The San Francisco call., 1905-02-26
CALLS ENGLISH PEOPLES
TO GUARD WEAK NATIONS
Would Check International Hlghzgaynae,,'
Strong Plea for
Anglo Saxon
CO-WOrk,
BY REV. I. @. MESERVE, d. D.,
Pastor Plymouth Congregational Church.

Power and wealth are the quest of
the nations. They pay less attention
to morality. Were they wise they
would seek quality as eagerly as guam
tity. Rulers of nations are often more
cunning or canny than wise. The great
nations of the earth have long been
playing the game of grab, seeking ter
ritorial extension for the purpose of
placing their increasing populations, of
extending trade, and of gaining glory.
None of these are wholly reprehensible
reasons for expansion, but there are
others that are far better. The writer
was living in England during the
earlier years of the Boer war. The
best people of Britain opposed that
war on the ground of its immortality.
They held that the interests of dia-
mond and golddiggers were not the in
terests of the British people nor of hu-
manity. They were right, yet the ma
ton at large backed the Government
in prosecuting the war from a mixture
. of savage and SOrdid instincts, Plus the
natural but mistaken sentiment of pa
triotism. The war now raging in Man
churia was brought about by the greed
of one of the belligerents, as we all
know. 1t was the same greed of land
and trade that has forced so many
struggles and cost so much blood and
treasure in modern times. This pur-
suit is not moral.
In South America civilization makes
slow progress because the ruling
classes are white and the ruled are
chiefly colored or mixed. Morals are
low in those countries. In Asia class
division is thousands of years long and
iron in kind. Vast accumulations of
wealth in the hands of the few rulers,
together with a poverty so deep and
hopeless that how the people live at all
is wonder mark all those old coun-
tries, particularly the best of them.
Julian Hawthorne calls attention to the
state of things in India, in a recent
Magazine article, and the state of
things he describes must be the despair
of all who have the good of India at
heart. 1t is not at all the fault of Great
Britain. but of the native rulers and of
their civilization and history. In Eu-
rope the military spirit is all powerful
1t is not the spirit of the knight errant
of former times, but the cold calcula-
tion of science with material advantage
in view. 1t is an iron game, played
with the courage of heroes and the
brutality of savages Every nation on
the Continent, until you come to the
borders of Russia, is in the grasp of an
army. and its morals are the morals of
campaign. 1t is not possible that
they should be anything else.
In Russia it is worse. The govern
ment is autocratic, recognizing no re-
sponsibility to the people and therefore
tyrannical. 1t could not be otherwise
That autocracy is doomed, and some
form and measure of popular govern
ment must come in, but not too fast
let US hope, else the dictator will have
his chance and Liberty go back to
chains.
In Great Britain and America the
case is a little better. Civilization is
higher, ideals are nobler history is
sweeter, and hope is brighter. But in
both these countries there is a quest
that makes the patriots heart ache as
he watches 1t. It is the quest for
wealth Civilization has reached that
point where material good seems all
important to the general mind. A tre-
mendous spirit of acquisition is
abroad, a determination to amass
wealth, by hook or by crook, anyhow
Men sell themselves to evil with as
tonishing cheapness, seeing only i'm
mediate gain. Native born are no bet
ter than foreign born in this respect
we must with shame confess. Per-
sonal indulgence in vice, support of
fountains and institutions from which
that vice comes, and by which it
luIINes, pushing OIL private gain, at the
expense of every one else, are the sins
of the Anglo-Saxon of to-day. Besides
this there is the problem of empire,
which both nations have on hand. In
Britain it is a wide empire. of far
greater extent than the home lands,
and of most diverse populations and
institutions. Were it simply a matter
of cannon and battleships it would be
simple enough, but it is far more than
l that tn defend that pnnira AGAINST
greedy and hostile nations is an enor-