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

pority, said the census report, In th'
neighborhood of cities housing large
garrisons of troops.
A friend of mine, who is majol
surgeon in the English army, walked
with me through a great military hos
pital, There were twelve hundred
men from sarrisons scattered all ovel
Great Britain. My friend told mt
that out of, the standing army Of
725,O00 men over 100000 were hope
lessly, haplessly, incurably invalidet
as the result Of vices that hang around
the camps that inhere in the profes-
sion of tie soldier.
In the United States army at least
1000 men more than an entire war
footing r@giment-are constantly un-
der medical treatment for venereal
disease. these results of vice over
balance all other causes of disability.
Typhoid, malaria, smallpox, all these
are negligible beside the black plague.
In 1902, out of every 1000 men 1862
were dis seased. In 1912, with all re-
cent discoveries as to prevention and
cure, there were 11,211 cases of ven
ereal disease, as against 3,737 of all
others. That is the army. In the
navy the rate is 160. Surgeon-Gen-
eral Rixey, in his 1909 report, said !;
"This class (venereal) Of disease rem
ders entirely ineffective for over a
month three battleships, with com
plement of 1000 officers and men for
each" And yet what can you ex-
pect? -....
Don't you see that if you teach a
man that one commandment is wrong,
you can't for the life of you defend
the other nine? Don't you see that
if it is right to commit murder, you
have no logic by which you can teach
him that it is wrong to commit adul-
terry? Don't you see that the whole
moral fabric stands or falls by the
same logic?
The underlying genius of warfare
is strategy, and in the conception of
strategy the end always justifes the
means Deceit, fraud, untruthfulness,
spite, betrayal-these are the methods
of military craftsmanship. Embody
them in modern civilization, and you
have found wars philosophy.
Aside from Japan, an anomaly
among the sister nations, the greatest
powers of the world are all the repre-
embodiment of Christian civ
ihzation. Cut out all reference to the
spiritual side Of religion, all reference
to salvation, or heaven, or hell, or i'm
mortality; make Christianity merely
the dynamic of a desirable type of
civilization. Reduce the much disput-
ed question of foreign missions to
mere desire to carry culture about the
world.
What sort of front does the
Christian civilization of the world pre-
sent as it prays its prayers and sings
its psalms under the shadow of naked
steel, while the ''perishing heathen"
laugh in ill-concealed contempt and
cry, "Look how these Christians
lover'
Il think the saddest thing | saw in
my whole journey around the world
was a cartoon in a Mohammedan pa
per published in Cairo happened to
be in that part of the world when
Italy declared war against Turkey to
take Tropoli. The most inexcusable
net that has happened in modern civil
ization was the declarations of war
against Turkey for a little strip of
arid land in Tripoli. Italy had no
reason to fight, unless it was that she
said: "We have a big army. We
have trained them to kill. Unless we
give them something to kill, they
might get to killing each other or
rs. We have got to have something
to keep our battleships from rust
ing away at the docks. All the ma
lions have taken a bit of Africa.
England took a grab, France took a
piece, Germany reached over and took
4 little; if we are going to train in
Dig company we must have a piece of
Africa" So Italy declared war.
to be in Italy when the
egions marched away from their
ZONES in Florence, in Rome, in Naples.
These regiments of boys came down
he steets and took ships. that took
hem to Africa; they knew not what
'or; they cared less. l never saw
particle of enthusiasm in those regi-
nents. They looked to me very much
ike our regiments of national guards
boys mostly; broad shoulders, brown
heeks, healthy looking; no bands
,laying; the merchants did not leave
heir stores; the populace did not
.ather in cheering crowds. 1 saw no
of any kind. They took
hip and went to fight for a piece of
'ripoli.
A few weeks after that 1 was in
afro. A battle had been fought.
aw a cartoon l shall never forget.
The Moslem artist had drawn a re-
picture. 1t was the desert
f Tripoli, in the immediate fore
round a single towering palm tree.
Jnder it an old man was standing {
n old desert sheik, his tattered bur-
OOs scarcely reaching to his Door
nkles, his green turban on his head,
nd the wind blowing his gray locks :
bout his face. Beside him was a lit- [