The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1915-11-09

statement, which reiterates views he
has previously expressed on the sub
ject of preparedness for war. was re-
garded as the opening gun in the
fight in Congress against adoption Of
the plan. Mr.. Bryan's statement
says:
Il have read the Presidents speech
at New York with sorrow and con-
Germ. He is doing what he believes
| to be his duty, and so long as a man
follows his conscience, and judge
ment, we cannot criticise his motives,
but we may be compelled to dissent
| from his conclusions. / feel it my
duty to dissent, and, as he has given
his views with clearness and en-
phasis, those who differ from him are
under like obligation to express
themselves with equal clearness.
OFFICIAL RESPONSIBILITY.
He says that his position is differ
ent from that of the private individ-
ual in that the private Individual is
F-ee to speak his own thoughts and
risk his own opinion. This sentence
is little obscure In so far as he
expresses his own opinion, he does
not Giffer from the private citizen eX-
cept that he speaks under a sense Of
official responsibility, but where
nations fate is involved in a policy
"y.rw ur;Nar" c'ti."0 wNn lyg.a .=
country and tries to serve it is con
scious OF responsibility. The Presi-
dent will not assume that he Is more
deeply interested in the welfare of
his country than the millions who
elected him to be for the time being
their spokesman. And if, as he evil
IDENTITY believes, he is giving voice to
the opinions of his countrymen. he is,
of course, anxious to have them as
frank with him as he has been with
them-how otherwise can he know
whether he represents or misrepre-
sents their views?
"He has announced policy which
has never before been adopted in this
country, and never endorsed by any
party in the country and he has no
way of knowing, until he hears from
the people, whether he has correctly
interpreted the will of the public His
appeal is not to any party, but, as he
says, to men of all shades OF opinion
He asks for the hearty support OF the
country, meaning, of course, that he
wants the support, provided the peo-
pie favor the policy which he has out
lined. He could not, of course, ask
them to support a policy which they
did not endorse, especially if they
considered the policy dangerous to
the country.
REVERSAL OF POLICY.
From my view Of the subject, the
plan which he proposes is not only a
departure from our traditions. but a
reversal of our national policy 1t is
not only a menace to our peace and
safety, but challenge to the spirit of
Christianity, which teaches us to in
fuence others by example rather than
by exciting fear.
THE President says that we should
be prepared not for aggression, but |,
for defence That is the ground
upon which all preparation for war is I
made. What nation has ever prepar-
ed for war on the theory that it was
preparing for aggression? 1t is only /
fair that the European rulers who |
are involved in the present war
thought that they were contributing
toward the maintenance OF peace |
when they were making elaborate |
preparations for defence. 1t is a
false philosophy, and being false, it !
inevitably leads into difficulties. 1t
is the spirit that makes the individ- !
ual carry a revolver-and whoever
earn 8 a revolver except for defence !
leads him not only to use IL !
slight provocation, but 30 use Ian |
guage which provokes trouble |
Speak softly, but carry big stick
Is one of the delusive maxims EN- i
ployed by those who put their faith I
in force. There are two answers to
it-first, the man who speaks softly !
has not the d'snosi'ion to carry =.
Tub and II a man with a soft voice
is persuaded to carry n club his voice