The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-07-26

Iumph of the Georgian policy in tho
then British colonies in North America?
II is all very well for people who are
lenjoying today, the golden learning OF
Greece, which if the Persians had trl-
umphed would have disappeared prob
lably as completely as the masterpieces
| in the library at Alexandria, who have
not had to fight to escape the yoke
of the Crescent as have the Bulgar
and the Serb in our own time who have
had the battle of religious liberty fought
for them in the jaws of the Inquisi-
tion, whose theories of civil and muni.
cipal freedom were maintained when
the liberating waters of the North Sea
flooded the tulip gardens of Holland.
and whose ideals of modern democracy
were inscribed in the Declaration of
independence, TO declare that war is a
vile thing, and that nations which go
to war are only happy in a cockpit.
OF course war is a vile thing but there
are vier things than war.
These people forget that the passions
Of the human mind are exactly the
same today as in the time Of Xerxes,
of Charles Martel OF Philip Of Spain.
| of William the Silent, or OF George
Guelph and George Washington. The
Frankish soldiers of the Eighth Cen
tury might have held up their hands
at the idea Of needing TO descend to
the same weapons as the army of Mil
| tiades; the EliZabethan seamen might
1 hos oil
superior to the soldiers of Charles Mar.
, tel; the Dutch burghers might have
pointed to the streets of Antwerp az
the proof Of their advancement beyond
the savagery OF the past; and the Amer.
| ican colonists might have claimed that
| there was no resemblance between the
church on the village green and the
Temple of Janus. But, as a matter of
fact, one and all understood that they
were fighting in different conditions
the same battle, the battle Of right
against might, Of confluence against
animality, Of principle against chaos.
And so It will always be until the dav
when the teaching Of Jesus Of Nazar-
eth is really understood, and a nation
can conquer its enemies by first con-
quering itself, and by proving, not that
men have power to kill but that Life Is
eternal. Then only will fighting stop.
Almost the worst phase. however, of
this criticism of those who are fighting
and have been fighting the battle Of
liberty, by those who are resting Sc
cure in their efforts is the attempt to
arouse uneasiness as to the justice of
the cause, and to fill the minds of the
American recruits and their relatives
with the dread that the war is a mere
expender Of human ammunition, and
that three weeks TO a month is the
length Of soldiers life in France or
Flanders Such stories, Of course, are
unutterably silly, and miserably con
temptible but simple parents. on pral-
rie farms know nothing Of the facts,
and are governed far more by distress
full fears than by reason. Some of these
stories are propaganda Of a peculiarly
villianous type, such as the story cir.
culated, in Boston and elsewhere, that
the transports, with General Pershing's
troops on board, had been sunk. but
much of II Is the .thoughtless or even
malicious exaggeration and gossip Of
those for whom, because war is ana.
thema to them. nothing about war can
be too preposterous to be accepted )r
too ridiculous to be believed
The American soldier is not a person
TO be pitied or 10 be condoled with. tie
is the chosen representative Of the na-
tion in the great battle for the defense
Of those liberties for which his ances.
tors fought. and which they secured
Through centuries OF struggle. No one
dares to be sorry FOR Washington or
tor Montgomery. g. for the farmers
who fell at Lexington. But there is a
strange feeling Of pity for those un-
known British soldiers who fell by
Concord Bridge or in the Middlesex
woods, because their cause was a lost
cause and a bad one. And so no one
need ever pity any soldier in the arm,
les OF the Republic even should be leap
the golden stile" Principle makes its
demands necessarily on the men AMI
women of the world. and, II they ars
WISE they obey those demands, no ma
ter where the demand may take them.