The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-04-21
IN WAR AND PEACE
COMPARISON
Ashland, Neb.. April II, 1911.
0 the Editor Ocala Banner:


people are spelling for a fight Only
the other day l heard a free born
American citizen express himself in
these words: twenty-five thousand
American soldiers could march from
the Rio Grande to the city of Mexico
in six weeks, and in two months they
could conquer Mexico"
Well, perhaps they could, though
doubt it very much; but, even so, OF
what good would the conquest of
Mexico be to the common people of
these United States?
l may be mistaken; perhaps l am;
but it seems to me that there are a
great many things which we need
much more than we need war with
Mexico-good roads. for instance.
War is a very costly enterprise,
and, so far as the common people are
concerned, it is utterly barren of prof
it. Why, then, should the common
people allow themselves to become
advocates of war? 1t is a mystery to
me. can understand why men of
special privileges" should desire the
conquest TO Mexico, especially if the
common people are compelled to bear
the burden.
Now, am not financier, neither
am l an expert accountant, but I
think l can figure out results that
will astonish those people who have
not thought very deeply on the mon
ey cost of war.
AS l said before, 1 am not finan-
cier; 1 am just one of the common
people; no better, and trust no
worse than the rest of Goods toiling
children" and as such / have a spe-
cial regard for him who works for his
daily bread.
1t matters not to me whether he
be a free-born American citizen or a
poor, poverty-stricken. foreigner, who
has sought an asylum on our shores
from the hard conditions that con-
fronted him in his own crowded 10th
erland across the sea.
No, it matters not to me whether
he comes from the British Isles, from
the bleak shores of Scandinavia, from
sunny Italy, or from the German
fatherland, he is my brother, and if
he be an honest man he is worthy of
my best regards.
Is it no wonder, then. that should
deplore the worse than useless ex-
penditure of vast sums of money for
foreign conquest, and for the wanton
waste of human life?
We profess to be followers of the
. meek and lowly one. the Prince of
Peace, Jesus Christ. the righteous,
and yet, we glory in the slaughter of
our fellow men,
Is it strange, then. that our church
es do not prosper; that our common
people are losing interest in the
cause of Christ? Nay, my readers;
such is but the sure result of our I'M
holy worship of the god of mammon,
under the hypocritical pretense of be-
ing followers of the Prince of Peace.
A few years since we had a war
with Spain, speedily followed by an
other in our Asiatic islands. How
we'll l remember seeing in the col
umns of my daily paper at that time
the names of many hundred dead,
who were to be brought back to our
shores from far-off Santiago and Ma
nilla, that they might find a last, long
resting place in the beloved soil of
their native land.
And so, the wicked ones, upon
whose shoulders rested the RESPONSE
bility of those wars. thought to pro-
pitiate usNby bringing home our dead.
OH the brazen mockery: the hid
eous horror of it all. The most of
those men, dying upon the battlefield,
were in the prime of life. Many of
them were beardless youths. Only a
short time before they had left their
happy homes, full of courage. full of
life and full of hope To them the fI-
ture was a mystic realm of beauty.
and its bright, almost interminable
vista of year succeeding year, was
full of promise. Poor, sorrowing
mother, was your precious darling
numbered with the dead? If so. may
the good God sustain you in your
awful grief; human sympathy cannot
avail. Your noble boy is gone. He
left you with happy smile upon his
beardless lip, sprightIy step and
words of hope and cheer, but he is
dead All. the pit of it; cold in
death-poor boy!
But l have dwelt long enough upon
the cruel, hcartless side of war My
only object in touching it at all has
been to make odious. if possible. it's
naked, hi1eous horror
might write of the other and