The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-03-26
WAR BY ANY OTHER NAME

New York Post; Nobody wants war
with Mexico, but no end Of people
want to do something or other that
would be war, yet that they would
call by some other name. Such
legal and moral confusion has many
times arisen. 1t is at the bottom of
the attempt to make out the POSSIBLE
ity Of such a thing as a pacific block
AIDE" This is. in reality, very much the
same as saying a loving crack over
the head, Or q friendly shooting. So,
today. in our Mexican trouble, certain
persons would invent smooth sounding
names for rough things. They would
not begin hostilities against Mexico,
oh. no! They would merely send a
polite military expedition into Mexican
territory. They would have 1000 AM
erican marines sent out for Mexico
City with every protestation Of friend
ship. The governor of Texas would
dispatch a force Of rangers across the
Rio Grande to bring back the body Of
In American citizen who had been
hanged on Mexican soil, and incident
ally, we presume, to teach the Mexi-
cans to know their place. That this
would be warlike, does not seem to
oCCuT 10 1OFGI IlOI NOlQulLI. he seems
to think Of 1t as a ~neighborly visit.
This drawing back from the blunt
naming Of acts in accordance with
their harsh reality is perhaps credit.
able to the hearts of those who do it.
They do not like to think of wal out
right. The humane sentiment of their
age is strong upon them. A battle
field would be as CHASTITY a sight to
them as to any of us; and so they
resort to all kinds Of phrases and
masked descriptions implying that
they do not intend to march the coun-
try into a bloody war. But however
amiable may be this shrinking from
so much as speaking Of horrid brutaIi-
ties, it does not argue we'll for the
reasoning powers of those who dis
play 1t. We nay say a good word
for their hearts but we cannot retain
much respect for their heads. For
there is no use in trying to escape
the hard facts, or in seeking to
sprinkle rose-Water over human sham
bles. General Sherman's definition
cannot be amended sc as to read that
was is-a place we do not like to
mention. And if the nature of war is
what we know it, acts Of war are
acts of war, no matter what the fas-
t~aidiously call them.
1t is in this form, unpleasant but I'M
IlldL inc pIODl6ll FORCES II"
self upon President Wilson. Others
may talk loosely; he cannot. Impuls-
i've gentlemen in congress or out of it
may propose fantastic schemes to set
tie MeXico's hash, all Of them imply
ing armed coercion, though all Of them
are described as not at all tantamount
to war, but the president has to look
at things as they are. For him inter-
national law still exists, even IL others
ignore it. The rights Of nations are
realities to a man who is acutely aware
that he is dealing with them, and that
they are sensitive and may become
explosive. Now, all this is, we do not
question, the reason why MI. Wilson
took occasion yesterday to let the
newspaper correspondents know that
he is infiexibly opposed to all these
near-war measures. He, as president,
and as commander-in-chief, must
sharply discriminate between what can
be lone by diplomatic representations,
couched in urgent language. though
these may and ought to be, and what
may la to be don by arms. The two
cannot be mixed up. Bayonets remain
bayonets even when festooned with
flowers.
In this attitude President Wilson is
clearly right. His Mexican policy, as
a whole, and up to the present. can
not be called a success in the sense
that it has achieved the result desired.
That any other peaceful policy than
the one he has pursued, however,
would lave worked any better, it
would be impossible to prove. But Mr..
| Wilson's course with Mexico has at
least been highly successful thus far
in n important respect. 1t has
avoided war. 1t has tended to calm
n not to infuriate the American
people. 1t has brought the country into
close n good relations with Euro
!pean powers, and paved the way for g.
perfect understanding as to the ulti-
mate steps to be taken, when the time
comes to take them. And accordingly
the president Is wholly correct in re-
fusIng to c~ountenance proposals which
would infallibly mean that we should
blunder INTO war. If war must come,
as q last dread resort, it is for our
government to face it with open eyes.
1t Is not a thing to be tricked into. We
should be guilty of incredible folly If
we were to make experiment of some
of the disguised war measures put for
ward by happy-thought statesmen n
ha pl1azard newspapers, thinking that
they might safely be toyed with, and
then find +e1at they plunged us into a
woeful and d~esolating struggle.
President Wilson is to be thanked
for being, in all this business, a COO
and firm executive. But he is perhaps
more to be thanked, just now. for be-
ing a clear thinker. He refuses to de-
fine black as white-or as a nice shade
Of gray. He knows what peace is and
what war is, and he will not confuse
the two. Through fancy names, he
pierees to the realities behind them;
and will not admit that war would
smell sweet il we could only call it
something else.
W &c