The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-10-03
THE REVELATION OF WAR.
BY Chas. A. Starks.

tions arising out of events, happen
ings, passions and thwarted views Of
the rights of humanity and nations.
The worlds progress has crept along
the dirty and bloody paths Of human
existence, men have been shedding
their brothers blood upon the vain
altar of narrow religion-race hate
intolerance, and enslavement of people
who generally go with territorial ac.
quisitions. Strange how men forget
so easily the Christ teaching which a
highly civilized culture, cemented by
many years of peaceful industry, pros
perity and enlightenment has appear
ed to establish. But men will fight as
long as they imagine that there is
power for world advancement in the
death or suffering of some other ma
ton, or that rifles and howitzers cor
rect the wrongs of the oppressed or
sufficiently avenge and satisfy the
hate and prejudice or miscalled ideas
of national honor. Too oft the real
people have been plunged into unman-
ly strife by the whims of kings and
their consorts, whose responsibility
originates in bigoted foolishness and
has been known to end in that extreme
mixture of idocy for which a certain
king of England was celebrated These
miserables who have brought sack
cloth and ashes down upon nations and
have played havoc with the passions
of mortals with their quarrels and
1Aatfu ot rifo tho rnaI nj
mankind. Alas, the present war be-
tween Germany and the allied forces
, bear out these facts: The world is
trembling; nations are at war; Jove
the ancient war god, has been dis
turbed again, this time by the heavy
laundering Of cannon; the dark omin-
GUS clouds of smoke have even fright
ened that awful old hero whom Homer
worked overtime in order that he
might watch over the destinies of the
warning Greeks, but who had, until
late, been in peaceful sleep on high
Olympus. 1t is safe to say that not
even this creature of Mythology had
any distinct idea of our modern war
fare as is now being demonstrated
by such kindly disposed nations as
the cultured Germans, the Democratic
English, the liberty loving French and
the justice loving Belgians.
These countries have plunged them
, selves into a terrible conflict un-
equalled in destructive results by any
of the Infamous and bloody wars of
the past, and for what apparent provo
| cation is nothing more or less than
scandalous. But looking deeper into
the motives of governments and ma.
tions we can see that all who are in
volved are not altogether guiltless.
The general idea has been to prepare
for something that was to come and
the very fact that Germany, a COM
paratively small nation, was better
prepared than all the others put to-
gether shows how the war spirit must
have been nursed and fostered among
people who have gained a just fame
for culture and the finer arts One
gotten the vast army out of conditions
that must be painful, and this too, that
its emperor was able to levy a war
tax and impose cruel conditions on his
own people as he saw fit. If reports
are true, Germany has been the ag-
gressor in this affair all along. For
this reason the worlds sympathy is
against a country who boasts that
it can whip the world and who treat
ed what efforts were made for medi-
alton with pride and contempt. War
she must have, and war it is getting,
from the last reports in diplomatic
circles, the allies expressed a de.
termined intention of giving that
country full supply of war with
much in addition for surplus stock.
The Negro in the Woodpile Again.
The exact computation of deaths ant
fatalities of course, cannot be ascer
tanned at this time, but the enormity
of such is generally known. The
heart aches and sympathies are fell
| throughout the world, all nations are
the Negro has been insinuated yer!
prominently into this affair this time
he comes through the open door o
France Notwithstanding that this Il
essentially the Teuton, the proud An
glo-Saxon and the superior white
mans war. But the black 'hewerE
of wood" become the leading banner
; bearers and incidentally the foremos
) bayonet chargers of the greatest con
) flict the world has ever known. Thi
Is the white mans war, but seemingl!
the black mans burden. This has eve
been so, however delicate it ma!
seem The Negro has borne the brun
in some way in all late importau
ward whether 1t be in India, Africa o
: the United States, he has had hi
peculiar burden. The present wa
seems to have discovered two unusua
situations. First, the Jews 9TH
! Negro in white) have actually been Of
fered their liberty II they take up tn,
cause of the Russian who is thei
renowned oppressor. The second, tn
Negro is (honest to goodness) reall
!, treated with some consideration an
honor after proving his sufficiency 1
: what we call courage. loyalty and mar
hood. Surely something is coming t
! pass. The Gear Of Russia has spoke
? 1t concerning the Jews and didn't tn
president of France just say "Ther