Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1907-07-31
DEMOCRATIC AND SOUND.

Hon. Tom McNeal is liable to be
read out of the republican party.
A recent number of his paper has
an unusually strong article entitled
"What War Would Mean" After
predicting that there will be no
war between the United States and
Japan, and telling of the millions
of lives that would be lost and bill
lions of wealth wasted if the two
nations were to go to war, he closes
with the following very sensible
and indisputable paragraphs OF
good logic:
at is not popular to talk against
the enlargement of the navy. 1t is
easier to puff out the chest and talk
about the glory of the American
army and navy; to say that the on
lv way in which we can maintain
our position as great world pow.
er is to have a navy and army big
enough to enforce our demands.
Possibly if we are to continue to
try to gather in lands over in the
Orient, if we are to pick up islands
in foreign seas and become the un.
sought guardians of unclothed saw
ages who have no use for us and
no love for our government, this
may be true. If we are to continue
to be the self-appointed protectors
of a lot of measley aggregations of
Incidence, Ignorance and dishonesty
miscalled republics in South Amer
lea whose ambitious dicfators have
no use for us except as a protection
from the payment of their debts,
then perhaps we have need to spend
hundreds of millions of dollars ev-
cry year in building and maintain.
ing huge armored warships which
seem to be-out OF date about as
soon as they are built.
"But why should we want any
territory in the Orient? What oc-
casion have we for lot of distant
islands inhabited partly by savages
and partly by natives with gloss
of civilization but with no appre-
citation of the principles of our gov
eminent? Such possessions will al
ways be source of danger and ex-
pense to us. The possession of
them is inconsistent with the
Wanted Monroe doctrine that the
people of this country have been
talking about for nearly a century.
'1f we maintain that the western
continent must be let alone by the
monarchies of Europe they have an
equal right to say that we should
keep out of the Orient. North
America is big enough for the en-
ergies of the people of the United
States. If we eonfDe ourselves to
this continent we need no great
navy. Before there is any material
advancement toward a general
peace some great nation must set
the example of acting like peace
full nation. What would be thought
of a man who would go about with
a pistol belt filled with cartridges
strapped about him, carrying two
loaded GAS" and a bowie knife,
insisting that he was a man of
peace? The United States is in
better shape to set the example of
disarmament than any other nation
on the face of the globe. But we
presume it will not be done. Peo-
pie still love the pomp and cir
cumstance of war. They like to
read of battles where men who
have no cause to hate each other
kill without mercy. And so they
vote vast sums to build up armies
and navies and continue to main.
tain class of shoulder strapped
snobs who, invested with a little
military authority, strut and swell
with pompous pride and regard the
untitled citizens, by whose bounty
they are fed, as their interiors"
If the Kansas railroad board at
EnDnLo will <vox 4