The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1915-03-18

With pride on your manly son. AT last
you realize your dream, your boy is
grown, and you now feel that all your
years OF toll and care have really been
a joy. But just in the midst of your
joy,-just at the happiest hour of all
your life, you hear the loud call to
arms. When your boy is about to leave
the old home forever, you clasp him
to your heart again and again, but
you say nothing. At night you try to
sleep, but no,-your restless mind
wanders to dismal field of dead In
the midst of that hideous field you see
your boy wounded and dying. You can
almost hear him call. But you know
the call is answered by nothing but
the roar of harsh cannon and bursting
bombs. Oh! Mother, war is a living
death to you. The brute mother of the
field will die for her children but you
would die a hundred deaths to save
you boy.
The mothers. the laborers, and even
the capitalists are radically opposed
to war; and ye., some will say that in
spite of it all men love the glory of
war. Europe is great canvass on
which numerous world famous pic
lures have been sketched. One of
these pictures represents the glory of
war as gross absurdity. There in
the city OF Paris, clothed in his mar
BILE robes Of glory, sleeps the great
Napoleon. Far away on the plains of
Russia, lie the white uncoffined bones
of French peasant. This is the glory
OF war. Napoleon has a tomb of mar
BILE, gilt, and gold, but where are the
tombs of his brave soldiers? They
sleep at Waterloo, among the Alpine
crags, in the drifting sands of the Sa-
hara, on the frozen steppes of Rus
STA, or in the depths off Trafalgar.
Now with this great picture prom
inent before them have the common
people spent billions in armament
that Car, an Emperor or a King
may sleep in pomp and grandeur;
while their bodies rot in the awful
trenches at Warsaw, at Liege, at
Marine, at Aisne, or go down to wat
cry graves in the dark unfathomed
ocean; No! it is the military caste,
it is the military caste who have
spent the millions, and dragged over
on to modern society this worn out
custom of militarism. This war is not
war Of the common people, but
war of monarchs and diplomats.
People of the world, we have been
asleep, but this war has awakened US.
We have come to the parting of the
ways. Who is willing longer to
plunge on in thoughtless military RI
valry till all humanity falls PROSTATE
from economic exhaustion? Who
dares to believe that half the energy
OF the human race must be devoted to
Internal machinery with which to des-
troy the other half of mans achiev-
ment? Shall the toiling millions of
humanity forever allow themselves to
be ground down beneath the iron heel
of monarchs and military magnates |
Never! The sleeping masses are
arousing, the sword of military Gus
tom is breaking and the shackles of |
barbaric warfare are falling away.
The armies and navies that COM
pass the earth belong indeed to a
time that is rapidly passing. All
around US there is mastering another
army, the army of public sentiment;
the conquering army which has
marched VIGOROUSLY through all the
annals of history. 1t invaded France,
and cruel despotism vanished. 1t in
vaded America, and the slaves were
freed. 1t invaded China, and the
clouds of centuries lifted. 1t is bonn
harding the saloon, and battering
down the walls of vice and infamy. 1t
is checking the injustice of capital
and securing for labor living wage.
This army of public sentiment is to-
day rapidly mobilizing against mill
tarism and war. Capitalist and labor
er, brother and sister, poet and paint
er, all are rising up to blot out the in
sane curse of war. We as an army of
human souls are pressing on to that
more perfect day, when every port
shall be open; when the laborer shall
stand erect and free from the yoke of
mllltarism; when no longer the hun
cry cannon feasts on vigorous, youth,
neither quenches it's thirst with or
phans' tears, nor roars in mockery at
the widows wall.
Sons and daughters of America, our
blood is being shed in neither Mexico,
nor Europe, nor on the seven seas;
and it seems as though God had chos-
en- US to lead his conquering army of
higher ideals. 1t is for US to direct
this growing force of sentiment, and
bring about some effective form of
world government which will supplant
brute force and imperialism. Our
great confederation of the United
States, government based on the
consent of the governed, stands as an
almost perfect model for this fedora
ton of the world. If from thirteen |
weak, jealous, and divided colonies we
can mould a powerful, united nation
of forty-eight sovereign states, we
shall not doubt that we can gradually
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