The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-04-26
Cites China and Japan as an Example.
Former Has Been the Prey Of 0utsid-
ers Because 1t Could Not Fight, the
latter Is a World Power and Com
mands Respect.

iiODiNA 10000
work than the peace of righteousness; and high
honor is due those serene and lofty souls who
with wisdom and courage, with high idealism
tempered bv sane facing of the actual facts of
life, have striven to bring nearer the day when
armed strife between nation and nation, between
throughout the world. Because all this is true,
it is also true that there are no more ignoble
or more foolish. no men whose actions are
fraught with greater possibility of mischief to
their country and to mankind, than those who
exalt unrghteous peace as better than righteous
war The men who have stood highest in our
history, as in the history of all countries, are
those who scorned injustice, who were incapable
of expressing the weak, or of permitting their
country, with their consent, to Cypress the weak,
but who did not hesitate to draw the sword
when to leave it undrawn meant inability to ar
rest triumphant wrong.
All this is so obvious that it ought not to be
necessary to repeat it. Yet every man in active
affairs, who also reads about the past, grows by
bitter experience to realize that there are plenty
of men, not only among those who mean i'll, but
among those who mean well, who are ready
enough to praise what was done in the past, and
yet are incapable of profting by it when faced
by the needs of the present During our gen
Grafton this seems to have been peculiarly the
case among the men who have become obsessed
with the idea of obtaining universal peace by
some cheap patent panacea.
There has been real and substantial growth
and justice among the great civilized nations
during the past threescore or fourscore years.
There has been real growth of recognition of
the fact that moral turpitude is involved in the
wrongdoing of one nation by another, and that
in most cases war is an evil method of settling
international difficulties. But as yet there has
been only rudirnentary beginning of the devel-
opment of international tribunals of justice, and
there has been no development at all of any in
ternational police power. Now, as | have al
ready said, the whole fabric of municipal law,
of law within each nation, rests ultimately upon
the Judge and the policeman: and the complete
absence of the policeman, and the almost COM
plete absence of the Judge, in international at
fairs, prevents there being yet any real
homology between municipal and international
law.
Moreover. the questions which sometimes in
volve nations in war are far more difficult and
complex than any questions that affect merely
hcritcd certain questions, either with other ma
tons or with sections of its own people, which
il is quite impossible in the present state of civ
lization, to decide as matters between private
individuals can be decided. During the last CEN
turv at least half of the wars that have been
fought have been civil and not foreign wars.
There are big and powerful nations which hab-
tuay commit. either upon other nations or upon
sections of their own people, wrongs so out
rageous as to Justify even the most peaceful per-
sons in going to war. There are also weak
nations so utterly incompetent either to protect
the rights of foreigners against their own citi-
lens, or TO protect their own citizens against
foreigners, that it becomes matter of sheer
duty for some outside power to interfere in
connection with them As yet in neither case is
there any efficient method of getting interna-
tional action; and if joint action by several
powers is secured, the result is usually consid-
crably worse than if only one power interfered.
The worst infarnies of modern times-such af-
fairs as the massacres of the Armenians by the