The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-06-03

yet to come. Men have gone mad.
God of Heaven, has the sceptre of
empire passed from thy hand? Why
is thy face hid from the sons of men?
Surely the hour calls for calmness,
for craftsmanship, for faith, for pa
triotic reflection and department. Not
all the world is yet engaged in this
mighty conflict, and wisdom evinced
through judicious word and deed may
save us from the horror Of active par
ticipatiOn. Shall we not one and all
from the standpoint of patriotic and
nOnpartiZan support, subscribe our
pleasure that he who rules America,
by virtue of ~embodying the enlighten-
ed public opinion of our land, stands
for the best in American ideals and
American traditions? AS regards the
old ship of state, no one better than
our President knows,
What master laid thy keel,
What workmen wrought thy ribs of
steel,
Who made each mast and sail and
rope
What anvils rang what hammers beat
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy
hope?"
He has stood unperturbed at his
post. Upon his ears have fallen the
urgent appeals both of the impulsive
radical who would make war without
counting the cost, and of the ~ultra-con-
servative who would maintain peace
at any price. Apparently our Presi-
dent is doing his own thinking. He is
the servant of this people; he is not
without the genius to know it; and
when he acts or speaks he will per
form the peoples will as wisdom is
given him to see it. He is proceeding
consequently as he must, with deliber-
alton and caution. So moved the
great Emacipator. 1t may indeed be
doubted if any other President aside
from Lincoln has faced so many
crises Of such a grave nature as the
present incumbent of the White
House.
Those who have been first to criti-
else President Wilson's policy in re-
gard to Mexico should not forget that
the Mexican war has been the one
war in which this nation engaged of
which We have least reason to be
proud, that among the staunch oppon-
ents of that war in his day was Mr..
Lincoln himself, then in the National
House of Representatives. Woodrow
Wilson doubtless has been sufficiently
conscious Of our shortcomings in re-
gard to that conflict,-a fact shall we
not suppose which has led him rightly
in his dealing with that Republic to
inaugurate a policy where indeed
mercy has seasoned justice. Would
we have had him do otherwise?
With what fortitude has he not
borne his duties and trials? When
there has not been an ~aggravating
situation in Mexico we have suffered
violation of the rights of a neutral at
the hands of some one of the belliger-
ent powers of Europe. And in cor
junction with this continued strain
in international diplomacy, Woodrow
Wilson has gone down into the Valley
of the Shadow, the bitterness of which
only he may knO out of whose life
has passed mans noblest inspiration
for high thinking and great deeds.
Fine indeed has been the rallying of
our citizens round our President, as
surely the best patriotic feeling de-
mands. | believe that his recent utter
ance on the Lusitania disaster will be
recorded as one of the great state
papers of Il country's history, if not
of the world. | believe, should he
succeed in keeping us out of war with
honor, that we shall soon recognize
more fully than now the %stupendous
contribution ne has made to our ma
tons welfare; and that the future
historian will see in him such rare
combination of admirable traits as has
seldom been found among the great
and true rulers of the earth.
assume, you observe, that it is not
expected we shall give all our thought
today to the past. glorious as that has
been. Rather in the light of past
achievement we should face with
courage and confidence the problem of
the hour and the duties which the
morrow may bring. 1t is to this theme
that l address myself.
1t may be doubted if any one in this
audience has more adherence for the
idea of war than he who speaks to you.
If there be anything about unneces-
sary warfare that accords with the
iuLudiiCuIdl HotiOLS VI uuIldllCy anu
Christian civilization we fail to see
it. And yet we dare not overlook the
fact that self-preservation is the first
law of life, that so long as men and
women are created as they are, there
will be selishness and injustice and
aggression as between nations, and
that that nation which publishes to
the world that rights disregarded will
not be resented, in all probability will
not long remain on the map.
Militarism we believe to be wholly
barbarous, an absolute menace to
civilization. On the other hand while
nations exist as they have hitherto
existed, and human nature remains un-
changed, a condition Of u~nprepared.
ness on the part of any nation is
reasonably sure to invite aggression
and insult on the part of the better
prepared, the more powerful, and the
less r~ighteously disposed neighbor.
Whenever we make it known that we
propose to try the lambs part in a
company of lions we need not be sur.
prised If we meet the lambs fate.
1t seems not implausible, however.