Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-06-08

private use and business use, with
labor, with poverty, the one prime ne
cessity Is to remember that, though
hardness or heart IS a great evil. it is
no greater an evil than softness Of
head.
But in addition to these problems
the most intimate and important of all
which to a larger or less degree af-
feet all the modern nations somewhat
alike, we of the great nations that
have expanded, that are now in COM
plicated relations with one another
ana with alien races, have special
problems and special duties of our
own You belong to a nation which
possesses the greatest empire upon
which the sun has ever shone. I be-
long TO nation which is trying, on
scale hitherto unexampled. to work
ont the problems of government for,
of. and by the people, while at the
same time doing the international duty
of great power. But there are GER
tain problems which both of us have
to solve. and as to which our standards
should be the same. The Englishman,
the man of the British Isles, in his
various homes across the seas, and
the American, both at home and
abroad are brought into contact with
utterly alien peoples some with
civilization more ancient than our own
others still in. or having but recently
arisen from. the barbarism which our
people left behind years ago. The
problems that arise are of well-nigh
inconceivable difficulty. They cannot
be solved by the foolish sentimentality
Of stay-at- home people, with little
patent recipes. and those cut and
dried theories of the political nursery
which have such limited applica bili,y
amid the crash of elemental forces.
Neither can they be solved by the
raw brutality of the men who, wheth-
er at home or on the rough frontier
of civilization. adopt might as the
only standard of right in dealing with
other men, and treat alien races only
as subjects for exploitation.
mo hard and fast rule can be
drawn as applying to all alien races,
because they differ from one another
far more widely than some of them diff
fer from us. But there are one or two
rules which must not be forgotten.
In the long run, there can be no justi-
fication for ore race managing or COIL
trolling another unless the manage
ment and control are exercised in the
interest and for the benefit Of that
other race. This is what our peoples
have in the main done and must con-
time to do, IN India. Egypt. and the
Philippines alike. In the next place,
as regards every race, at home or
abroad. we cannot afford to deviate
from the great rule of righteousness
which bids us treat each man on his
worth as o man. He must not be
sentimentally favored because he be-
longs to.a given race: he must not
be given immunity in Wrnngdoing, or
permitted 10 cumber the ground, or
given other privileges which would
be denied to the vicious and unit
among ourselves. On the other hand.
where he acts in Il way which would
entitled him to respect and reward If
ne were of our own stock, he is just
as much entitled to that respect ana
reward if he comes of another stock!
even though that other stock produces
q much smaller proportion of men OF
his type than does our own. This has
nothing to do with social informing
hing, with what is called social equal
ity. 1t has to do merely with the
question of doing to each man ana
eacn woman that elementary justice
which would permit him or her to gain
from life the reward which should al
ways accompany thrift, soDrlety. sell
control, respect for the rights OF
others, and hard and intelligent work
to given end To more than such
treatment no man is entitled, and less
than such just treatment no man
should receive.
The other type of duty is the inter-
national duty, the duty owed by one
nation to another. l hold that the
laws of morality which should gov
ern individuals in their dealings one
with the other are just as blnulng
concerning nations in their dealings
one with the other. The appllcatlon
of the moral law must be different III
the two cases. because in one case 1t
mas. and in the other it has not, the
sanction of a civil law with force pc
hind it. The individual can depend
for mis- rights upon the courts Whlch
themselves derive their force from the
police power of the state. The natlon
can depend upon nothing of the kind'
and therefore, as things are now, II Is
the highest duty of the most ad-
vanced and freest peoples to keep
themselves in such a state of readiness
as to forbid to any barbarism or des-
potism the hope of arresting The prog
ress of the world by striking down
the nations that lead in that prog
ress. 1t would be foolish indeed to
paw heed to the unwise persons who
desire disarmament to be begun by
the very people who. Of all others,
should not be left helpless before any
possible foe. But we must repropate
quite as strongly both the leaders ana
the peoples who practice, or encour-
age or condone. aggression and IN
iouity by the strong at the expense OF
the weak. We should tolerate lawless-
ness and wickedness neither by the
weak nor by the strong; and ooth
weak and strong we should in return
treat with scrupulous fairness. the
foreign policy Of a great and seH-re-
specting country should be conducted
on exactly the same plane OF honor'
of insistence upon ones own rights