Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1913-10-09
WORLD WAR FORECAsTEO
Prof. Emerson Snys Outcome of Balkan
Movement liz Observation-Disclosures
orleans Swnycd by Emotion.

Prof s. f. Emerson addressed the First
Church brotherhood upon the Balkan sit
uation in the parish house Sunday noon,
analyzng in a most interesting way the
significance of recent events in the east
and forecasting suggestively the POSSIBLE
ity of great world war yet to come
one Is tempted, ne said, to give up faith
in mankind. upon reviewing the outcome
of the Balkan movement which opened
so auspiciously for the spread of progress
and national independence. All the civil
| lied world sympathized warmly with the
effort of the Bulgarian allies to dismiss
! the Turk from Europe, and rejoiced at
their successful campaign. Then came
| the thunderbot of greed among the VIC
tors, and general apathy toward their
struggles ensued Such is the impress
sion gathered from the newspapers and
reviews.
! At the same time, it seemed. was demon
strated the futility of war. Military or
Eanizaton and discipline, commonly sup
posed to foster and develop qualities Of
patriotism, devotion to ideals and self
control there resulted in an outbreak of
! base passion. Diplomacy, too. displayed
inability to guide the war and there fol-
lowed the great mistake as to the Alba
mans.
Turkey has rc-occupied Adrianope con-
/ tinucd the speaker. and to do this. must
have had money. Where did 1t come
| from? Presumably from France In con-
nection with the Balkan situation the
great increase in the ornaments OF Ger
many and France is significant: so also
are the relations between Russia and
Austria the intervention Of Roumania,
and the fact that Albania is erected into
an independent state Standing out clear
~ from all other facts is the evident one
that the Turkish empire is going to pieces
and its end is near
Touching upon the fact that certain
people are insufiiciently advanced in civili-
zation to he capable of successful self
government Professor Emerson COM
| mented upon the Democratic party's atti-
Jude favoring Independence for the Fill
pinos and said that the Democratic
party Is a party of formulas"
What we call religion, education civli-
cation, is often a very superficial thing
The Balkan peoples are swept by great
/ movements, but are far from the point
whore one sees with clarified reason. We
Americans are very largely under the
! sway Of emotion. One example of this is
/ Woodrow Wilson-read over what he says
in connection with signing the tariff bill.
But it isn't SO dangerous for u.s. since
| we have great territory in which to
cmotionalizo These large emotions, how
ever, ought to be discouraged by think
! ing men"
! Bulgaria, said tho speaker had learned
! the lesson Of preparedness In war-and
preparedness doesn't mean a year or two
| in the army, then back to civil life; It
means a great standing army, equipped
and ready to strike that first blow which
decides a conflict to-day.
War is one of those inevitable things
by which the Will Of God is worked out
We are preparing, Europe is preparing,
for a struggle on a scale of which we
have no conception. Through war ma
tions have in some fashion come to the
development OF type. War discipines the
individual Furthermore. it discplines
him to seek the attainment of high
ideals. We do not wish to have men
killed. Yet war has tremendous influence
for good. This lesson has been taught In
the past and it appears to me that it
will be taught again in the future, In
spite of The Hague and peace confer
Caces."