The San Francisco call., 1904-12-07

ridiculous if unsupported by potential
force, and then TO refuse to provide this
force If there is no intention Of pro-
viding and of keeping the force neces-
sary 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. Tyrants
and oppressors have many times made
wilderness and called it peace Many
times peoples who were slothful or
timid OF shortsighted, who had been
enerVated by ease or by luxury, or
nlisled by false teachings, 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 motives, by calling them
love of peace. The peace of tyrannous
terror. the peace of craven weakness,
the peace of injustice, all these should
be Stunned as we Shun unrighteous
war. The goal to set before us as a
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 safeguarded in its own rights,
but scrupulously recognizes and per-
forms its duty toward others. Generally
peace tells for righteousness; but il
there is conflict between the two. then
our fealty is due first 10 the cause of
righteousness. Unrighteous wars are
common. and unrighteous peace is rare;
but both should be 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 tarrS long
in the hands Of those too slothful, too
dishonest, or too unintelligent TO exer-
else it. The eternal vigilance which is
the price of liberty must be exercised,
sometimes 10 guard against outside
foes: although of course far more ofteD
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 a clear idea of
what our foreign policy in its larger
aspects should be. 1t 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 10 another individual; /;
that the same moral law applies in one
case as in the other. But we must also
remember that IL issas much the duty
of the nation to guard its own rights
and its own interests as it 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, to
the representative of all the individ-
uals, and it is a 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 il is necessary su-
pinely to acQuiesce in the wrong, and
thus put a 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 a de-
gree of international control over Of
Tending nations, it would be a 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
IA.
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
international police; and until inter-
national cohesion and the sense of in
ternational duties and rights are far
more advanced than at present. a
nation desirous both of securing re-
spect for itself and of doing good to
others must have force adequate for
the work which it feels is allotted to it
as its part of the general world duty
Therefore, it follows that a self-re-
specting, just and far-seeing nation
should on the one hand endeavor by
every means TO aid in the development
of the various movements which tend
to provide substitutes for war. which
tend to render nations in their actions
toward one another, and indeed toward
their own peoples, more responsive to
the general sentiment of humane and
civilized mankind; and on the other
hand that it should keep prepared,
while scrupulously avoiding wrong
doing itself, TO repel any wrong. and
in exceptional cases to take action
which in a more advanced stage of in
ternational relations would come under
the head of the exercise of the inter-
national police. A great free people
owes it to itself and to all mankind not
to sink into helDlessness before the