The Saint Paul globe., 1904-05-22
SUNDAY, MAY %, 1904.
THE WHITE MANS BURDEN.

The burden not only of the white
ment is the same old pack that broke
the backs Of the strongest powers of
antiquity and destroyed one civiliza-
ton after another. The whole world Is
groaning under the weight Of impos-
sible and unendurable charges for the
maintenance of military and naval es-
wisest and ablest rulers have declaim-
ed against war, in an age when a
splendid temple has been erected to
peace and the nations have pledged
themselves to the principle of inter
national arbitration, we find on every
side, among the most as we'll as the
least enlightened, steady progress in
the size of war establishments and a
monstrous increase in the charges that
they impose in time of peace.
1t is not Japan and Russia that are
feeling most severely the strain of this
necessity. Burdened as they are, they
can at least see a reason for their
taxes and their loans. With shells
bursting, ships sinking, Notifications
crumbling and armies hurrying hither
and thither, there is something doing
for the money that is being spent.
All over Europe, however, 1t is a silent
plague that is eating away the flesh
and bones of the people. Great Britain
is struggling with proposed changes in
her whole scheme of government and
her established policies for more than
fifty years solely as a consequence of
permanently enhanced war charges. 1t
is the only problem of the German en-
peror to maintain his ascendancy and
still persuade the people to contribute
to the practical charges of the Ger
man army and navy. France is no
longer the immensely wealthy nation
that she once was, chiefly because all
the product of her wonderfully indus
trious and frugal people is consumed
upon the appanages of war. Spain is
dead because of this disease. Italy is
fast dying of it. and in Austria-H Hun
gary the whole country is waiting anx-
iously to know how the enormous de-
mands of the government for army and
navy purposes can be met.
We of the new world are In better
case only because of our greater vi
tality and ampler resources. AS a
matter of fact, no country in the world
is spending money so prodigaIly in
proportion to its needs upon army and
navy as is the United States. The
countries of Europe jostling one an
other in hostile contiguity must be
provided against sudden attack. lust
as the people of a city must have a
police force. The United States needs
merely a protective guard. She is not
going to be molested by others. who
have their own quarrels to look after.
and who, knowing her latent resources.
would be the last to invite her de-
structive wrath. Yet year by year in
time of profoundest peace the appro-
priations for army and navy grow and
swell and the enormous pension an
preparation increases until our expend-
ttures for all purposes connected with
war become the most excessive of all.
1t is passion, a mania, a disease.
The war fever is rampant. The war
terror fills the peaceful mind to the ex-
clusion Of rational ideas. Everywhere
preparation for attack or defense
presses forward, and the life Is crushed
out OF industry and peaceful occupa-
tion Is robbed of its profit and its pleas
ure ey the demon that has bestridden