Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-06-01

! NY COuuduu
! IN the last quarter century, we have
had numerous peace organizations ana
men eminent in scholarships and state
craft advocating disarmament and con.
fdently proclaiming that the world had
seen it's last great war. am In sym
pathy with every moment intended to
avert or lessen the horrors OF war.
Two weeks ago 1 attended as a dele
gate the first world court congress at
Cleveland, Ohio, an organization whose
purpose is to establish supreme court
of the world, to which nations can take
their disputes for amicable ADJUST
ment as the states of our union now
refer their differences for adjudication
to the supreme court of the United
States without war. The diflculties in
the way of the establishment Of such
q world court are Of course numerous.
The differences In race characteristics,
traditions, history, language and reli-
gion, economic pressure, limited terri
tory, trade rivalry, are apparent to all
we'll informed advocates OF world
court and then not the least OF the
difYiculties would be for the signatory
nations to agree on the judges to pre-
side in this tribunal.
1T is easy to call war barbarous.
It Is popular to prophesy the near ap-
proval Of the era of universal peace.
Last Saturday, May %. James A. Mac
Donald of Toronto, Canada, in an ad-
dress at Rochester. N. Y, said: The
United States will be in position al
ter the war to bring about peace
which will make this the last OF the
wars The papers reported this state
ment was greeted with applause.
Josiah Quincy once said: War Is
a game ever played for the aggrandize-
ment of the few, for the impoverish-
ment Of the many. War establish
ments are everywhere scions of des-
potism; when engrafted on republics,
they always begin by determining the
best sap to their own branch and new
er fail to finish up by whitening every
branch except their own. Benjamin
Franklin is credited with saying; In
my opinion there never was good
war or q bad peace. 1t was Victor
Hugo who styled peace the virtue and
war the crime of civilization. And 1t
was our own Gen. Sherman who char
acterized war as hell. Indictments
against war could be multiplied. But
what are we to do? Shall we live in
a fools paradise and proceed to disarm
in order to hasten the millennium OF
universal peace or shall we like men
live In world of facts populated with
men of passions and prejudices and
face conditions as they are? We have
always had war among the children of
men and never on larger or more
destructive scale, than right at this
time.
when was boy attending coun-
try Sunday school remember we had
q lesson on ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS image
The head Of fine gold, arms and breast
of silver, the belly and thighs of brass
the legs of iron and the feet part OF
clay and part Of iron. The foot note
stated that the parts represented sue
cessively the kingdoms of Babylonia
Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. Later
read a general history and there dis
covered that profane history confirmed
and verified the heavenly vision, The
prophet foresaw the rise and fall Of
nations through wars. Babylonia type
fed by the head of fine gold yielded to
Medo-Persia, which in turn was con-
ouered by Greece. Then came Rome
in strength we'll typefled by the legs Of
iron, following which for thousand
years the history of Europe was that
of incoherent states SO aptly describ-
ed as part of iron and part of clay.
"In our own country we have had
the numerous colonial wars, the Revo-
lutionary war, the war of 1872, the In
dian wars, the Mexican war the Civil
war and the Spanish-American war. In
the last twenty-five years we have had
war on every continent Of the globe:
Chinese Japanese war, the Spanish
American war, the Boer war, Russo
Japanese war the Balkan war and the
present Mexican and European strug-
giles.
"Although we decry war as Chris
tian people, we nevertheless are prone
to rate a nations standing in civiliza-
ton by her achievements In war. Be-
fore the Chinese war, we rated Japan
a.; a. barbarous nation. After that war
we placed her in, the semi-civilized
class, where she remained until her
successful struggle with Russia. After
that war, we received her with open
arms into the family of civilized ma
tons.
'War in the past has always mark
ed the birth, growth and death Of ma
tions. What assurance have we that
the future will be any different from
the past and present?
National Defense.
.You may think am painting for
YOU a picture Of pessimism. I am ma
turally an optimist, believe the world
is growing better, but I know that what
have read and observed Of men they
still have in their makeup flesh and
passions. Then with this knowledge
within ourselves shall we allow our
selves to become dreamers in some fan
ciful utopia or shall we face the world
Of acts and prepare ourselves accord
ingly?
"But our ultra -pacifists tell us that
to prepare for war means war. If that
Is true l presume that the converse of
that proposition is true, that, is that a
lack Of preparedness for war means
peace. That Is refuted by our own his
tory. OF the numerous wars we have
had, we were never prepared at the
commencement of either of the wars.
We had had a war during each genera