Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-06-13
THE PERILS OF AN AGE OF PEACE
BY BISHOP w. a. CANDLER.


A noted orator, exalting the bless
ings of peace and denouncing the evils
of war; mas said: Give me the money
that has been spent in war, and 1 will
purchase every foot of land upon the
globe. 1 win clothe every man, woman
and child in an attire of which kings
and queens would be proud. 1 will build
school-house on every hillside, and in
every valley ever the whole earth;
will build an academy in every town
and endow 1t; college in every state
and fill it with able professors; 1 will
crown every mill with place of wor-
ship, consecrated to the PRONUNCIATION
of the gospel of peace; ] viii support
in every pulpit an able teacher of
righteousness, so that on every Sab
bath morning the chime on one hill
should answer to the chime on another
round the earths wide circumference
and the voice of prayer and the song
of praise should ascend like an uniVer-
sal anthem to heaven" His words are
just statement. perhaps of the waste
fulness of war; but it is easy to draw
leading, to imagine that when nations
learn war no more all the multiplied
millions which have been wasted ID
war will be turned at once into benev-
client channels which ne suggests. This
is far from true.
More has been wasted in the indul-
gence of the appetite for intoxicating
drinks than has been squandered upon
war, and when men waste no more up
on war they may turn the money thus
saved to uses of selfish luxury and
enervating dissipation rather than de-
vote it to any philanthropic ends III
truth an era of peace is especially De-
set by the perils of self-indulgence
and sensuality. This fact was pointed
out years ago by John Ruskin In an
address which he delivered at the hoyal
Military Academy Woolwich, in the
course of which he said, The common
notion that peace and the virtues OF
civil life flourish together, 1 find TO Do
w oily untenable. Peace and the wees
of civil life only flourish together we
talk of peace and learning, and OF
peace and plenty, and Of peace ana CIV
ilization / find that these are not tlo
words which the muse of history coup
les together; that on her lips the "orus
are peace and sensuality, peace ana
iself, shness. peace and corruption, peace
and death. / find in brief tnat ali
great nations have learned their truth
of word. and strength of thought IN
war: that they have been nourlsnea IN
war. and wasted by peace; tralheo pS
war and betrayed by peace; In Wolu'
that they were born in war ana eA
pired in peace"
These words of Ruskin are not quol-
ed as an argument for war; most ost
toin1,- not to chill. in the slightest de-
gree the prevailing sentiment LOT 80,
a+ional peace which is manifestlns
itse1f in so many striking ways In our
own and other lands. That noble sen
tir7ent is one to be cherished and deep
ened nv us. But we are not to smut our
ewes TO the fact that peace has lts pei
us no less than wars most oahs 80 -
II is evident that war Is breaking
aou,, Nv its own weight. The Weaitil
of the world is modern; the ahPIei en-,
world was poor when compared win
the opulence of Christendom OF TO-DAY.
But the richest of the wealthy nau ,
80 tbe present time is burdened intoler-
Ill, ~, the cost of war This is espe-
otaiIv +rue of the nations of Europe.
rbosA mowers collect from their clrl-
zens immense sums every year In oruer
~ nav debts incurred for wars IN the
nast and to maintain ornaments IN
readiness against the possible wars oI
the future. Every European peasant Is
horn so to speak, with soldier on ms
bacl, and every day the soldier grows
heavier and the peasant becomes weak
err The process can not go much Iur-
Their without revolution and repelIloh
IT seems clear, therefore that peacei 1l
arbitration of international differences
al, ,,e resorted n more and more, while
arbitrament bv the sword will be en-
Moved less and less in the settlement OF
all such issues. It may be doubted II
the United States and Great Britain VIII
ever again engage in war to settle their
disp,tes It lacks but a year OF beng
a hundred years since they TOOK arms
a AGAINST one another the last time,-the
war of 1872 During the century whlch
has ELAPSED they have settled more dell
cate questions and weighty disagree
ments by arbitration than they ever de-
termined by war. And In the mean time
thew have grown enormously rich. The
taxable values in the United States ag-
presate now about one hundred and
TWENTY-FIVE billions of dollars. No ma
tion was ever so rich as ours. ana
every day the national wealth increases
bv vast sums. 1t is manifest that
long continued era of peace must accel-
crate the movement for the accumula-
ton of money and the getting of the
things which will bring money. Peace
makes powerfully for commercialism,
and of that disease our country has
quite enough already.
A short time before Mr.. Gladstone
died he published an article in which he
showed that the amount of wealth pro-
duced during the first 1900 years of the
Christian Era was equaled by the pro-
duction of the first fifty years of the
nineteenth century; and that an equal
amount was produced from 1850 to 1870.
Or. in other words, that seventy years
of the nineteenth century produced
twice as much wealth In Christendom
than was produced, in the previous
eighteen centuries. Since 1870 the speed
with which the wealth getting movement
has gone forward has been far greater
than when Mr.. Gladstone published his