The daily sentinel., 1910-04-23

There are well-meaning philosophers
who declaim against the unrighteous-
ness of war. They are right only If
they lay all the-l- emphasis upon the
unrighteousness. War is a dreadful
thing, and unjust war is a crime
against humanity. But it is such a
crime because 1t is unjust, not be-
cause it is war. The choice must
ever be in favor of righteousness, and
this whether the alternative be peace
or whether the alternative be war
The question must not be merely,
is there to be peace or war. The
question must be. is the right to pre-
vail? Are the great laws of right
epusness once more to be fulfilled?
And the answer from a strong and
virile people must be, Yes, whatever
the cost.
Finally, even more important than
ability to work, even more important
than ability to fight at need, is it to
remember that the chief of blessings
for any nationa is that it shall leave
its seed to inherit the land. 1t was
the crown of blessings in Biblican
times; and it is the crown of bless
ings now. The greatest of all curses
is the curse of sterility. and the
severest of all condemnations should
be that visited upon wilful sterility.
The first essential in any civilization
is that the man and the woman shall
be father and mother of healthy chill
dren, so that the race shall increase
and not decrease. If this is not so.
if through no fault of the society
there is failure to increase, it is a
great misfortune. If the failure is
due to deliberate and wilful fault,
then it is not merely a misfortune. it
is one of those crimes of ease and
sclf-indulgence, of shrinking from
pain and effort and risk, which in the
long run Nature Furnishes more heav-
lily than any other. If we of the great
republics, If we, the free people who
claim to have emancipated ourselves
from the thraldom of wrong and
error, bring down on our heads the
curse that comes upon the wilfully
barren, then 1t will be an idle waste
of breath to prattle of our achieve
ments, to boast of all that we have
done. No refinement of life, no deli
cacy of taste, no material progress,
no sordid heaping up of riches, no
sensuous development of art and lit
erature, can in any way compensate
for the loss of the great fundamental
virtues; and of these great funda-
mental virtues, the greatest is the
races power to perpetuate the race.
In short, the good citizen in re-
.ppblic must realize that he ought to
possess two sets of qualities, and
that neither avails without the other
He must have those qualities which
make for efficiency: and he must
also have those qualities which di-
rect the efficiency into channels for
the public good. He is useless il he
is inefficient. There Is nothing to be
done with that type of citizen of
whom all that can be said is that he
is harmless. Virtue which is de-
pendent upon sluggish circulation
is not impressive. There is little
place in active life for the timid good
man. The man who is saved by
weakness from robust wickedness is
likewise rendered immune from the
robuster virtues. The good citizen in
a republic must first of all be able
to hold his own. He Is no good cit
izen unless he has the ability which
VIII make him work hard and which
at need will make him fight hard.
The good citizen is not a good citizen
unless he is an efficient citizen.
There are plenty of men calling
themselves Socialists with whom, up
to time point, it is quite possible to,
work. If the next step is one which
both we and they wish to take, why
of course take it, without regard TO
the fact that our views as to the tenth
step may differ. But, on the other
hand. keep clearly in mind that,
though it has been worth while to
take one step, this does not in the
least mean that it may not be highly
disadvantageous to take the next.
THE good citizen will demand lib
erty for himself, and as a matter of
pride he will see to it that others
receive the liberty which he thus
claims as his own. Probably the best
test of true love of liberty in any
country is the way in which minori-
ties are treated in that country. Not
only should there be complete liberty
in matters of religion and opinion,
but complete liberty for each man to
lead his life as he desires. provided
only that in so doing he does not
wrong his neighbor."