Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1911-08-16

question. The best 1t cai. do is to
restate it and put it in another forE:.
Take for illustration the Civil war in
this country. Did 1t 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 its progress and for pen
sions since, had been expended among
the colored people OF this nation for
industrial education and other civil
izing 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.
Christ's kingdom does not come by
the sword. 1t is within you. The
patriotism of war rules the world VIII
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 q sunbeam, 1t moves
the mass OF iron by the unseen ep-
pansion of its 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 triae is suffi-
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
woeld 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 foollsh} kss Of increasing arma-
menf Is sesA N the -oxaarianov of our
own peaceful republic For the eight
years preceding the Spanish war. our
appropriations for the army we're a
little less than $24,000.006 per annum.
and for the navy little over S27.000,-
00C per annum. For the eight years
preceding 1911 the appropriations for
the army sprang to sS3,000,000 per an
mum, and for the navy to more than
S102, 2,000, 900. We are now spending for
army, navy and pensions the enor-
nous sum of s470.000,000, or 72 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, 1t would en-
able and maintain an industrial and
agricultural experiment station in
every county in the United States and
give it more than S500O0 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 $4,700,0O0,000. With an
experiment station conducted as Min
nesota is conducting her work among
the farmers in every county. with
s50.O00 per annum to operate 1t. the
agricultural products of this country
could easily be doubled. and with its
doubling every other industry would
keep pace AS it is now, we are
spending at least s125.Oo0.0O0 annual
ly on our army and navy more
than is necessary for reasonable ma
tional policing. and thereby losing
annually more than $4,000.000,000
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?