Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-12-19
Hastory's Method
Minneapolis Journal

land marks the dawn OF the new uelnoSidsy III
the British Isles. Nor is this change confined
to one country. II is manifest in Russia even,
where the new prime minister, lrepoff. tod tne
Duma that for the first time the will OF the
Russian parliament had forced the resignation
OF premier and the appointment OF successor
OF another politics
War is an awful price to pay for fundamental
changes in the order of things. But the history
of the human race proves that an awful price
is always exacted OF humanity for each progress.
We Of America realize the price paid for freeing
the slave. And what France paid century ago
be exaggerated.
It might even be argued as indeed it often
has been that the overthrow of the whole ancient
Mediterranean civilization and the thousand years
OF night that followed were required IN order 10
produce modern Europe. All the blood and sui
fering of the Crusades was necessary to rouse
western Europe from the pit of Ignorance. stag
nation, superstition and cruelty The long religious
wars of the sixteen and seventeenth centuries
were required to establish tolerance The his
tory Of mankind is very wonderful and glorious,
but it is also very bitter and terribly tragic
Ratonalists and pacihsts are always asking,
usually after the event, why the difficulties could
not have been arranged by right. reason and
justice They think it madness that the union
did not buy out of slavery the negroes IN the
SOUTH since, however large the cost, it would
pendture OF blood and treasure that the civil war
entailed. II reason ruled the affairs of men, ii
it were easy to define and to declare justice. the
complaint OF the philosophers and humanitarians
would be we'll grounded Now in Europe, after
two years OF havoc, reasonable persons are ask.
ing why prevention was not secured by means OF
conferences, concessions. compromises, arDitra-
lions.
In the first place, human nature prefers to
fight. In the second, were settlements to be sub
stituted for decisions by force, the greatest
progresses would be impossible. There was no
price that the south would have accepted for
the emancipation Of her slaves. The south had
not only property to save, but also social sys-
TEN to which her belief was committed. Eman-
cipation spelled anarchy to her mind. She meant
to defend it with her blood as article OF faith
as well as matter of wealth. Apply the same
principle to the situation in Europe before the
war and the inevitability of the war demonstrates
itself
But let us go farther Civilization would not
be what it is without its great conflicts. Without
them we should today be feudalstic still.
Establish society on any basis, and every
force of bgotry, prudence and inertia is enlisted
to support that society as it is. The practical
men, so-caed, the managers, the able men, the
ones trusted for ability and shrewdness. are those
particularly who resent radical change. They once
defended the feudalisms, the monarchies, the
oligarchies.
1t is true that social systems have their gradua
evolutions But the fundamental changes have
been brought about only by force. England has
been no exception she merely dates her last great
settlement back to 1888, century earlier than
| the 1889 of France Had Parliament settled with
King Charles /; had Parliament settled with King
! James H. had the colonies of Virginia and
Massachusetts come to an agreement with Lord
| North and King George III; had Mrabeau ef
fected compromise between King Louis XVI
and the Assembly; had Napoleon and Pitt ad
hered to the Peace Of Amiens; had Bismarck anc
Louis Napoleon healed their differ ences-perpetu
alton would have been secured in every case o
the status quo, of what was. -!
But the purpose of human development il
not to perpetuate any certain mold, but to rur
civilization through succession of molds, to
what fnality we know not A mold is to bt
broken only by the hammer of war, new mole
is to be fashioned only on the anvil OF war
Humanity suffers, but the world is advanced
Considering the price we pay, must not oul
| destiny be sublime?