The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1915-06-01
American People Dare Not Trust
Paper Treaties as a Defense Against
Nations That Lightly Break Them
From The San Francisco Examiner

try. And. indeed, 1t was a terrible
deed. One does not willingly dwell
upon that awful scene; upon that
picture of the sea black with the torn
and mangled bodies, not of men alone
but Of women and little children.
But when all has been said this Is
but one, and by no means the most
hideous of many many hideous trag-
edies which have stained this dread.
full war and made the earth a hell
of woe and misery and awful agonies.
How small company amid the mil.
lions of souls of men and women and
children who have died in torment
since this war began, are the sad
ghosts OF the Lusitania's slain! How
few are they amid the enumerable
hosts of Europe's dead!
Nor is this warfare, this inhuman-
ity, this desolation. this slaughter
new thing under the sun.
The normal enterprise of Europe's
rulers is war.
Peace is only the breathing spell,
during which the combatants heal
their wounds and reburnish their
weapons.
We have now this frightful evil
dence that the civilized peoples can
degenerate into savages within the
space of few months.
And we have the most conclusive
evidence that now, as In the past,
NEITHER ABSENCE OF PROVOCA-
TION NOR ABSENCE OF ARMED
PREPARATION EVEN SECURES A
NATION FROM THE DANGER OF
ATTACK AND WAR.
And yet It is constantly dinned In
our ears that II We steadily refrain
from offering provosation to other
nations and steadily refuse to make
preparation for war. we never shall
have war.
So impossible Ia 1t for even the eyi.
dence Of their own ears and their
own eyes to make sensible impress
sion upor minds which are obsessed
with this incredible folly that peace
and security can be assured by throw
ing away the only safeguards Of Sc
curity and peace.
We Americans had no hand In TO-
menting this war. We have main
tanned a neutrality of unexampled
strictness, and have stretched our
national patience and our national
forbearance under irritating insults
and gross wrongs as never did pow
erful and high spirited people stretch
its patience and its forbearance be-
fore.
And yet he must be blind, indeed,
who cannot read between the lines
OF contemporary European utterances
the bitter anger which our just and
righteous neutrality has excited In
the hearts OF all the combatants.
To be neutral was our high duty.
But the performance of that duty has
gained us no good will, Nor by any
stretch of possibility can It gain us
security.
The one outstanding and overtop-
ping lesson of this war for us Ameri-
cans to take deeply to heart is the
supreme fact that THERE rs NO
LAW WHICH ANY OF THE GREAT
POWERS RESPECT OR EVER DID
RESPECT EXCEPT THE LAW OF.
MIGHT.
The only neutrality that any OF
them respects, or ever did respect or
ever will respect, is the neutrality
which faces them with arms IN its
hands; which Is ready to defend T..
self against any Of their attacks: and
which does not neglect, while 1t holds
In one hand the scales of Justice. to
keep firmly held in the other the max.
ed, ready sword.
Consider what has happened in
the troubled history of recent times
times SO recent that here and there
is an aged man who has lived thru
their whole length.
During that period Prussia as a
separate State and as the chief State
Of the German Empire, has been en-.
gagged in six great wars. One Of
these she fought in alliance with Aus.
tria against Republican France; once
she fought alone against Imperial
France; another, in alliance with Rus.
STA, Austria and England, against I'm.
perial France; still another against
France under Louis Napoleon; and Is
now in the midst of the sixth In al.
lance with Austria and Turkey
against Great Britain, France. Rus.
sia' Japan, Belgium, Serbia and Mon.
tenegro.
During the same time Austria has
waged war upon France in alliance
with Russia; again upon France in