Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1914-07-21

/ the line of the horizon some one ha,
fired a she'll that had described it
fiery arch in the sky. 1t had sud
denly burst above them, where it look
ed like some great meteor falling
from the sky, and underneath it th'
Mohammedan cartoonist had, written
"Is this, then, perhaps, the Star o
Bethlehem"
Oh, the awful cynicism of it, whel
we remember that the nation tina
fired the shot that killed helpless ole
women and drabbled little children
in their own blood was the nation il
whose capital sits the head of the
greatest religious organization in tht
world, "The Vicegerent Of God, tc
rule in His name" How can Christ.
ianity but stand abashed in the pres,
ence Of this militarism that gives the
lie to its Prince Of Peaceq
So civilization today faces its most
tremendous problem. Morals, educa-
tion, progress, and religion are bound
up in one. Militarism squanders re-
sources, increases taxation, raises the
cost Of living, breeds rebellion and
anarchy, lowers moral ideals, spreads
leprous vice, makes of religion thing
of grotesque hypocrisy, paralyzes mis-
sions, throttles the, world. Reason
cries "Halt!". But fear has reas-
on chained. Not a nation of them
all but would stop today if it could /;
but self-preservation is the first law
of life. In the aggregation of ancient
states heredity is stronger than sa-
gacity. The world is tricked by a
delusion.
Armed peace is not peace, but po-
tential, menacing war. There is only
one way to insure peace, and that
is to abandon the possibility of war.
The world wants peace. 1t wants a
constructive age that will prove the
ideals of humanity and make our
dreams come true. Who will lead
the way? 1t will require courage and
lf-sacrifce far beyond the heroism
of battle. Who is. to lead the way?
America can do it. .'T'
Is she brave enough? Can she do it
still? Has she gone too far, or can
she still be what our fathers dreamed
when they planted, that flag, a new
in the armament of the
earth? We have made some sad mis-
takes. The contagion, with its CLAM
orr and its barbaric fascination, has
touched our sober judgment. We who
are supreme in our self-sufficiency-
who for a century laughed at the
follies of the Old World madness
have allowed ourselves a venture in
the domain of Bedlam. Providence
flung us for moment into the fore
front of the world, and instead Of
remembering thatsswe stood for a new
age and new philosophy we dressed
ourselves in the Uniform of modern
savagery and began to ape the insani-
ty of the older world. We are not
oy instinct ea military nation.
It does not set well with the genius
IF the Republic. 1t does not attract
our men. = Our young men are men of
,ision, of accomplishment; men of
peaceful conditions. They dream
lreams. There is nothing attractive
% the young men of America in be-
ng shut up in dusty barracks. and
burning up in practice marches. Ii
hey must march, they want to march
or something and to some place. Our
I'D men are not taken with the pos
uring of pomposity and the glare and
,lamours of European militarism.
Our American women don't go
lown into the dark valley and the
hadow of death to breed boys to be
made targets"for bullets unless there
S something behind the bullets that
S worth sacrifice. What we have
one, we have done we'll. Let us con-
ourselves on that. With our
resources, what we have
made is the best that can be made.
At Spithead, at the Kings Corona
ion, peace advocate as | am, hugged
nyself when I looked upon the lordly
Delaware, supremest of them all, and
roof to the world of what money
nd Yankee genius can do when it
cts out to do it. But we don't want
)elawares; we don't want standing
rmies and big navies. We have no
ereditary enemies. We have no old
euds' to fight over. Our militarism is
but its tremendous cost is
proof of how easily we might come
o the brink of ruin.
We have only succeeded in col
,cting an army of S1,785 men and a
avy of 47,500-less than 100000 men
1 all-even after offering chromos OF
heir enlistment.
We have a population of 100000 1000
n self-sufficient area Of 3,571 ,223
1uare miles. What a wonderful
ming it is to stand across the seas
nd look at America You think
bout America sometimes, but did you
yer look at it at the angle of five
miles and see what it looks
ke7 Did you know that you can
Ike England, Ireland, Scotland,
Tales, France, Spain, Portugal, Ger
ANY, Holland, Belgium, Denmark,
orway, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy,
ustria, Greece, Turkey-that is, all
: Europe except Russia7 Now take
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