare shall have arrived? The situation in |
Europe. at least, feems pregnant TO-DAY
with germ of this tremendous noss,h,i-
1 ity. Probably more than half of the feel
! ins among the various PEOPLES is that