The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-22
JAPAN MUST NOT TRY
 10 DOMINATE THE WORLD
Many indications That She is Inclined to Act Part of Autecfat Toward All Creation--A Candid Look at the Situation
 in Portsmouth

 bin cost fs6e.oo0.o .oo0; hut it was built on Chinese territory. under the same kind of a lease---a confession that was understood to be permanent. China certainly owes a great debt to the Jap anese for getting thafnselves killed by many thousands for her benefit If Russia has already agreed to give up the Manchurian Railway, it goes back to China, of course. What more na- tural than that the almond-eyed people of the Middle Kingdom shall present it to tteir fellow Mongofians beyond the Yellow Sea? That disposes of one- quarter of the so-calied Indemnity" which Japan claims.
 Then arises the biil which Japan can legally present for feeding the Russian prisoners taken at Port Arthur and in the Manchurian campaign.
 Now. the feeding of prisoners is difficult proposition.
 We had some experience in that line during our Civil War. We, in the North, were harangued during the con- fiict by demagogues with tales of hor- TOT concerning the treatment of our poor boys in Southern prisons. Ander~ sonville was pictured as a place of in- describable infamy. We were told that the Southern people deliberately starved Federal prisoners to death! Most of us In the North believed these wild tales. Disease certainly existed in the Southern prisons to & dreadful ex- tent--just as 1t dij in the Confederate armies Any wild yarn, as affecting the good faith Of the Southern people, passed current in the North. I was born and bred of a race of abolitionists who thought the crime of slavery unpardonable in the sight of God and man. But, when the war was over, when the Southern
 
 and cool-headed men of the country, like. Generals Grant and Sheridan. saw the terrible condition in which the Southen officers and men were reduced. the people of the North who possessed common reasoning faculties revised . their opinions. They understood why Northern prisoners were i'll fed! They beheld the famished condition of the Southern troops and wondered that prisoners of war had been given any thing to eat
 Then, a few of us who lived in Ohio, near Johnson's Island, one of the great xtockades wherein were confined Con- federate prisoners. began to investigate and we found that the Southern pris- oners at that bleak. wiRd-swept, icy island in Lake Erie were treated quite as badly as were the Federal prisoners in Libby or Andersonviile.
 This will startle few old moss- backs who stayed at home. and ehlval- rous 'veterans' who were at the front lighting the battles of the Union: but they do not know how outrageously the system Of graft" permeated many de- partments of the Northern service. lack of food or warm clothing at John sons Island. Lake Erie, for instance The people of Ohio made up boxes of clothing every winter for the Southern I prisoners in that desolate place. know this myself as a boy who lived not far from Sandusky City. the near | est port to the prison pen.
 But the humane intentions of good | men and women were all frustrated. The clothing never reached the pris- oners for whom it was intended It was stolen. Patriotism revolted at the thought that anything should be done I for the captives. when our prisoners at Andersonvilae were being shot on dead lines and starved to death" in Libby, at Richmond. It was a morbid, | distorted, iRhuman petriotism; but it | sufiiced to keep many a box of provi- | sions and warm clothing from the thin | ly-clad Southern man cooped mp on ! the ice-bound island in the Northern I lake.
 The BrutaIIsins Effects of War. In making these few remarks that l may be challenged. I am talking about something that is absolutely true. Aye, | more than I have mentioned: Radical newspapers published Tn the center of Ohio, made it a business to denounce l families that contributed to these of- ferings of comfort and sustenance 10 captive enemies! You who read this will hardly credit what say, but fami- lies that had one or two members in the Federal army were blacklisted at | home, among their follow toWnsmen and women, because they tried to miti- gate the rigors of captivity
 I tell you, and boldly, that we in the North were nation of frensied bar- barians during the Civil War! Whether | it was because the terrible conflict was forced upon us-as this war has been forced upon Russia-or not, I cannot decide. Young as I was. my bitterness was indeseribable. Two cousins, very near to me, died in Andersonville and was taught that their lives had been unfairly taken-destroyed for example, as were the two princes in the Tower of l London by Richard III. Not that my cousins were princes; far from that, they were plain country boys. But, 1t was the accursed prison business that did more than all else to embitter the North toward the, South. We in the North never heard any voices from Johnsons Island! The poor fellows ! SAtAS SuhSAln6s Anut after all the wild tales from Andersonyille. we didn't care. I do not recall a single prayer offered for the salvation of Con- federate prisoners-and I was an en- forced attendant at church in those days. l challenge any Northern man with better memory than I have to recall any official act of sympathy shown toward the prisoners in a North. ern stockade. We may "cut out" the prayers, Had a Northern parson dared to pray for the souls of the "internea' Confederates, he'd have been rotten. egged in the pulpit.
 Therefore, American brethren, wt must approach this question of captiy, combatants in a humble and thought. full mood. Otherwise, we are not fitted to consider 1t.
 Let Japan Ask $500, ,OOO, 900 for He,
 Kindness.
 Japan has. at this hour, about 70.OOC
 prisoners, taken in fair combat. Sht has brought them to her own land and is caring for them. Read Dr. Seaman's
 wonderful book about the treatment the Russian prisoners are receiving. WC shall be better men and women at Ter W, have learned this lesson of humanity real practical good will towards the un- fortunate. Perhaps we are giving Ja-
 pan more credit than she deserves fOl
 her remarkably humane treatment ol
 the Russian prisoners. Possibly, it is
 part of her policy. It may be the form
 fin which the equivalent of an indemnity
 can be asked and paid. NJ. witte sait
 the other day: We will not pay ar
 indemnity. We are willing to pay ana
 that very liberally, for the splendlC
 care given to the Russian prisoners,