The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-01-08

s%SAuASSSu ASSCI4 Will ulStlnCIlOn ana
glory. Nations that have contended
against each other with such valor
cannot be devoid of mutual respect,
and mutual respect is the surest foun-
dation of peace and amity.
But there is another reason for be.
iieving that if peace were once con-
Guided war would not be likely to re-
cur at least for many generations. The
two incentives to war that have al
ways been most powerful are thirst of
conquest and thirst of glory. This
war has satisfied neither appetite. 1t
has proved beyond all doubt that fight
ing does not pay. No possible con-
quest of territory could repay any one
of these belligerents for the frightful
cost Of waging this war or even the
cost of preparing for it. And while
heroism has become a commonplace
OF this conflict the word glory has
never been mentioned in connection
with it. Not single name has
emerged in dazzling renown from bat
tie. All the splendors that formerly
decorated war have disappeared.
Armies are no longer marching pha-
lanxes clad in glittering uniforms that
present imposing spectacles to the eye.
They are composed now of men in the
somberest garments hoping to elude
observation, caked in mud, burrowing
under ground like original cavemen
and there, directing against other men
plunged in conditions equally sordid
and disgusting, dreadful engines of
destruction, which kill and mutilate
vast Misunderstanding them out of
all semblance to humanity; the dis.
membered dead left unburied by tens
and hundreds of thousands; the air
poisoned and the earth made loath-
some by this awful perversion of agen.
cies established by civilizations for
the improvement of human conditions
and the frightening of human days, to
destruction of human possessions and
the ending of human days.
Such a war offers no single element
that Is alluring or that could tempt
men to renew it. 1t is a sordid
slaughter, an unspeakable stencil
which after sitting part of the world
and nauseating the remainder, now
threatens to destroy the whole of it;
from which If the human race once
escape, any proposal that might even
suggest possibility of its recurrence
will be abhorred even as a proposal
to revive cannibalism would have been
abhorred eighteen months ago.
With the moral forces of Christen-
dom denouncing the inherent wicked
ness of war, and all recent experiences
making clear its wastefulness, it's sor-
didness, it's unspeakable loathsome-
ness, it is inconceivable that men will
remain Indifferent to the necessity of
ending it finally and forever.
One thing is absolutely certain: this
war must end war, or it must end the
world. 1t is now perfectly clear that
the human family cannot survive re-
newals of such destructive fury or con-
tinual preparations for them which are
almost equally destructive.
But this evening affords us special
reasons to view the future with hope
and, indeed, with confidence. Our
Faith forbids us to doubt that the
prayers of the Pontiff for peace, sup.
ported as we here see they are by all
the moral forces of the whole Chris
tian world, will be heard. And we
have the assurance of the Divine Au-
thor of Christianity that whatever is
asked in His Name will be granted.
We cannot always discern the agen-
cies which Almighty God selects to ef-
feet His purposes of beneficence while
they are yet unfulfilled. Looking back
at them the means He has chosen to
accomplish His will are always clear.
But we can already see how He has
raised up here a force through which
His peace can be secured. The course
have suggested may not be the only
method open to the President for
bringing about peace by scrupulously
correct exercise of his unquestioned
powers, and without in any way COM
promising our neutrality. He with his
wider information and his much wider
abilities may find another and much
better method to accomplish this glor-
ious result.
Everything that l have said on this
head 1t should be understood is in
tended merely by way of suggestion.
The President and the President
alone. is charged with control of our
foreign relations. Every citizen has
the right, and indeed it is his duty, to
criticise freely any measure or pro.
posal of the President or any other Of
ficer affecting our domestic conditions.
With respect to measures of purely
national concern, the President can
only propose them. The people alone
can dispose of them. And the people
who must decide them are entitled to
all the light that the fullest popular
discussion can shed on them. Mat
tiers affecting countries over which
this country exercises authority, direct