The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1910-12-17

Of average mind, for it reaches the az.
gregate Of $l27 200, 900.
Remembering that this is only for a
part of the warfare expenditures Of the
nation, that for the army, exceeding
the navy by owe twenty millions, the
showing is one that fixes in the observ.
ant mind the truth that the term
Christian nation is about the great.
est irony of the times. OF course the
United States is only one of the many
countries which are pouring vast treas
ures into the building and maintenance
Of battleships, and the army systems,
but it is the only country in which we
are directly iutert sted, and which is son.
sidcred by most of us as the most en-
lightened Of all. Maybe it is. There is
no particular reason to doubt it, SO far
ms one phase of intelligence is concern
ed. There are reasons of doubt In other
directions. 1t is not necessary to 20
far to reach them.
Last year there were l0,570,232 school
children in the United States who at.
tended school. The nation paid SOS, $685.
2s7 for their schooling, only a little
more than half what it paid for battle.
ships and their trappings, and about
one fourth of the total expenditures for
all phases of the war game. 1t is esti.
mated that l,324,973 children were de.
nisd any schooling at all by reason of
the poverty of parents and over 20O,.
900 of these were toiling their lives
away in shops, factories and mines, de.
MED even the commonest privileges of
education. OF those who attended school
only one of every seven were able to
pass beyond the intermediate grammar
grades.
Putting it in another way, the money
spent in the trappings and fxings Of
war would have fed and clothed every
school child in America, and give them
an opportunity to know something be.
yond the limitations Of the present time.
We are told that this vast expenditure
is necessary for the protection of the
homes of the United States. Perhaps
IL is. II may be tnat in order TO hold its
position among the world powers it is
required 10 spend four or five times as
much for the machinery Of murder as it
is for the caring of the young, but |
confess that | nm not able to realize
any such necessity as morally right, al.
though it may be nationally right.
| claim that so long as the so.called
Christian nations Of the world follow
the mirage of the sword and the battle.
ship, the name is mockery, they are in.
consistent in the extreme when they
hold up their hands in horror mt the
ecccntricities Of the Turk, and raise
vast sums for the extension of the
Christian religion into lands that gen.
orally spend less for devices to end life
swiftly and expeditiously.
Further, that the church Itself could
stop war for ever, and lift this yoke
from the shoulders of the people of
earth il they would, for were il a univer-
sal policy of the Christian church to de.
precate war, it would shortly end.
If II is indeed necessary 10 have some
show of naval power, the so.called
nations could chip in and
maintain an int irrational navy that
would have amply sufficient power to
keep the whole world at peace.
! yield to no man In pride of native
land, in veneration for the deeds of
those who are enrolled in the & of
Looking back at their deeds now,
they lose no luster from the enormity
of the present day drain of the machin
cry of wal. The world is supposed to be
better all the while, the United
States most Of all.
We brag that We have the most per
wealth, that we spend more for
the spread of the doctrines of the Man
Of Peace, for books and magazines and
newspapers, for institutions of mercy,
education, for the Improvement of
conditions, that this is the high.
est type of the Christian nation.
At the same time we are pouring out
a kings ransom for the wherewithal to
make widows and orphans, and to red.
den the seas. At the same time there
are millions who feel the tooth Of pow.
cry, who suffer from oppressive eondi.