The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-12-07

leprosy in the islands. ask special
consideration for the report ana rec.
concentrations of the governor Of
Porto Rico.
Foreign Policy.
In treating of our foreign policy
and of the attitude that this great ma
ton should assume in the world at
large, il is absolutely necessary to
consider the army and the navy, and
the Congress, through which the
ditioned upon the attitude we are
willing to take toward our army and
especially toward our navy. IT is not
merely unwise, it is cOntemptible for
a nation, as for an Individual, TO use
high sounding language TO proclaim
is purposes. or to take positions which
are ridiculous If unsupported by po-
tential force, and then TO refuse 10
thought of the nation finds it's ex-
preston, should keep ever wildly in
mind the fundamental fact that it is
impossible TO treat our foreign policy,
whether this policy takes shape in
the effort to secure justice for others
or justice for ourselves, save as con-
provide this force. If there is no in
tention of providing and of keeping
the force necessary to back up a
strong attitude, then it 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. Ty-
rants and oppressors have many
times made a wilderness and called
it peace. Many times peoples who
We're slothful or timid or shortsighted,
who had been enerVated by ease or
by luxury, or misled by false teach
ingS, have shrunk in unmanly fashion
from doing duty that was stern and
that needed self-sacrifice, and have
sought to hide from their own minds
their shortcomings, their ignoble mo-
tiVes, 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 nation, the
goal which should be set before all
mankind is the attainment of the
peace of justice, of the peace which
comes when each nation is not merely
safe-guarded in it's own rights, bur
scrupulously recognizes and performs
it's 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 freedom and the respon-
sbility for the exercise of that right
can not be divorced. One of our
great poets has we'll and finely said
that freedom is not gift that tarrtes
long i'm the hands of towards. Neither
-, l1a do n
those too slOthful. too dishonest, or
too unintelligent TO exercise it. The
eternal vigilance which is the price
of liberty must be exercised, some
times TO guard against outside foes;
although of course far more often to
guard against our own selfish or
thoughtless shortcomings.
If these SeIf-evident truths are kept
before us, and only if they are so kept
before u.s. we have a clear idea of
what our foreign policy in its larger
aspects SHOULD be. II is our duty to
remember that a nation has no more
right to do injustice to another ma
ton, strong or weak, than an indi-
Vidual has to do injustice to another
individual; that the same moral law
applies in one case as IN the other.
But we must also remember that il is
as much the duty of the nation to
guard it's own rights and its own in
terests as it is the duty of the indiVid-
ual so 10 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
it is a maxim of the law that for
every wrong there is a remedy. But
in international law We have not ad-
vanced by any means as FAR as we
have advanced i'm municipal law.
There is as yet no judicial way of
enforcing a right in international
law When one nation wrongs anoth-
er or wrongs many others there is no
tribunal before which the wrongdOer
can be brought. Either it is neces-
sary supinely to acquiesce in the
wrong, and thus put premium upon
brutality and aggression, or else it is
necessary for the aggrieved nation
valiantly to stand up for its rights.
Until some method is devised by
which there shall be degree of in
ternational control over offending ma
tons, it would be a wicked thing for
the most civilized powers, for those
with most sense of International OBJ
legations and with keenest and most
generous appreciation of the differ
ence between right and wrong, to dis
arm If the great civilized nations
of the present day should completely
diSarm. the result would mean an
immaculate fecFuGeScellce oI pdi pdiiShl
in one form or another. Under any
circumstances a sufficient armament
would have to be kept up 10 serve
the purposes of international police;
and untill international cohesion and
the sense of international duties and
rights are far more advanced than at
present nation DESTROYS both of
securing respect for itself and of doing
good to others must have force ade-
quate for the work which it feels is al
llotted to it as its part of the general
world duty. Therefore it follows that