Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-12-24

Davenport Times: The Germans, ii
, should be noted, Notwithstanding al
the temptation because of a lack OF
coaling stations and ports of refuge
were not the ones who violated the
neutrality Of the Panama canal and
caused Goethals to call for warships
to enforce regulations.
Cedar Rapids Republican: Even
] Japan hastens to assure the world
that what little fighting it has been
doing has been for civilization. 1t is
now perfectly well understood tina,
they are all doing that. Civilization
Is all right, just SO they leave out God
We hate to hear of them talking about
God in this war.
Council Bluffs Nonpareil: We pro
duced in this country this year nearly
ten billion dollars worth of farm
crops, animals and fruits. 1t will cost
the consumers nearly twenty billion
dollars to dispose of this product. This
excessive cost to consumers Is due to
our expensive system Of distribution
Early News: What is perhaps the
record breaking yield of potatoes Is
-uQof II!M lpIoqmnH moIJ pelIodeJ
son, a farmer of that vicinity harvest
ed in one small field by actual mea
surement, $50 bushels Of tubers to the
acre, 100 bushels more than he has
ever got before. This is 355 bushels
more than the states average yield
Before the rains and second sum
mer" the field would not have given
fifty bushels per acre.
Hannibal Courier Post: Because
people feel kindly disposed to the
noble work of the Red Cross society
on European battlefields and have con
tributed to that appealing charity; be-
cause they have heard the cry of starv.
ing, shelterless Belgium, and have
sent food and money to relieve con
dition of famine and suffering unpar
alleled in modern history that does not
release from responsibility for exer
ton to mitigate human misery that
lies near at hand.
Clinton Herald: If it is true, as
claimed. that the United States gov.
eminent had advance information of
an impending war in Europe, why
didn't the government take some steps
to warn American tourists, that they
might have escaped the terrible priva
tons endured as a result of their ig'
norance of what was transporting? 1t
would then not have been necessary
to send an American warship with S..
100000 in relief funds for stranded
tourists And If the American gov.
eminent knew it. Europe knew it.
The only effect of secrecy was the i'm.
poverishment Of American tourists.
La Crosse Tribune: It was but
logical that the vatican's suggestion
for Christmas truce should fail. 1t
was pretty suggestion, but 1t was
anachronism, more suited to the
glamorous warfare of the feudal ages
when slaughter was conducted with
punctilious regard for politeness and
decorated with high lights of senti
ment, than to the grimy, oilstained
modern business of war.
Warfare in those days was not so
irreconcilable with Christianity as
now. Ideas OF both have changed
somewhat since. 1t was not unseen
ly, then, for good bishop, after shed.
ding his benson on the troops, to tuck
UP his gown and sally forth, mace in
hand, to trust his life to the efficacy
of his intercession with the God of
battles. The Templars, the Hospital
lers and the gallant old Crusaders
would have been genuinely astonished
at any question of the consistency of
their militant Christianity.
That was the Christianity of a tur.
bulent time when the rough surface
of society made indistinct the line
between the man of God and the man
of war. Now the years have put a
piano finish on society, and the gulf
between the warrior and the devotee
is plainly marked.
We no longer 60 to war to regain
the Holy Sepulchre. Instead, we
quarrel over dividing the spoils of
commercial exploitation and call in our
Moslem and Shintoist friends to help
us against the country we conceive
to be blocking or threatening our
privileges of accumulation. True, we
call upon the Almighty to bless our
arms. but is it not an afterthought?
We bicker and dispute, building up a
mass of diplomatic causeries to bury
the BRIDESMAIDS spite which Is the fun
damental cause of our difference; nor
think of God until we face the issue
of life or death.
We mOderns are not SO consistent,
by half, as those ancestors of ours
who devoutly sought to force the
Cross upon the infidel with the sword.
Were We as sturdy in our materialism
as they in their fierce spirituality, the
answer of all the warning nations to
the pope's suggestion for truce
would have been:
away with truce! Having called
Gods attention to the fact that our
cause is just, we must be about the
business of Staying our neighbors."
(Who in his own behalf has filed a
similar memorandum in the heavenly
chancelloryl. eve welcome the dawn
. ? ~ II