Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-12-21

tons, and TolstoI has blunt Y argued
that killing, even in self-defense. costs
more lives than it saves. With grow
ing regard for the sacredness of life IL
is natural that wholesale slaughter
should become more and more repuS-
nant to the conscience OF organized So
cietv. for war has, as a rule, been re-
sorted to for the acquiring of territory.
AS theft and murder frequently are
traceable to covetousness, we may expect
that the violation OF these two com
mandments by who esale, as well as by
retail, will decrease in proportion as man
comes to realize his kinship 10 his
brother and the indissoluble ties that bind
him to his feIlow-rnen.
We have yet to deal with the delusion.
often sincere, that duty to the world
sometimes requires national land grab
bing and the subiugation OF inferior peo-
pie" Analysis will generally show a con-
fusion of thought among those who take
this position. The separation of the nu-
merous reasons that are usually mixed
together will show the weakness of each.
Those who a few years ago defended inn
perialism generally employed three ar
auments which. stripped of unnecessary
verbiage, were about as follows:
% we do not want the Philippines
and ought not to have taken them but
now that We have taken them there is no
way of getting rid of them; - and
then, too, ii seems providentiaf 10
and besides, there is money in IT,"
There is sometimes a mysterious connec-
ton between the providential argument
and the monetary one; men seldom see
the hand of Providence in a proposed ma
tional policy unless they believe there is
a dollar in the hand. IT is, unfortunately,
much easier to convince on that it Is his
religious duty to do a profitable thing
than an Improbable thing, especially III
the thing is done upon scale large
enough to obscure its moral character.
There are, however. no moral principles
that apply to nations that do not apply
equally to individuals. The quality OF
morality is not determined by the number
engaged iii the act-the number only af-
fects the probability of escaping the pen
atty; and even here il Is Il fatal mistake
to consider only those punishments which
are immediate. No moral code can be
built upon any theory that oyerlooks the
effect of wrongdoing upon the character
of the wrongdocr. When We advise out
children not to steal do il primarily
for their good and not for the good OF
those from whom they might otherwise
steal. No real or permanent progress !
possible in ethics until We understand
that IL is better for one To suffer wrong
than to do wrong; and this applies to ma
tons as well as TO individuals.
a.
suture and measure. the consequences OF Z
single act, whether that act be good ol
bad, so a nation is unable 10 calculate
the permanent influence which an &C
of government may exert: time and TINS
again nations have suffered on an enor
nous scale for wrongs done which, a
the time, seemed insignificant.
1t is not only impossible to weigh com
merce in the balance against blood br
it is unjust to the last degree to weig
= the commerce which one person secure
against the blood which another perso
sheds to secure it. Even if the profit
: of war accrued to those who make tn
sacrifice, the recompense would be IL
I adequate: but who will justify a systeI
. where many SOW their lives that Other
may reap a golden harvest:
Few will now attempt to justify wal
!, OF conquest and subiugation for III
q propagation of reiigion-it seems hid'
Q Gus when it is presented as make
proposition without rhetorical adorr
ment. 1t is not only revolving. but it
: in conflict with the teachings of GU