River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-08-17
WASTE OF
WAR
By Rev. Samuel M. Dick
Pastor of Wesley M. E. Church,
Minneapolis

TEXT.-And he will judge between the
peoples and they shall beat their swords
into plowshares, and their spears into
pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up
sword against nation. neither shall they
learn war any more.-Isaiah pa
This prophecy is beginning to reach
it's fulfillment When the awful cost
in life and treasure is reck Oned with,
it Is astonishing that sensible civil
lied men should ever resort to war
to settle any question. There is an
other reason apart from it's destruc
tive character why war should not
be resorted to. 1t never settles any
question. The best 1t can 10 Is to
restate it and put il in another form
Take for illustration the Civil war in
this country. Did it settle the race
question? Did it settle the slavery
problem? Not by any means, but If
the amount of money that war cost
US during it's progress and for pen
sions since, had been expended among
the colored people of this nation for
industrial education and other civil
izlng agencies that race today would
have been further advanced in the
scale of progressive peoples than it
will 500 years from today under the
present circumstances.
Christs kingdom does not come by
the sword. 1t is within you. The
patriotism of war rules the world with
the sword. The patriotism of peace
rules the world with an idea. The
one is spectacular and wins instanta-
neous applause; the other is quiet.
moves unseen and its marks are
seen only in generations. One Is
like derrick, it moves the mass of
iron by force applied in one place;
other Is like a sunbeam, it moves
the mass of iron by the unseen ep-
pansion of it's molecules.
The maintenance of peace by pre-
paredness for war is out of harmony
with the gospel with reason, with
ethics, with economics and with COM
mon sense, and any institution that is
out of harmony with all these things
should be discontinued. The prophet
says the nations shall not only settle
down to the great industries of peace
but that they shall not learn war
any more. AS long as peace is main
tanned by overwhelming navies the
nations are learning war and the prog
ress of the world is checked. Given
national jealousy, hatred, prepared
ness for war and any trifie is sufii-
cient to produce war Given national
fraternity, great prosperity on the
part of the people and no armament
and no problem is sufficiently grave
to produce war.
The logic of preserving peace by
increasing the navies of the world
would finally leave the world power
In the hands of one nation. 1t would
only be a matter of time when all
nations but one would become bank
rupt
The fool1shness of increasing arma-
ment is seen in the experience Of our
own peaceful republic. For the eight
years preceding the Spanish war, our
appropriations for the army were q
little less than $24,O0O,0O0 per annum,
and for the navy a little over $27, 000,-
900 per annum. For the eight years
preceding 1911 the appropriations for
the army sprang to $83.OO0,O0O per an
mum, and for the navy to more than
$1O2, 100000. We are now spending for
army, navy and pensions the enor-
NOUS sum of $470,000,000, or u per
cent. of the entire revenue of the
United States. If this increase alone
In the army and navy were turned
toward the industries which make
a nation rich and happy, it would en-
able and maintain an industrial and
agricultural experiment station in
every county in the United States and
give it more than $4,000 per annum
for it's work What would this mean
to the people? Last year our farm
products of all kinds were valued at
more than $4,700,000,000. With an
experiment station conducted as Min
nesota is conducting her work among
the farmers in every county, with
$4,000 per annum to operate it, the
agricultural products of this country
could easily be doubled, and with it's
doubling every other industry would
keep pace AS it is now, we are
spending at least $125,OO0,00O ANIMALS
ly on our army and navy more
than Is necessary for reasonable ma
tional policing, and thereby losing
annually more than $4,000, 100000
which we might have if we followed
the law of gospel and common sense
and used the amount of money to de-
velop the resources Of the country
that we are now fooling away on
war measures and getting absolutely
nothing for it.
How long, oh how long, will this
wickedness and nonsense continue?
The Crown for the Faithful.