Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-10-06
AMERICA THE WORLDS HOPE
President of Columbia University Says
We Must Prepare Way for Peace.


At the recent opening exercises Of
Columbia University, President Nicho-
las Murray Butler in his annual ad-
dress to the undergraduates dealt with
the engrossing topic Of the war. He
said, in part:
Our usual interests however great,
our usual problems however pressing,
all seem petty and insignificant in view
of what has befallen the world While
we were seeking rest and refreshment
in the summer holiday.
THE great European scholars that
we would have welcomed here have
not come to us. They are killing and
being killed. Mankind is back in the
primeval forest, with the elemental
brute passions finding truly fiendish
expression. The only apparent use or
science is to enable men to kill other
men more quickly and in greater num-
bers. The only apparent service OF
philosophy Is to make the worse appear
the better reason. The only apparent
evidence Of religion is the fact that dl-
vergent and impious appeals to pal
pably pagan god have led him, in per-
picked distress, to turn over the affairs
of Europe to an active and singularly
accomplished devil
What are we to think? Is science
sham? Is philosophy a pretense? Is
religion a mere rumor? Are the long
labors of scolars and statesmen to en-
throne justice in the place Of brute
force in the world all without effect?
Are Lowelrs lines true:
Right forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne?
The answer is No; a thousand times,
No!
Despite all appearances, even In
this wicked and causeless war which is
decimating the flower Of European
manhood; multiplying by the million
the widows, the orphans, the suffering
and distressed; loosing the primitive
instincts for savagery and lust-even
here there Is to be found something on
which this university may continue to
build the temple of wisdom.
I'VE are a neutral nation, and the
president has rightly enjoined us all to
observe neutrality in speech and in
deed. But neutrality is not indiffer-
ence; it is not the neutrality of the
casual passer-by, who views with
amused carelessness a fight between
two street rowdies; it is the neutrality
of the just judge who aims, without
passion and without prejudice. to rem
der judgment on the proved facts. We
cannot if we would refrain from pass
ing judgment upon the conduct OF men,
whether singly or in nations, and we
should not attempt to do so.
in the first place. the moral judg-
ment of the American people as to this
war is clear, calm and practically un-
animous. The attitude Of the Ameri-
can press is worthy of the highest
praise; in some notable instances the
very high water mark of dignity and
of power has been reached.
In the Europe Of tomorrow there
will be no place for secret treaties and
understandings for sleepless interna-
tonal enmity and treachery, for care
fully stimulated race and religious ha-
tired, or for wars made on the sole re-
sponsibility of monarchs and of minis
ters. 1t is not the Slav or the Teuton,
the Latin or the Briton, the Oriental
or the American, who is the enemy of
civilization and of culture. Militarism
there is the enemy!
when exhaustion brings this war
to an end, at no distant day, the task
of America will be to bind up the wars
wounds, to soften the wars animosi-
ties and to lead the way in the colos-
sal work of reconstruction that must
follow. Then if our heads are clear,
our hearts strong and our aims un-
selfish-and if our nation continues to
show that it means always to keep it's
own plighted word-we may gain new
honor and imperishable fame for our
country" y"-Philadelphia Ledger.