The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-12-29
ROOSEVELT ON WAR

Continued from page one.)
China, Korea and Armenia to show
piled practically the theories of
pacifists
I'm the thirteenth century," said his
paper, Persia had become a highly
civilized nation with a cultivated class
of literary men and philosophers. with
universities and great mercantile in
/ tereSts. These men and merchants
took toward the realities of war much
the same attitude that is taken in our
own country by gentlemen of the
stamp of Messrs. David Starr Jordan
and Henry Ford. Unfortunately for
these predecessors of the modern pa
cifists they were in striking distance
of GenghiS Kahn and his MongolS
and. of course Invariably happens
in such case when the onruSh came
the pacifiSts' theories were worth Just
about what a tissue paper barrie6
would amount to against tidal wave
In Thirteenth Century.
Russia at ~the time was slowly
Stru g5ling upward toward civilizations
But she had not developed military
efficiency; she had not developed eff
ficiency in war. The Mongols over
whelmed her as fire overwhelms stub
BILE. The chief difficulties against
which Russia has had to struggle in
modern times are due ultimately to
the one all-essential fact that in the
early part of the thirteenth century,
she had not developed the warlike
strength to enable her to hold her own
against a militarist neighbor.
There are well meaning people, ut
terly incapa BILE of learning any lesson
taught by history, utterly incapable of
understanding Alright what has gone
on before their very eyes during the
past year or two, who, nevertheless,
wish to turn this country into an occi-
dental China-the kind of China which
every intelligent Chinaman of the
n IC inp to hn1 ie,Ia
There are plenty of politicians by no
means as well meaning, who find it
to their profit to pander to the desire
common to most men to live softly
and easy and avoid risks and effort.
Tlmfd and lazy men, men absorbed in
ease and luxury, and all soft and sloth-
full people naturally hail with delight
anybody who will give them high
sounding names behind which to
cloak their unwillingness to run risks
or to toll and endure. Emotional phi
lanthrOpiStS to whom thinking is a
distasteful form of mental exercise en-
Enthusiastically champion this attitude
War Ideas Confused
Discussing the mental confusion of
the average citizen who thinks war in
itself is wrong Mr.. Roosevelt wrote
that war could be defined as the use
of force between nations and that the
question Of whether it was right or
wrong depended purely upon the pur-
pose for which and the spirit in which |
it was wa ed.
There are of course persons who |,
believe all force is immoral. that it is
immoral to resist WrOngdoing by |
force" he added. Il have never taxi
en- much interest in individuals who |
profess this kind of morality; and |
do not know the eXte Mt to which they /
practically apply it. But. of course. !
if they are right in the theory then it |
is wrong for a man to endeavor by |
force to save his wife or sister or !
daughter from rape or other abuse. |
or to save his children from abduction /
and torture. 1t is a waste of time to (
discuss with any man a position of /
such folly, absentness and poltroon-
cry.
IF the man who objects to war OBJ
Jects to the use of force in civil life
his position is logical. although alb
surd and wicked. II the college pres
ident. politicians. automobile manu-
facturcrS ard the like who during the
past year or two have preached paci-
fism in its most ignobIe form are will
ing to think out the subject and are
both sincere and fairly Intelligent
they must niece ssarily condemn u Do-
lice force lust as much as they con
denim arms and they must regard the
activities of the sheriff and the con-
stable as being essentially militaristic
and therefore to be abolished When
we have discovered a method by which
right living may be spread so univer-
oei1-y III (lt4CdSO new YIN lIidl
the two cities can with safety abolish
their police forces, then and not until
then it will be worth while to talk
about the abolition of war -
Washington Chose War.
The sociological society meets at
this year. continued the
paper, only because the man after
whom the city was named was willing
to go to war. If he and his associates
had not gone to war, there would have
been no possibility of discussing social
values in the United States for the