The Savannah morning news., 1904-12-07
OUR FOREIGN POLICY.
Aim of All Nations Should Be the
Peace of Justice.

Peace of Justice.
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 ma
ton finds its expression, 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 our
selves, save as conditioned upon the
attitude we are willing to take to-
ward our army and especially toward
our navy. 1t is not merely unwise it
is contemplate, for a nation, as for
an individual. to use high-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 of keeping the force necessary to
back up strong attitude, then 1t is
far better not to assume such an at
titude. =
The Peace of Justice.
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 were sloth-
full or timid or shortsighted, who had
been enervated by ease or by luxury.
IL - eel ,l.s L..
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 short
comings, their ignoble motives. by
calling them love of peace. The peace
of tyrannous terror, the peace of crav-
en- weakness, the peace of injustice.
all these should be Stunned as we
shun unrighteous war.
A Goal to Be Attained.
The goal to set before us as ma
ton, 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
guarded in its own rights, but
scrupulously recognizes and performs
it's duty toward others Generally
peace tells for righteousness; but IL
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 Stunned. The right of free
dom and the responsibility for the ex-
ercise of that right can not be divorced.
One of our great poets has well and
finely said that freedom is not a gift
that tarries long in the hands of cow
ards. Neither does it tarry long in the
hands of those too slothful, too dis
honest, or too unintelligent to exer-
else 1t.
The external vigilance which is the
price of liberty must be exercised,
sometimes to guard against outside
foes; although of course far more Of
ten to guard against our own selfish
or thoughtless shortcomings.
what IL should BE.
II these self-evident truths are kept
before US, and only If they are so kept
before us, we shall have a clear idea
OF what our foreign policy In its larger
aspects should be. 1t is our duty to
remember that nation has no more
right to do injustice to another nation,
strong or weak, than an individual 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 its own rights
and it's own interests as II is the duty
Of the individual so to do. Within
the nation the individual has now dele
gated this right to the state. that is,
10 the representative of ali the indi-
viduals. and IL is a maxim of the law
that for every wrong there Is a remedy.
But I'm international law we have not
advanced by any means as far as we
have advanced in municipal law.
No international Tribunal.
There is as yet no judicial way OF
enforcing a right In international law.
When one nation wrongs another or
wrones many others, there Is no trib-
unal before which the wrongdoer can
be brought. Either Il n necessary
siipiuely 10 acduicsce IN the wrong, ana
thus put premium upon brutality
and aggression. or else II IA necessary
for the aggrlcved nation yaliantly 70
stand up for ~ rights. Dntil some
method II devised by which there shall
be- "A degree Of international control
over offending nations, u would ~
wicked thing for the most civilized
powers for those With most sense of
International obligations ana WIN
kfoneef and most generous appfecia-
lion ~ fbe difference between right ana
wrong. ~ diearu.
The nsssif - Disbursement
n fhe great civilized paii0ur ~ enc
fff.rUf day rIDuIN completely nIIHIfN.