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

sions, many experiments and so many
failures, questions of stable government and
social safety, in the final analysis, resolve
themselves into questions of simple FORCE,
and very properly so, for-quite apart from
international roversies-government and
society are not always harm onious, and,
when they widely at variance, when gov
| eminent is unpopular or unjust, when society
is turbulent or in state of dissolution, it re-
quires neither theories, discussions, nor
experiments, but strong institutions to with
stand the inevitable shock of passion, and of
prejudice; the inconsistencies of the human
mind, and the subversive force of events.
And just here the respondent will trot out
his pet doctrine of moral suasion" embrace
ing the triune elements of love, charity and
human fellowship. He will tell you that
these irruptions and upheava1s, whether in
ternationa1 or internecinal, are to have no
place in the future-that we are progressed
beyond ch'thngs, or that they are out ofhar-
mony with the spirit of the age, and altho I
know that there always a million echoes
to any plea which addresses itself to our
vanity, 1 also know, and will undertake to
reminder perhaps 1 should say to admonish
you that radical departures, and extreme
doctrines, neither make for the liberty of the
people, nor insure the force and stability of
government.
History, reason, experience, all teach that
safety does not dwell in a feeling of over
security, and whenever the human mind con-
ceives, or becomes imbued with, too great an
esteem for its own powers, and infallibility,
it has only to revert to the pages of history,
u L.
ciate how little safety is to be found in it's
own strength of purpose. The Divine
Artifcer did not create man and place him on
this earth to be a victim of chance, and
creature of circumstance. He has given
him the right of fulfilling his necessities, and
has imposed on him the care of his own
preservation a DUTY, and when this
spondent comes here and essays to show
that war is contemplate, culpable, and un-
necessary, he not only questions the wisdom
of the Creator, butt to my mind, tits g1aring-
1y evident that he has no adequate concep-
ton of the fundamental laws of social
growth,
Men have been guilty of some stupendous
follies but this peace folly is at once the
lost ridiculous, and the most serious of all.
If it had to do with stated number of indi-
viduals in fixed circumstances, limited to
time, and locality, for the execution of any
certain project, then there would be nothing
extraordinary about it, but, in reality, it in
wolves all of the nations of the earth and
all widely at variance in laws, manners, and
customs. Under conditions wholly dissim-
liar, and circums tances the most different, it
embraces hundreds of millions of people who
Numerically opposed in character,
training, and environment AS matter of
fact it is dream-a Utopian vision, illusory
and impracticab1e, which will not withstand
the searchlight of analysis. 1t is a singular
fact that arguments against are be-
ing advanced other than those that have
been so Intellectual to prevent it in the past.
The recognized and acknowledged causes of
war have not abated, and the centers of
apprehension are as numerous as ever. That
the various nations do not show any dispo-
sition to lay down their arms is attested by
the fact that more troops are being schooled
in the tactics of war, more money is being
expended for equipment and appurtenances
of war, more and bigger battleships are
building and going into commission, than
at any period in the history of the world
and, all things considered, wholly
without reason for thinking that the hinges
on the gates of the Temple of Janus are to
become rusty from disuse.
1t is worthy of note that, notwithstand-
ing all the hue and cry over the after, the
movement having universal peace for its
final object has not enlisted, and probably,
never will enlist, the active support of any
considerable number Of men of affairs, and
even the active participants in the movement
admit-by implication at 1east-that war is
a necessity. The Hague Tribuna1-the
hicle of all their hopes-does not provide for
does not even contemp1ate-the abolition of
war. The constitution and preamble of BY
laws, governing that institution, provide for
the arbitration of such matters only do
not concern a nations honor, or landed in
tegrity, and if the respondent will name for
me any formal, important, war, within
five centuries, wherein the honor, or the ter
ritory, of the combatants was not involved,
he will adj to my small store of knowledge
thing much to be desired as am sure the
gentleman himself will admit.
Theodore Roosevelt has been hera1ded as
the champion of peace, and yet recently
the I 9th day of December-if press reports be
true-in addressing delegation of Shakers,
he said: "I regard a recourse to war as en-
tire1y proper in the case of great and un-
provoked wrong affecting the honor of
nation. War is preferable to any nation
suffering from an unjust injury or wrong on
its sovereignty or on it's rights and respect
fully submit that the sentiment expressed
does credit to the presidents good sense.
That the powers themselves regard disarm-
ament as chimerical, and not within the
range of any serious consideration, is evil
denced by the fact that the question in any
of it's phases-proportionate or otherwise
will not be discussed at the approaching