New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1916-10-06

in agony. Even the inanimate OBJ
jects Of beauty, created by genera
tons of men to whom the very nam'
Prussian was happily unknown, ant
spared by the ravages of counties
earlier wars, were wantonly destroy
ed.
The University of Louvain, witt
its gemlike library, was demolished
the Cathedral at Malines sank il
ruins the masterpieces at Ypres, a
Arras, and at a score of other cite:
went down; and when the devesta'
tors spread into France. they made
the Cathedral Of Rheim-the ma
tional shrine OF French worship fol
seven hundred years--the target O,
their artillery.
Still President Wilson was silent
Bnt while time brings opportunity
it does not take away remorse for
opportunity neglected. We sin If
time, but our guilt cannot be meas
lured in terms of years; for sin and
remorse are moral, not temporal.
Wherein lay our guilt? 1t lay in
otr failure as a nation through the
silence of the president to bear wit
ness to the deepest truth which civ
ilized men have felt or can feel. A
horde OF military barbarians violat-
ed the neutrality of little Belgium
which we, with other governments,
had pledged ourselves to uphold
and we said nothing. And then that
horde sned on, its gray-clad regi-
mcnts sitting over Belgium. as the
showers of ashes from Vcsuvius once
fell upon Pompeii with irremcdiable
havoc. In this outrage on humanity
also. the Huns flung their challenge
at us. and we said nothing.
But we Of al 1.-The nations of the
earth we're bound by the strongest
Obligations to speak mp for the sac
red principles Of humanity. We were
the most powerful free people i'll the
world. and to possess power imposes
the obligation to use it in behalf OF
the weak. The little countries look
ed TO rs for leadership, looked and
listened ard waited, and we gave
them neither sign nor sound. Thew
would have Joined us in protest even
at the ris kof bringing On them
selves the fury of the Germans. with
in whose reach they dwelt. Our ST.
Iencc-the silence of President VIII
conf citing 4 dare not wait upon
4 would"-brouqht to them the dcs-
dating conviction that the United
States woul dofficiallv utter no dec
laration in behalf either of neutral
;tv or OF humanity. We tacitly ad-
mitted that a small nation has no
RIGHTS, that neutral nations NAV be
overrun and destroyed at the pleas
urc of a powerful aggressor. The
presidents silence was %tantamount
to a~cuuiescing in the German doc
trine that might is right, that matter
and not spirit rules the universe, in
Guiding the conduct and the affairs
Of men. This is the primal infide1-
ity.
SO TO our shame we let it be i'm
piled that the government of the
United States was not officially con-
cerncd in protesting against the sub
version of neutral rights, or the
swallowing up of a small nation by
a large, or by crimes against COM
nor humanity. 1t was as if Presi-
dent wilson, clothed with the moral
strength of the United States, had
been walking on the bank of a
stream, and had seer on the other
bank a colossal brute beating a little
girl; and the president had said to
himself: There is no boat for me
to cross by, and if | shout, the ruff
fan will only laugh. After all, my
eyesight is not very good; perhaps I
don't see clearly what he is dong.
| ought not to protest unless | could
verify the fact for myself; that is
impossible; so l will look the other
way and walk on"
Into such an abyss does considera-
ton for the etiquette of diplomacy
plunge those who set it above NOR
ais. In this aspect, diplomacy is, in
deed, a code distilled from the imme-
mortal experience of the guile and
cruelty of rulers, which sanctions
them in committing, as officials,
crimes which all but the wickedest
OF them would shrink from as indi-
viduals. If plain Professor Woodrow
Wilson had witnessed such an as
sault, we may be sure that he would
not have doubted the ~veracity of his
eyes, and that, though he had been
unable to reScu the little girl from
her a%ssailant, he would have protest
ed in loudest tones.
The assumption that nations and
rulers cannot be bound by the
moral laws which bind individuals
will not go on forever polluting the
II also is the spawn of inf
and proceeds from the theory
that men collectively-whether ma
hierarchies, parties, or corpo-
rations-are impersonal abstract,
and that, having no souls, they are
shut out from moral concerns.
The diplomacy which seals the lips
Of the spokesman of a mighty ma
ton, when he beholds a monster in
wade, outrage, torture, and DESTROY
A tiny nation, is born of the devil. 1t
chivalry; it teaches in the de-
sire which is an instinct in the heart
Of every one worthy of the name of
man to rush to the aid of the help
'ess in their distress; it strangles our
common heritage of humanity. and
substitutes for it a policy of selfish
ness, which evades responsibility for
The fate of our fellowmen. After
Cain slew Abel, the Lord said unto
Cain, where is Abel thy brother?"
And he said. 81 know not; am / nv
brothers. keeper" So ancient and
IF such bad eminence is the prece-
lent which tied the official tongue
If the limited States when thr Ger
nan Cain slew Belgiuml The con-
science of o. countrync- rent its
to Washington, Where is
Be'gium?" and the silence at the
White House mutely echoed Gains
-eDly. " know not; am / my BROTH
RS keeper2"