The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-18
Methodist Church

The congregation at the Methodist
church was satisfactorily large Spe-
ciaI music was rendered by the choir,
which had been strengthened for the
occasion, the soloist being Marshall H.
Webb.
Devotional exercises We're conducted
by Pastor D. w. Crane. and r. H.
Trent introduced the speaker of the
evening, Judge Hartwell, with some
pertinent remarks. The Judge said:
CHIEF JUSTICE HARTWELL.
Your pastor and Mr. Trent have seen
fit to ask an old soldier to talk to you
about the prospects of international
peace conferences, they knowing-be-
cause he told them-that his views
might not be considered sound ty adj
vocates of peace; but as | an expected
to state the position as / see it. | will
proceed to do so.
The most belligerent people ! ever
knew were people who did not know
or wish to know what it was to go into
battle-to see men killed and wounded,
the sight of dead bodies lying on the
field the day after the battle, the
scenes in the field hospitals. Think for
a moment of the line seventeen miles
long of Confederate wounded soldiers
in ambulances, army wagons and on
foot making it's painful way back to
the Potomac river after the battle of
Gettysburg; and there were about as
many killed and wounded ON our side.
Did those who stayed at home and dis
couraged enlistments in those days act
in the interests of peace? Does not
every soldier know that if the country
had been prepared with breach loading
rifles at the beginning of the Civil War
thousands of valuable lives would have
been saved, and that the war would
not have dragged on four terrible yearsl
Is it in the interest of peace, then, to
advocate an ineffective military estab-
lishment2 And singularly enough it
is many of these same advocates of
peace who would have our country act
as policeman over other nations to
make them behave themselves and do
what is right.
THE PRACTICAL VIEW.
Taking a practical view, it is thought
by many that anything like permanent
BILE Some think that it is not even
desirable. 1t is well, they say, to dis
and to avoid unnecessary wars
for gaining territory or to punish ma
ton for offensive conduct or breach of
international obligations, or to settle
disputes which can better be settled by
international agreements
are very well to prevent barbarities in
war, such as shock the moral sense of
of the age, but it is said that it is
visionary and useless to expect any
thing more. As long as there are evil
passions In men; as long as men are
crafty and deceitful and ignorant,
wars, it is believed, are sure to come
and every nation which respects itself
or which Is respected by other nations
must keep itself in readiness to fight.
And moreover, war, with all its hOr-
rors, its terrible destructiveness, not
withstanding the suffering and anguish
1t causes, is, after all, tonic. 1t de-
velops and trains the fighting qualities
of men; it is the only way of testing
the effectiveness of guns and material,
of military methods and of an army
or navy. This is the argument from
the practical point OF view. and the
force Of it cannot be gainsaid
But there is much more than this to
be said. To begin with. while striving
after what is impossible is something
which, as years come upon one, he
gradually learns not to do, it is always
important to have ideals 1t would be
a deplorable thing if we all lived up
to our ideals, and it would be still
worse if we had none. At least we can
strive to approximate our conduct to
what is ideal. to secure international
of what Is right and Of
what is wrong in the dealings of ma
tons with each other in war as well az
in peace.
DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY.
Before considering what may reason
ably be expected from international
peace discussion, it il well to look at
the difficulties in the way Of accom-
plishing anything which would with
stand the strain to which a nation may
Continued on Page Three)