The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-11-28
'R0OSEVELT'S
LAST LESSON
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Ne should strive. In actual practice
they advocate the peace OF unrtght-
eousness. I have as little sympathy
az they have for the men who deity
mere brutal force, who insist that
power justifies wrongdoing. and who
declare that there is no such thing as
International morality. But the ultra
pacificists really play into the hands
Of these men. To condemn equally
might which backs right, ana might
which overthrows right is to render
As II in private life we condemned
alike both the policeman and the
dynamiter or black-hand kidnaper
or white SLAYER whom he has arrested.
To denounce the nation that wages
war in self defense, or from gener-
Gus desire to relieve the oppressed, in
the same terms in which we denounce
war waged in spirit OF greed or
wanton folly. stands on an exact par
with denouncing equally a murderer
and the policeman who, at peril OF his
life and by force of arms, arrests the
murderer. In each case the denuncia-
ton denotes not loftiness of soul but
weakness both of mind and OF morals
What Germany Wants.
In a capital book, by a German. Mr..
Edmund Won Mach, entitled What
Germany Wants." there Is the follow
ing noble passage at the outset:
During the preparation OF this book
the writer received from his uncle, a vet
eran army officer living in Dresden. a
brief note containing the following laconic
record:
1915, your grandfather at Legnitz.
1870 myself-all severely wounded by
French bullets.
1914 my son, captain in the Sixth Regi-
mo inf NJ
-Four generations obliged to fight the
French!
friends Of French descent, he finds there
similar records. and often even greater
sorrow, for death has come to many OF
them. In Europe their families and his
for generations. while a few years in the
clarifying atmosphere of America have
made friends of former Frenchmen.
Germans. Russians and Englishmen.
Jointly they pray that the present war
may not be carried to such a pass that an
early and honorable peace become impos-
sible for any one OF these great nations.
Is 1t asking too much that America may
be vouchsafed in not too distant a future
to do for their respective native lands
what the American Institutions have done
gard each other at their true worth, un-
blinded by traditional hatred or fiery
passion?
It is in the spirit of this statement
q people different from but akin to all
the nations of Europe. We should feel
q real friendship for each of the con-
testing powers and a real desire to
work so as to secure justice for each.
This cannot be done by preserving a
tame and spiritleSs neutrality which
treats good and evil on precisely the
same basis. Such a neutrality never
has enabled and never will enable any
nation to do a great work for right
eousness. Our true course should be to
judge each nation on its conduct, I'M
hesitatingly to antagonize every nation
that does i'll as regards the point on
which it does i'll, and equally without
hesitation to act, as cool-headed and
yet generous wisdom may dictate, SO as
disinterestedly to further the welfare
Of ALL -..
We Should Have Interfered.
For example. feel in the strongest
way that we should have interfered, at
least to the extent Of the most emphatic
diplomatic protest and at the very out
set, in regard to the violation of the
neutrality of Belgium; for thfs act was
the earliest and the most important,
and In its consequences the most ruin
Gus. of all violations and offenses
against treaties committed by any COM
blatant during the war. But it was not
the only one. The japanese and Eng
1ASlA AOIScS AlOl lOnS dlleE NlOldtcu SHl-
nese neutrality in attacking Kiao-Chau.
1t has been alleged and not denied
that the British ship Highflyer sunk
the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosser in neu-
trail Spanish waters, this being also a
violation Of the Hague conventions;
and on October 10. the German gov
eminent issued an official protest about
alleged violations Of the Geneva con-
vention by the French. Furthermore,
the methods employed in strewing por-
lions of the seas with floating mines
have been such as to warrant the most
careful investigation by any neutral
nations which treat neutrality pacts
and the Hague conventions as other
than merely dead letters.
IT, instead Of observing a timid and
spiritless neutrality, We had lived up to
our obligations by taking action in all
OF these cases without regard to which
power it was that was alleged to have
done wrong. We would have followed
the only course that would both have
told for world Righteousness and have
served our own self-respect The course
actually followed by Messrs. Wilson
Bryan and Daniels has been to permit
our own power for self-defense steadily
to diminish while at the same time re-
fusing to do what We were solemnly
bound to do in order to protest against
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