Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-07-18
Emerson On War
BY DR.. FRANK CRANE.

BY Dr. FRANK ChANE.
Ralph Waldo Emerson is by general consent
conceded be the foremost thinker this continent
has provided. When he turned his A-ray MIND
upon a subject he saw all it's vitals. Emile Hap
good has rendered the public a service by pub
fishing in pamphlet form what he said about war.
l choose few sentences to show the temper Oh
this great mind, perhaps the sanest ana WlsesC
ever amongst us.
1T is the ignorant and childish part of man
kind that is the fighting part"
Cannot love be, we'll as nate! would not
love answer the same end, or even better? Can
not peace be, we'll as war;"
Revolutions go not backward. The star once
risen, though only one man in the hemisphere
has yet seen its upper limb in the horizon VIII
mount and mount, until it becomes visible to mul-
titudes. And so, it is not great matter how long
men refuse to believe the advent or peace; war
is on its last legs; and universal peace is as
sure as the prevalence of civilization over bar
barism, of liberal governments over feudal oarons'
The question for us is only, How soon?
"That the project of peace shall appear VISION
airy to great numbers of sensible men is very
natural. All admit they say, that TINS Wouiu
be the best policy if the world were all cnurcn
If all would agree to accept this rule. But II is
absurd for one nation to attempt 1t alone But
we answer, that there is no good now enjoyed oy
society that not once as proplemaucal anu
visionary this"
1T is really thought that built all this pOr,,
tentous war establishment and thought snali
also melt 1t away. -.
ing gains ascendency in mems minds, II causes
the most striking changes in external tnlnss' tets
cannon become street posts; the marching regl-
ment a caravan of emigrants, peacetul pioneers
at the fountains of the Wabash and the Mlssls-
sippi Sword and bayonet must nrst retreaC to III
their ostentatious prominence; then quite hide
themselves, as the sherihs halter does now III
vitng the attendance only OF relatives ana Irlenus,
and then lastly transferred TO the museums
of the curious, poisoning and torturlng toOiS
at this day. .., % non,
resistance when your strong box is broken open,
when your wife and babies are insulted anu
slaughtered in your sight? If you say yes you
only invite the robber and assassin; and Few
bloody-minded desperadoes would soon OuIon0i
I'm reply to this charge of absurdity on the
extreme peace doctrine, shown In the supposed
consequences, l wish to say, that such deoucLlohs
consider only one-half the fact They look only at
the passive side of the friend of peace only at ms
passiyty; they quite omit to consider MS acCVly.
Pint no man. it may be presumed ever embraced
the cause of peace and philanthropy for the sole
end and satisfaction of being plundered and SIAM
A man does not come the length OF the spirit Oh
martyrdom without some active purpose, some
equal motive some flaming love. If you have a
nation of men who have risen to tnat nelent oI
moral cultivation that they will not declare war
or carry arms for they have not so much madness
left in their brains. you have nation OF lovers
of benefactOrs, of true, great, and able men. Let
me know more Of that nation; shall not ma tnem
defenseless with idle hands swinging at thel
s;dos 7 shall find them men of love, honor, and
truth; men of immense industry; men whose IN
Thence is felt to the end of the earth' ana all
forces Weld to tnelr energy anu pei SuooIOA'
over we see the doctrine of peace embraced by
nation we may be assured it will not be one that
invites injury; but one, on the contrary, winch
has a friend in the bottom of the heart or every
man even of the violent and the base; one against
which no weapon prosper; one which is looked
upon as the asylum of the human race and has the
tears and blessing of mankind.
These are majestic words!
''The cause of peace is not the cause of coward
ice IF neace is sought to be defended pre-
served for the safety of the luxurious and the
timid, it is a sham, and the peace VIII be base:
War is better and the peace will be broken III
neace is to be maintained it must be by brave men,
who have come up to the same height as the nero,
namely the will to carry their life in their hand,
and stake it at any instant for their principle but
who have gone one step beyond the hero, and will
not seek another mans life-men who have, by
their intellectual insight, or else by their moral
eleva ton attained such perception OF their own
intrinsic worth that they do not think property or
their own body a sufficient good to be saved by
such derelicton of principle as treating man
like sheep"
Copyright. 1915. by Frank Crane)