The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-05-13
VICE PRESIDENT FAIRBANKS
AND THE PEACE POLICY.

anu may bt even NlE NY t44thiS Va
the people that the cartoonists have
declared him but he is right on one
of the serious problems with which
humanity has to contend today, with
which it has contended from the
first He declares that he would
rather see the people spend their
churches than to see them spend it
in unduly expanding armies and ma
vies. I'm the final analysis, the
measure of our progress in the scale
of the worlds estimation is not our
banks, mercantile houses, manufac-
tories, railroads and steamships, but
our great churches, schools, collie
ges, universities, hospitals and char
ities,'' said Mr.. Fairbanks, and it
is quite true. He adds:
We hear much of the need of
large navy and large army. We all
agree that we should provide ade
quately for the national defense. The
money necessary to this end should
De freely thpeHueu, Dut DeSoUu Jul
reasonable needs we should not go.
Our national tranquility is not men
aced from without, nor is our do
mestic peace threatened from with
in. | would rather see the people
spend their money in building up
great schools, colleges, universities
churches and cathedrals than see
them spend it in unduly expanding
90
young men and young women who
are trained in schools, colleges and
universities are the armies which
shall most dignity and glorify Am
erican achievement.
AS Vice President Fairbanks says,
they are the armies of peace, and,
in the final analysis, the armies of
our enduring national security. Il
have faith to believe that Christian
civilization is laying securely the
foundation of domestic and interna-
tional tranquility, and that an ap-
peal to the reason among men will
more and more render less necessary
an appeal to the sword. We must
not introduce into our American
civilization the pomp and pageantry
of European military and naval es-
adjustments. -
There has been within recent
years an abrupt and desperate de-
parture from the peace policy that
has made our nation great and free.
There is hardly nation in the
world that has not been used by job
and contract hunters, ambitious
demagogues, cross-eyed : worship
ers at the shrine of pageantry, blus-
tering towards, as a means of work
| ing up the American people and of
securing vast sums from the public
| treasury The turn away from the
! peace policy of more than century
| has been daring departure that
! menaces the free institutions of the
American people.
AS Vice President Fairbanks as
serts, "our tranquility is not men
aced from without, nor is our do
nestle peace seriously threatened
from within" The one thing that it
remains to do is for the civil author
tiles, already provided by the tax
payers at enormous expenses, to per
form more faithfully the functions
for which they are created and
maintained. The peace of the nation
is threatened far more seriously by
the incendiary gangs of Kentucky,
Tennessee or Virginia than it is
threatened by all the outside nations
of the world combined Our serious
troubles are internal, and are still
localized until they could be readily
met and settled by faithful and
fearless service on the part of civil
authorities. Instead of recognizing
this truth and proceeding to meet
the grave duties that lie at hand,
the dangers for which We as peo-
pie are ourselves responsible, the
public men of today are many of
them evading such responsibility by
pointing far to some distant and for
eign enemy, to imaginary dangers
that are safe from the standpoint of
the campaigner and the demagogue.
that have in them millions of money
and spoils and promotions and jobs
and opportunities to win glory in
military life.
There has never been a more mer-
cenary or more cowardly policy than
that now proclaimed by the jingoes
of this country. They are diverting
public attention from their cautious
ly neglected duties at home. They
are playing the old scheme of sharp
ening the appetite for conquests, of
persuading the people to fall down
and worship the god of war. They
are providing higher places and sal
aries for the ambitious and the idle
in a military politics. They are
pleasing the fortune-hunters and
glory hunters and are thus inviting
liberal contributions to their own