The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-04-14

truistic regard for the rights of others.
Those who hold this view are blind
| indeed to all that has gone on before
| their eyes in the world at large.
They are blind to what mas nap
pened in China, in Turkey, in the
Spanish possessions in Central and
South Africa, during the last dozen
years. For centuries China has cul-
tivated the very spirit which our own
peace at any price men wish TINS
country to adopt. For centuries
forces and has treated the career of
the soldier as inferior in honor and
regard to the career Of the merchant
or of the man of letters. There never
has been an empire which for so long
a time has resolutely proceeded on
the theory of doing away with what
is called ''militarism.
Troubles of China.
Whether the result e1as been happy
in international affairs l need not dis
cuss. All the advanced reformers and
far sighted patriots in the Chinese em-
pire are at present seeking Il may ada,
with our hearty good Wild for radl-
cal and far-reaching reform in inter
national affairs. In external affairs
the policy has resulted in various 9TH
er nations now holding large portions
of Chinese territory while there IS
very acute fear in China lest the en-
pre because of its defenselessness, be
exposed to absolute dismemberment'
and its we'll wiShers are able to help
it only in small affair, because no
nation can help any other unless that
other can help itself.
The state department is continually
appealed to to interfere on Deha1 OF
peoples and nationalities VINO insist
| that they are suffering from oppression
now Jews in one country, now Cnrls-
tians in another, now black men said
| to be oppressed by white men in Afrl-
ca. Armenians. Koreans, Firms, Poles,
representatives of all appeal at times
| to this government. All OF this oppreS-
sion is alleged to exist in time of peace
and frequently, although by no means
always, it is alleged to occur at the
hands of people who are not very 1or-
midable in a military sense.
In some cases the accusations of op-
preston and wrongdoing are doubtless
i'll founded. In others they are well
founded and in certain cases the most
appalling loss of life is shown to nave
occurred, accompanied with frightful
cruelty. 1t is not our province TO de-
eide which side has been right and
which has been wrong in all or IN any
of these controversies. l am now re-
ferring to the loss of life.
Oppression Is Wide Spread.
1t is probably a conservative state
ment to say that within the last II
years, at periods of profound peace
massacres and butcheries have oc-
Cured in which more lives of men,
women and children have been lost
than in any single great war since the
close of the Napoleonic struggles.
To any public man who knows the
complaints continually made to the
state department there is an element
of grim tragedy in the claim that the
time has gone by when weak nations
or peoples can be oppressed by those
who are stronger without arouslng er-
fective protest from other strong in
terests Even this still fresh in the
mind of every thinking man shows that
neither arbitration nor any other de-
vice can as vet be invoked to prevent
the gravest and most terrible wrong
doing to peoples who are either few
in numbers or who If numerous have
lost the first and most important of
national virtues-the capacity for self
defense.
When a national is so happily Stu
ated as ours-that is, when it has
nothing to fear or to be feared by it's
land neighbors-the fleet is all the
more necessary for the preservation of
peace.
Great Britain has been saved by its
fleet from the necessity of facin~ one
of the two alternatives-of submission
to conquest by a foreign power or
itself becoming a great military power.
permanent career of peace on only one
condition, and that is, on condition of
building and maintaining first class
navy; and the step to be taken towards
this end at this time is to provide for
the building Of four additional battle
ships. / earnestly with that the con-
gress would pass the measures for
which I have asked strengthening and
rendering more efficient the army as
well as the navy; all of tn ese measures
as affecting every branch and detail
of both services are sorely needed, and
it would be the part of farsighted wis
dom to enact them all into laws, but
the most vital and immediate need Is
that of the four battleships.
To carry out this policy is but to act
in the spirit of George Washington; is
but to continue the policies which he
outlined when he said, "Observe good
fait and justice toward all nations.
Cultivate peace and harmony with
all"
Nothing is more essential than that
permanent inveterate, antinathies
against particular nations and pas
sionate attachments for others should
be excluded; that in place of them
just and amicable feelings towards all
should be cultivated.
l can not recommend to your notice
measures for the fulfillment of our du-
ties to the rest of the world without
again urging upon you the necessity of
placing ourselves in condition of
complete defense and exacting from
others the fulfillment of their duties
toward us.
The United States ought not to in
dulge a persuasion that contrary to the
order of human events, they will for
ever keep at a distance those painful
appeals to arms with which the history
of every other nation abounds. There
is rank due to the United States
among nations which will be withheld
II not absolutely lost by the reputation
OF weakness. If we desire to avoid in
suit. we must be able to repeal it; if we
desire to secure peace, one of the most
powerful instruments of our rising
prosperity. 1t must be known that we
are at all times ready for war.
(Signed),