The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-14
WHEN WILL TT ExDs


 over the reports coming from the East ern War. whether one side is alto gether right or altogether wrong may be a matter about which people will differ, but there should be no differ ence of feeling concerning the awful slaughter now going on in Manchuria. Neither the right nor the wrong of either or both can blind the eyes to the awful results of that struggle. It re- ally looks like a crime against hu- manity itself to see hundrds of thous- ands of human beings driven to worse than slaughter pens. They have little more choice than do the sheep in the hands of the butcher.
 And now the report is that the Csar is resolved to raise another immense army and send 1t to the front. wheth- CT, in the distracted condition of his kingdom, hs- can succeed in his object is a matter about which there may at least be some doubt. The Russian peo-' pie have no heart in this war. They never had very much, and now have less than ever. The peasantry and the | mechanics and the common laborers, all of them worse than slaves, have never been able to see or understand why they should be driven to the slaughter In foreign country. They can see no interest they have in it, and no one should blame them.
 We believe 1t was in the power of | the Czar and the nobility to have made this war popular with the Rus | sian people, but they have not done 1t. We believe a course could have been adopted by the ruling powers which would have appealed to the dormant patriotism of the people and aroused in them a willingness to offer them selves a ready sacrifice for Little Fath- e. and country, but that course was not adopted. On the contrary, the same policy of cruelty, oppression and autocratic misrule has gone on until the heart of the people has become dead within them. They find themselves like dumb driven cattle" forced to leave their homes and their families and march forth to almost certain death in a cause for which they have no love and in a service in which they take no pride.
 Considering all this it need surprise no one If the appeal to them Is in vain, or if the attempt to force them into service shall result in such outbreaks as even that country has not yet ex- perienced. Submission and forbearance and obedience to rulers have their linn itations and 1t may be that the limit has nearly been reached in Russia. A little more pressure. few more de- mands may break Russian endurance and mark the beginning of the end. Meanwhile, whether Russia can and | does raise another army or not, the slaughter will go on for a time. The Japanese cannot be expected to halt or hesitate now. With them Is both the prestige and the material advant- ages of a successful contest. Pride patriotism and self-interest work in harmony and forbid any hesitation or drawing back, and preclude any over lures of peace which Russia could &C., cept. That Government has not yet reached the point where 1t can offer to lay down it's arms and accept such terms as would be offered. Pride and stubbornness yet dominate the powers that control Russia.
 And still the slaughter goes forward and apparently must continue for a time. Whether the remnants of the shattered army succeed in making their escape or whether they will be over taken, surrounded and cut to pieces, the killing will go on while there are any Russian foes to kill. The numbers and resources of Japan seem yet to be boundless and there seems no reason to suppose that she will desist. Death will claim its many thousands from present appearances before 1t is ended. Is there no power to stop the slaugh- ter? Must the lives of human beings continue to go out on fields of carnage until no more are left to be killed? We do not know whether other nations can have any ground for mediation at this stage of the game, or whether of fers of mediation would be listened to by the combatants, but surely there has been enough of killing to satisfy Moloch himself. With all our sympa- thies for and with the Japs we long for the end of the slaughter.