The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1904-12-06

Is not merely unwise, it is contempti-
bic, for nation, as for an individual,
to use high sounding language to pro-
claim 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 in
tention of providing and Of keeping the
force necessary to back up a strong at
titude, then it is far better not to as
sumo 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 luxury or mis-
led by false teachings, have shrunk in
unmanly fashion from doing duty that
was stern and that needed self sacri-
fee and have sought to hide from their
own minds their shortcomings, their
ignoble motives, by calling them love
Of peace. The peace Of tyrannous ter
ror, the peace of craven weakness, the
peace of injustice-all these should be
Stunned as we shun unrighteous war;
The goal set before us as nation, the
goal which should be set before all
peace Of Justice of the peace which
comes when each nation Is not merely
safeguarded in it's own rights, but
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 De Stunned The
right Of freedom and the responsibility
for the exercise of that right cannot be
divorced. One Of our great poets has
well and finely said that freedom is not
gift that tarries long in the hands of
towards. Neither does it tarry long in
the hands of those too slothful, too dis
honest or too unintelligent to exercise
it. 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 shortcomings.
If these self evident truths are kept
before us, and only if they are so kept
before us, we shall have clear idea Of
what our foreign policy in its larger
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 individual has
to do injustice to another individuals;
that the same moral law 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 it's own
rights and it's own interests as it Is the
duty Of the Individual so to do. With
in the nation the Individual has now
delegated this right to the state-that
u.s. to the representative Of all the in
dividuals-and it is maxim of the law
that for every wrong there is a remedy.
But in International law we have not
advanced by any means as far as we
have advanced in municipal law. There
is as yet no judicial way Of enforcing
a right in International law. When
one nation wrongs another or wrongs
many others, there Is no tribunal be-
fore which the wrongdoer can be
brought. Either it is necessary supine
" to acquiesce in the wrong and thus
put a premium upon brutality and ag-
gression 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 a de-
gree Of International control over Of
Tending nations it would be 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
between right and wrong, to disarnn
If the great civilized nations Of the
present day should completely disarm,
the result would mean an immediate
recrudescence Of barbarism In one form
or another. Under any circumstances
a sufficient armament would have to be
kept up to serve the purposes Of inter
national police, and until international
cohesion and the sense Of international
duties and rights are far more ad
vanced than at present nation desir-
0sls both Of securing respect for itself
and of doing good to others must have
a force adequate for the work which il
feels is allotted to it as its part Of the
general world duty. Therefore it fol
lows that self respecting, just and
farseeing nation should on the one
hand endeavor by every means to aid
In the development Of the various
movements which tend to provide sub
stitutes for war, which tend to render
nations in their actions toward one an
other, and Indeed toward their owr
peoples, more responsive to the gener
al sentiment Of humane and civilized
mankind, and on the other hand II
should keep prepared, while scrupu
lousy avoiding Wrongdoing itself, t.
repel any wrong and in exceptiona
cases to take action which in more
advanced stage Of international rela
lions would come under the head of the
exercise Of the international police. A
great free people owes it to itself and
to all mankind not to sink into help