The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-01-25

representative, you will find it to be nothing
more than pharisaica1 blend of inconsistent
cy, hypocrisy and casuistry, hedged about
by labyrinth of Ifs and lands
Mr.. Carnegie, for instance, after donating
few of his plundered millions for the erection
of so-called "peace palace" seeks the lime
light, and affects to be horror-stricken at the
very mention of war; he inveighs against the
shedding of human blood" and the whole
sale slaughter of men, and declares that:
The war-spirit in is sign of the beast I
in his nature" His utterances the sub
ject have been quoted before this circle, and
approved notwithstanding that, as ''cap-
tain of industry and director of private
warfare he caused helpless and well-intended
workmen to be shot down in cold blood. And
now this trock-cOated anarchist'-as he has,
very appropriately, been termed-reveals his
limited conception of the real essence of war
fare when he goes on record with the state
ment that if any three of the leading powers
should combine in one concerted effort thew
could accomplish a worldwide peace by
COMPELLING the weaker nations to dis
arm. He counse1s aggressive FORCE, if you
please, and if that would not constitute the
most despicab1e kind of warfare then the
meaning of the term is alien to my under
standing.
Michael Lane, the noted socio1ogist, pays
his respects to individuals of the Carnegie
stamp and, incidentally, strikes the keynote
of this question, in the following paragraph:
Society is in process of growth, has not yet
arrived at its maturity, or its equilibrium of
forces, and therefore must have its public and
private w ar until social adaptation be COM
plete, and war, thereby, come to an end.
u Before that blessed state shall have
been reached, however there will have been
brought about radical reform in the gener-
| al methods of doing business among men,
The whole cannot be greater than the sum of
it's parts. \ If individual men believe in
| and practice private war, public war will be
necessity.
NOW what is meant by the terms private
war? This is meant: taking from another by
force or fraud what is not yours but his.
This is what the socialists call appropriation
and appropriation is the bottom rock
which war, public or private, (among mem
name, industry. And It Would s, be the most
vicious of errors to imagine that industry, of
the glory of which we hear so much, is with
out it's slain. On the contrary, for every man
slain in war, called, thousand are slain
| in industry. To him who is not sodden with
the stupidity of ignorance, or wholly de-
bauched with the desire for getting his hands
on the possessions of others, the present sys-
tenn of industry is a monstrous crime besides
which the horrors of antique warfare were
pale and pure and painless as a virgins
dreams. Why raise our hands in horror at
few liters of blood shed battle fields,
nothing of chdren) are dying of disease
quired in the shops, mills and mines ofChrist-
endom? Why talk of peace when industrial
barOnS-nay, kingS-make private war as
they please, using as their armies the millions
who are continually falling disabled dead
in the fight? Why moan a handful of
Japanese or Russians. when girls are diving of
bone rot in American factories, and twenty
| million or more American working men are
appropriated. robbed and bled (while thou
sands of them are literally s1aughtered) in
the shambles of industry? +
Peace and good will among men them
selves is possible and probable, but on no
such basis as that which is generally argued
by those unthinking persons whose heads
are in the sand. Political peace will come
about when trade shall have been established
upon perfectly equilibrated bottom; when
| national, or general economy can gain moth
ing, but, on the contrary lose, by war;
when the human race shall have been
duced to one type, or when superior INTEL
ligent, end powerful race OF men shall have
dependence Then we may have universal
peace; but until then war will be approved
and will be beneficial
Now, just a word, or two, in conclusion.
unhesitatingly claim for war the gratitude
of the human race because it has always and
everywhere exercised powerful, and salu-
tary influence oyer the affairs of men, and,
a1tho the essence of the question does not
require me to substantiate my assertion,
assert-and you are at liberty to accept it, or
reject it, you please-that, with the pos
| sible exception of Christianity, no single
agency has ever conferred greater benefits on
the human race. And in the final analysis 1t
will be found that even Christianity owes its
very existence-so far as corporal agencies
are concerned-to the protection it has re-
ceived at the point of the bayonet, or its
equivalent; and its universal empire over the
hearts of men is due, above every human
agency, to free press, free speech, and the
utmost federation in religious matters, ALL
of which have been obtained thru the medium
of WAR, and if my opponent has been so un-
fortunate as not to have given to these facts
the Importance they deserve it is no less GER
tain that war has been beneficial to civiliza-
ton, and that it is necessity.