The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-21
THE PEACE MEETING.

an organization which is at war with
all the world; avowedly, inevitably
so. It's chief leader and spokesman
habitually speaks of the inhabitants of
the world at large as his ''enemies,
This organization claims TO be the
only authorized religion in the world
at the present time, and also the only
authorized government All other reli,
| gions are spurious, all other govern.
ments are usurpatlons. For blgoted,
exclusive, nlonopo1istic sect like this
to come into the arena talking about
peace is one of the inconsistent events
Of the time.
The meeting itself was virtually q
Mormon meeting; few Gentiles took
part, to be sure, and took part in good
spirit and with good effect. Governor
Cutler, who is Governor by reason Of
his acknowledgment of and profit by
the fact that the Mormon church rules
the Republican party hereabouts, pre-
sided over the meeting, The meeting,
so far as he and his adherents were
concerned, was by counsel and per
mission; they would just as readily be
on the other side, in case the adverse
tip were given them from church head
quarters,
The first speaker of the non Mormon
contingent was the Rev. Benjamin
Young, Methodist minister. His ad-
dress was in good part; but where he
ccmplimented President Roosevelt for
helping to arrange peace between Rus
sia and Japan, it would appear that his
praise may be premature; the end of
that matter is not yet. There will al
ways be feeling in Japan, which may
be an ugly feeling and one very dam
aging to us at some time, that the Uni
ted States was the means of beating
Japan out of the just indemnity that
she claimed from Russia for her ex-
penses during the war. There can be
no doubt that Japan is justified in that
feeling. President Roosevelt not only
arranged the peace meeting at Ports
mouth, but he also insisted that the
delegates should agree upon peace after
they had in effect disagreed. The Presi
dent s contention and insistence mar
rowed the proposition down so that
japan was at disadvantage; she had
to appear before the world as insisting
on a money payment for the war as
condition of peace. That was an i'm
practicable proposition, but it was one
into which she was forced by President
Roosevelt. and she was forced TO aban-
don her claim. That many Japanese
resent this is beyond any question;
and that President Roosevelt was made
to feel this resentment when he took
up the San Francisco school question,
that it was potent factor in forcing
him TO take the japanese side of that
we fully believe. On the
other hand, Russia will resent that
peace as being premature and depriving
her of any chance TO retrieve her
wounded spirit in that war. Russia
knew perfectly that Japan was just
about on the dissolving point as far as
the war was concerned. Japan S full
strength had been called out, and there
was no further resource from which to
recruit her forces; another year of the
war would undoubtedly have seen the
Japanese driven back. and at least
some substantial victories for Russia;
so that the legacy of peace which Presl-
dent Roosevelt forced upon Russia and
Japan leaves ranking stings IN the
breasts of large numbers Of patriots
in both countries. That it will event
ually be as much to our disadvantage
as Gladstone IS sentimental peace-mak-
ing with the Beers was TO the disad-
vantage Of Great Britain, is not prob
able, but no one can tell what the womb
Of time may bring forth.
Rev. Elmer I. Goshen spoke also for
peace, and he very properly gave it a
ocal application, The point Of that APP
plcation was emphasized where he
stated that this peace meeting "could
accomplish nothing unless those inter
ssted in the movement would go out
from the meeting determined to accord
TO every man the right to think as he
chose But that is precisely what the
of that meeting do not ac-
cord to anybody, and especially to
of their own church, 1t is
that they should do so on
The theory of their organization; for
if their organization is, as they claim,
not only divinely founded but divinely
guided, errancy is impossible, and any
1iverging from the COUNSEL of the
Giving oracle' is necessarily error,
and, in one previously
member Of the church, apostasy.
On the general question of the pro-
paganda for peace, we suppose that
there could not be found man in the
world to oppose it, providing it were
a practical proposition, But as it is not
4 practical proposition, the demand for
peace without regard to justice or Ma
tional integrity is liable to work great
injury to this country. We arc senti-
mental, hysterical sort of people, and
go to extremes very easily. 1t might
even happen that in the pursuit of a
pence ideal we would dlsarm ourselves