The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-02-22

actual practice his capacity to secure
under our system the priceless union
of individual liberty with governmental
strength. Each was as free from the
vices of the tyrant as from the vices
of the demagogue. To each the empty
futility of the mere doctrinaire was as
alien as the baseness of the merely self
seeking politicians. Each was incapa-
BILE alike of the wickedness which seeks
by force of arms to wrong others ana
of the no less criminal weakness when
fails to provide effectively against be-
ing wronged by Others.
Among Washington's maximS
which he beQueathed to his country
men were the two following: OBJ
nations, and To be prepared for war
is the most effective. means to pro-
mote peace These two principles
taken together should form the basis
of our whole foreign policy Neither
is sufficient taken by itself. 1t is not
merely an idle dream, but a most mis-
chievous dream, to believe that mere
refraining from Wrongdoing will in
sure US against being Wronged- Yet,
on the other hand, a nation prepared
for a war is a menace to manlFind I'M
less the national purpose is to treat
other nations with good faith and JUS
uce. In any community it is neither
the conscientious man who is a craven
at heart, nor yet the bold and strong
man without the moral sense who is
of real use to the community; it is the
man who to strength and courage
adds realizing sense of the moral
obligation resting upon him, the man
who has not only the desire but the
power to do his full duty by his neigh
Dor and by the state. So, in the world
at large, the nation which is of use in
the progress of mankind is that nation
which combines strength of character,
force of character, and inSistence upon
its own rights, with a full acknowledge
ment of its own duties toward others.
Just at present the best way in which
we can Sh OW that our loyalty to the
teachings of Washington is a loyalty
of the heart and not of the lips only
is to see to it that the work of build
ing UP our navyrgoes steadily on, and
that at the same time our stand for
interna uonaI righteousness is clear
and emphatic
Never since the beginning of our
country's history has the navy been
used in an unjust war. Never has it
failed to render great and sometimes
vital service to the republic. It has
not been too strong for our good,
though often not strong enough to do
all the good it should have done. Our
possession of the Philippines, our in
terest in the trade of the Orient. our
building the Isthmian canal. our in
sistence upon the Monroe Doctrine, all
demand that our navy shall be of ade- |
quate size and for its size of unsur- /
passed etnc1ency. If it is strong enough |
I believe it will minimize the chance /
of our being drawn into foreign war. |
If we let 1t run down it is as certain
as the day that sooner or later We
shall have to choose between a Drob-il
ably disastrous foreign war or a peace
kept on terms that imply national hui |
initiation. Our navy is the surest
guaranty of peace and the cheapest |
insurance against war, and those who /
in whatever capacity, have helped to |
build it up during the past twenty |
years have been in good faith observ-
ing and living up to one of the most
important of the principles which /
laid down for the guild
ance of his ceuntrymen. Nor was
the only one of our great
presidents who showed far-sighted |
patriotism by support of the navy /
When Andrew jackson was in con-
gress he voted for the first warships [
we ever built as part of our regular [
navy; and he voted against the grant
of money to pay our humiliating trib-
ute to the pirates of the Barbary
states. Old Hickory was a patriot
through and through, and there was
not an ounce of timidity in his nature,
and of course he felt only indignant
contempt for a policy which purchased
an ignoble peace by cowardice instead
Of exacting a just peace by showing
we were as little willing to submit to
as to infiict aggression. Had ma
iority of Jackson's colleagues and sue
cessOrS felt as he did about the navy,
had it been built uo instead of being
brought to a standstill- it would prob
ably never have been necessary to
ight the war of 1912.
Again Washington said: Give to
mankind the example of a people al
ways guided by an exalted justice and
benevolence.' This feeling can be
shown alike by our dealings within
and without our own borders Taft |
and Wright in the Philippines and
Wood in Cuba have shown us exactly
how to practice this justice and be-
levOlence in dealing with other peo-
oles-a justice and benevolence which
ean be shown not by Sinking our
1uty and abandoning to -destruc-
ion those unfit to govern themselves,
but by doing our duty by staying with
hem and teaching them how to gov
srn themselves, by uplifting them spir-
tually and materially. Here at home
We are obeying this maxim of Wash
ngtons just so far as we help in every
whether undertaken by 1thei
government, or as is, and should be,
more often the cease, by voluntary ac-
ion among private citizens, for the
0etterment of our own people OBJ
serve that Washington speaks both OF
puts justice first. We must be gen
srous, we must help our poorer
brother, but above all we must remem-
per to be just; and the first step
oward securing justice is to treat
very man on his worth as a man,
showing him no special favor, but. so
ar as may be holding open for him
he door of opportunity SO that reward J
nay wait upon honesty and intelligent
sndeaVOr
again Washington said: Cherish
public credit Just at the moment
here is no attack on public credit, but
f ever the temptation arises again let
our people at the outset remember that
he worst because the most insidious
orm of the dishonest debtor is that
nan who would persuade him. that it
s anything but dishonest for him to
'epudiate his debts.
Finally, it is peculiarly appropriate,
when I have come to this city as the