The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-05-08
Depew's Views of the War

On the evening of May I Chauncey NJ. Depew deliv-
cred an address before the Montauk Club of Brooklyn, N.
Y, the occasion being the celebration of his eighty-first
birthday. Also it was the twenty-fourth annual birthday
dinner given by the club to the venerable former senator
from the Empire state. With his mind on the present sit
uation in Europe, Mr.. Depew, among other things, said:
The forecasts of statesmen are failures. The laudable
and apparently successful efforts of the advocates of peace
have become suddenly a CHASTITY farce. The higher ideals
OF nations have been submerged in racial enmities and
trade rIvalries. Organized Christianity is questioned as
to the results of two thousand years teaching, while mil
lions of Christians are killing each other, and all the COM
batants calling upon God to help their just and righteous
cause. Other millions of women and children rear rude
shelters out of the ruins of their once happy homes and
only relief supplies from neutral nations are saving them
from starvation. But they are enduring sufferings and
death with martyr spirit which would not recall, if posi-
bic, the bread-winner fathers, sons and husbands fighting
IN the field. The agreements of the Hague tribunal sol
EMMY ratified by the contracting governments are shelved
for the curiosity of the future historian. The warning
powers repudlate these compacts, and neutral nations dare
not protest, because protest means action and action means
war. The Hague peace palace is to let.
There never were preparations for war of such vast
in order to preserve peace, and the perfection
of the preparations made war inevitable. The ironv of
the situation is that the line is invisible between the size Of
armies and navies necessary for the national defense and
militarism which provokes war.
Alter exhaustion has brought the bellieerents on one
side to seek terms of surrender, in the wisdom of that set
tlement will be either the seeds of another and more
sanguinary war, or a peace which SO saves the pride and
VI YIN IN mat llN lSdNC IL Tie WOIlQ NAV
be assured for all the future. Recent history furnishes
two wonderful examples. After the Franco Prussian war
victory was followed by vengeance. France was impover-
1shed by an indemnity so laroe that it was expected to
pauperlze her people forever and despoiled of her
falrest provinces. Hate and revenge grew with the unex-
pected and marvellous recovery and prosperity of France.
and her sons, inheriting the feelings of their fathers. are
cheerfully and enthusiastically battling to right the wrongs
OF 1870. In nations, as with individuals, the spoiler wakes
strong, arrogant and reckless. The spoiled nurses his
wounds and bides his time. The second example is our
civil war. North and south, each believing they were
right, battled as our race will until by force and superior
numbers, wealth and equipment, the Union won and the
Contederates were exhausted. Here in civil strife. with
its passion and vindictiveness, were the possibilities of end
less revolts and revolutions. But the rebel states were
welcomed back into the Union with the same RIGHTS. now
es and liberties under a common constitution as the iova1
states. The only exaction was the abolition of slavery
which had been the cause of the war. Union and Confed-
crate veterans fight over their battles in memory only at
happy reunions, and their children, knowing no north. no
south, no east, no west, are proud citizens of the United
States. For a second time in half a century since the close
of the civil war, the south and its economic theories are in
absolute control of the government. With mi1itarism
eliminated and peace preserved by an international police
on land and sea, the greatest wars may prove for mankind
the most marvellous of blessings.