The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-07-21

~ On. FRANK CRANE
(Copyright. 1915. b. Frank Cranel

L
The other day college professor tried
to assassinate prominent financier,
whom he thought to be engaged in sup
plying the allies with munitions; he also
exploded an internal machine In the ma
tional capital, and is said to have placed
explosives upon an outgoing Atlantic;
liner. When arrested, he committed sui.
eide in Jail.
1t is interesting to get q peep into
this mans mind, for he was human be-
ing. as we are human beings, and was
subject to much the same motives. What
was it that queered him, that turned q
harmless idealist into wild beast?
Perhaps il we can find the answer to
this Il will furnish us with clue to some
other apparently insoluble problems.
| The gist of the matter is this: He
WAS TRYING TO PROMOTE AN
IDEAL BY FORCE.
That is the fatal error the world has
committed over and over, is committing
now, to its infinite loss.
| Muenter's passion was pure one; he
dreamed Of peace, wanted to stop the
terrific destruction of life in Europe. To
accomplish his aim he resorted to vio-
lence. and we correctly call him crazy.
He was crazy. But don't forget why.
It was because he thought he could make
an ideal succeed by force.
BUT WAS HE ANY CRAZIER, IN
HIS LITTLE WAY, THAN THE I'M
POSING AND IMPERIAL MINDS OF
EUROPE ARE IN THEIR LARGE
WAY?
Germany thinks she is right. She hon.
estly believes. there can be no doubt,
that she conceives herself to be taking
the best course to defend and conserve
the ideals of the Fatherland. To advance
those ideals she is engaging IN u pro-
gram of frightfulness, the utter brutality
of which finds no parallel in the history
of anarchist assassinations nor piraticaI
atrocities.
The allies think they are right. They
see themselves as the opponents Of tyran-
nical militarism, as the champions OF
democracy. To impose their ideals upon
the world they also are butchering mill
lions Of men.
1t is clash of two impregnable ego
tisms. of two unreasoning, fanatical
ideals.
Idealism plus force has been the
scourge of mankind.
The only idealism that Is OF value is
the kind that can wait, and allow time
to decide, time and the cosmic argument
of experience.
ST. Paul was just as sincere before his
conversion, when he was haling men and
women to prison, as afterward. Only
afterward he had found the supreme Sc
cret of the true method Of promoting
truth; that is, that Ito witness" for the
truth, to live it, exemplify it, and II need
to die for it is the only way to promote
it, and TO USE COERCION FOR 1T is
TO SET 1T BACK.
That is the luminous truth that the
brute-minded world cannot see.
i If Europe saw it, she would cease night
ing, assemble in conference, and entrust
her conflicting ideals to the sure arbitra-
ment of time.
I Europe is mad, precisely as Muenter
was mad. Europe's activities in horror
are vain, precisely as Muenter's were
vain. There is no difference.
! INSANITY AND FANATIC UNREA-
SON MULTIPLIED BY MILLIONS DO
NOT BECOME PURGED.
The church, possessed of the noblest
ideal, inflicted untold damage upon her
self and humanity when she used force.
Puritanism in its efforts to enforce its
notions extinguished itself. The bomb
throwing anarchists are the worst enc
mics to the lofty ideals Of philosophic
|, anarchism Socialists who mouth "the
revolution" and advocate destruction are
the chief foes of socialism.
So what is called Prussianism, the be-
lief in the mailed fist, is the destruction
of all that is good and beautiful in the
, German people, and the surest enemy Of
all England and France stand for is not
: Germany, but their own fleets and ar
mics.
And Americas greatness lies in the
fact that she does not and will not pre-
pare herself to impose her convictions on
the world by force.
: Long ago il was said, and still the
half developed brains of men cannot un-
derstand It's SCATTERING truth, that
THEY THAT TAKE THE SWORD
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