The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-06-04

Shall Napoleon Bonaparte be honor ed above Stephen Langton, who restled from King John of England the Magma Gharta and made the English people nation of kings? Shall he be honored above Martin Luther, who single handed and alone dehed the temporal authority of the church of Rome and drove in the opening wedge which ultimately every where separate church from stateY snail lie be honored above that wonderful as- | semblege of men who. under the leader ship of Thomas Jefferson, penned the l Declaration of Independence, and of James Madison who penned the consti- tuition of the United States whereby man in republican for moi government 1 is compelled to respect the rights of man? Shall his name be honored above that of Abraham Lincoln, who was born in hut. lived for the most part of his life upon western prairie and yet by the proclamation of emancipation taught the world that all men upon this North American continent are free and equal2
 Causes of the Civil War.
 Civil war inevitably. to a greater or less extent is the result of one man or one class of men tyrannizing over the rights of others. What was the cause of the overthrow of the Margrave of Ans ] paeh2 It was the merciless tyranny of l the last great duke. One day this ruler was seated by an open window of his palace with the infamous Lady Craven l by his side. Off in the distance a ehim- ney sweeper was working upon the roof l of a tall building. Would 1t not be amusing to see that man fall to the ground?' said this infamous woman. With that the margrave called one of his soldiers to bring a gun. He lifted the musket and took deadly aim. He fired and the body rooled to the ground l bleeding corpse A short time after this 1 the duke and his infamous female com panion were out riding and the widow of the murdered man approached his car riage and begged for help. Te duke gave her five horins, or $2 When he gave it to her, however. he said Woman. I do not give you this money as a compensa- tion for the death of your husband, but as a royal charity, for I as ruler have a right to do as l will with my subjects. I can reward them or kill them and there Is no redress" Do you wonder that such a tyrannieal government as that was oyerthrown?
 All wars both civil and international, are caused by injustice. The statesman who works to make right might who labosa to have no law press more heavily upon one class than upon another class, who struggles to give "a square deal'' to the poor man as well as to the rich-that man Is a public benefactor. That man is a preventer of future carnage. That man Is teaching the world that each nation must respect the rights of other social classes and that all people are independ- ent only as they respect the indpendence of others May God bless the day the Christian statesman who are not serving one pcoplaJ but all people, in their own and other landsi
 The Just ruler or statesman Is a pre- venter of future war. Yes but in this eulogy of the "heroes of peace the schoolhouse must be built alongside of the legislative halls No people in any land are safe against the crime of making unjust wars unless at the schoolhouse desk their eyes have become intelligent yese, unless their ears have become deaf to the calls of the dema- gogue and their minds have been devel- oped to their own thinking. A safe na- tion Is not built upon the autocracy of a throne. It Is not anchored upon the rock of liberal constitution. It is de- pendent upon the intelligence and the wisdom of the people. the common peo- pie who associate themselves together with a government. be 1t monarchy, an oligarchy or a republic.
 Form Not Responsible.
 
 history of some of our southern republics. 1 used to think that the form of the United States government was the cause of most of our national prosperity. That is not true. As l turn to these repub- lies of South America I find that most of them were patterned after our own constitution. What is the result? noted English writer declares that, though there have been within late years 1 $50 different instances of constitutional government started, most of them have been dead failures In the Bolivian re- public alone out of fourteen consecutive president thirteen have either been as- sassinated or have died in exile. The history of most of the South American limitations of the United States constitu- ton has been merely a long series of wars between the military and civil au- thorites. governmental convulsion after conYulsion, revolution after revolution and upheaval after upheayal. What is the cause of all this? It is not due to the form of the South American repub- l lies but to the ignorance of the South American people. The reason the Amer iean ballot box for the last hundred years has stood as solid as Plymouth I Rock Is due largely to the fact that 1t l Is handed to the American boys over the schoolhouse desk. We have a strong republic today because we have strong, intelligent, individual voters.
 | Has any government offered greater educational facilities than ours? No soon- CT did the Puritan settle in old New England than he immediately began to erect his institutions of fearing. The pilgrim fathers landed in Plymouth in 1920. yet only sixteen years later or in 1886. we find that Harvard college was founded in Cambridge on the outskirts of Boston We find the Dutch and the i English settlers drifting down into Con necticut and what happened? There i Yale college is started in 1I01 at Say brook We go south. and what do we 1 find? Pennsylvania and all the middle 1 states honeycombed with colleges ana academies. We go west, and there 1n- 1 stitutions of learning are scattered every where. The schoolroom desk is seen at almost every crossroad. and the college is entrenehed in nearly every town. Ah' yes. the modern Napoleon would nave l hard work here to start an international 1 conflict just for fun or to gratlfy ms ambitions He would have hard work | to upset HIS financially, socially or nolt- 1 ieally. Why? Because the people or thls age in our beloved land have too much intelligence 10 follow such a leader as the Little Corsican"
 Liberty and Education.
 What is the practical application or this thought? Chief among the enduring guarantees of future peace Is the pres ence of our schools and school teachers in foreign lands. Too much money can not be expended upon our pupnc schooi system Porto Rico and the Philippines