The Saint Paul globe., 1904-12-17
ST. PAUL PRElATE IS
FOR WORLD PEACE
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ed me to instruct you to ascertain wheth-
er the government to which you are ac-
| credited is willing to concltde with the
government of the United States an arbi-
tratlon treaty of like tenor to the ar
rangementS concluded between France and
Great Britain on Oct. IA, 1903.. The
leadership of America, if our chieftains
interpret Alright the thought of the Amer
lean people, is the leadership of peace
and good will, the leadership of justice
and righteousness; and the advent of
America into greatness betokens naught
put love and joyousness amid the nations
OF earth 1t might have been the leader
ship of strength. Intoxicated with the
pr1de of mlghtinesS, America might have
allowed herself to be, as of yore the
Greece OF Alexander or the Rome of Cae-
SaI, bold, ambitious power, making her
sole appeal to her trusted sword. A new
menace were she to peoples and to tribes
a new peril to the weak and unoffending,
one more disturbing element in the FAM
ny OF mankind, and naught else, should
her standard have symbolized but the fr-
responsible proWess, the brute force,
Wnich has already so often crimsoned
deeply with human hecatombs the pages
of the worlds history. No; such be not
america, thy ambition and thy glory:
rather be thy message to the world that of
the Peace to men of good will;''
by thy reign new era in the life of
nations-the era of love to ALL the era of
justice to all.
The chieftains of the American people
nave spoken; the question of the hour is
VIII the American people ratify the mes
sage of peace and good win now speeding
chieftains?
signatories to The Hague convention, to
enter into treaties with America for the
pacific settlement of international dis
putes, has already in nearly every case
fa1y hi md frroo ioc of
arbitration with those several govern
ments await the approval of the senate of
the United States International dis
puteS there will always be- One of the
two modes of settlement must be chosen
the battlefield or the tribunal of aIbitra-
ton.
Arena of Blood
The battlefield, 1 shall not deny that
over it glory often lowered; that often the
victory there gained was blessing untold
to men and nations. 1 shall not refuse
recognition and gratitude to the noble
virtue OF combatantS in the arena of
blood. Nothing higher, nothing better
than the sublime heroism of the soldier
rushing into the jaws of death at coun-
try.s CALL in service to countrys veal
and honor. No, whatever be in the coming
Years the history of interna tional arbitra-
tion, the glory of battlefelds where free
dom and patriotism led the fray shall not
be hidden from men1ory's eye; the names
of their heroes shall not be unhonored.
But is 1t not true that the battlefield
should be ever the last refuge Of reason
and conscience struggling to uphold jus
tice and righteousness? l take it for
granted that America is the Obedient child
of reason and conscience, and no pur-
pose shall ever be hers which is other
than that of justice and righteousness
The age of barbarism is not to be revived
on our continent. when might was right,
when all was well gotten that was gotten
of the sword. Today civilization rules
and America not only accepts its sway,
but boasts that to no other land is its
sunshine welcomed with deeper eagerness
and more responsive love-.
All told, the battlefield, is no arbiter of
justice and righteousness 1t decides
nothing. save the superiority of cannon
or the skill of commanders or the courag ge
of soldiers. 1t decides nothing, save that
the many conquer the few. or that even
the whimS of fortune undo the caleuia-
tions of men. The battle over, the ques-
tion is still unanswered: Who was right
or who was wrong? The victor of
course, assumes that he was right; but he
has naught else than his assurance
upon which to build his convictions, While
he. whose battalions have been driven to
defeat, discovers no new moral ground
for the belief that he was wrong, and the
world at large knows as little where
equity resides as it did before the war
fare began. '
International Tribunal
War between nations, no more than war
between individuals, is a test of justice.
fought with flint or hatchet, or Damascene
blade, as merest savagery, and to hold
| that the men who engaged in it. and the
governments who permit it. however high
under other aspects their cultured ciyiliza-
tion has risen, are on-tfliS score, the chill
dren of humanity's primevals ages. With
the lapse of centuries, beneath the benign
influences of growing reason and religion
we demand that diSputants seek redress
from calm, disinterested justice, en-.
bodied in an intelligent and delibera tive
ing with nations, follow the rules which
civilization imposes upon men dealing
with men? Is savagery to be legitimatized
merely because it is nations, not indi-
viduals. that WELD instruments of death?
Or, is it to be hoped that justice is clear
spoken when numbers clash in combat
against the few?
Why not an international tribunal to de-
eide upon disputes between peoples--the
tribunal of course, to be so constituted
that it will symbolic ideal justicess SO far
as ideal justice can be symbolized. If
justice it is that nations seek, not on bat-
tlefieldS must they gather where justice
is never heard; rather within the halls of
peace and reason, where good will and
placid thought WOO it to human embrace
The battlefield! / shall not say that
7ditioned, nation should dare repair
thither. But SO dreadful is it. SO revolt
ing are its horrors, SO direful in its re
suits that a civilized nation should shrink
from an appeal to its verdict, and never
venture to cross its borders, except when
paramount interests are at stake, and all
less hurtful methods of saving those in
terests have been essayed in vain. What
is the battlefield, but huge butcheFy of
human beings? Massacred they are, the
victims of its fury, by the thousands and
the tens of thousands, rent into ShredS
by shot and shell. damned before they ex-
| pire. to awful tortures, which fain we
would spare to the mute prey of the
slaughterhouse And the horrors of the
battlefield, its agonieS, its ShriekS OF pain,
! its murders are multiplied into hundred
| fold, until at last one of the combatants
! with no further courage to spill his life
| blood, cries out for mercy. Used as Well
| lington was to the battlefield, he has said:
"Take my word for it, If you had but
seen one day of war, you would pray to
Almighty God that you might never see
such thing again. And another hero
of many bloody contests, Napoleon. has
| exclaimed: The sight of the battlefield
after the fight is enough to inspire
princes with love of peace and horror
! of war And the battlefield itself is a
| faint representation of all the sufferings
and miseries to which it opens the flood
| gates. For far beyond its borders, it
spreads its terrors-into numberless
| homes, bereft of loved ones, ruined in
earthly prospects, through entire coun-
| population, put for long years under the
| yoke of unbearable burdens. Who should
covet war, when justice is at all obtain
! able otherwise?
All of the Same Family
We speak not only for our country, but
! for all countries-for humanity at large.