Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1917-01-31

lions harder and harder. The So
called prosperity it has brought to
neutral nations is a delusion and
sham. It has made few millionaires,
but the masses of the people in every
neutral nation are beginning to feel
the stress of poverty and hunger as
never before. If this war is to go on
until either adversary has completely
crushed the othr, it will last sveral
years yet. Will human nature in neu-
trail countries endure the strain much
longer?
Not that alone. With the increasing
heat and bitterness of the conflict the
rights of neutrals, guaranteed by in
ternational agreements, are being
more and more set aside. In tn blind
ness of their fury, all the warning ma
tions have, in the matter of the free
dom of the seas, for instance, and the
rights of neutral shipping, treated all
the solemn agreements made in the
international conferences before the
war as SO many scraps of paper.
How long will the patience of neutrals
endure under these constant proyoca-
tons?
Again and gain have neutral nations
been swept into the vortex of former
wars by these very things. If this
war continues indefinitely, the sinis-.
ter possibility confronting us all is
that before it closes the whole world
will have each other by the throat.
Certainly the Presidents basis Of peace
should be we'll considered before it
is rejected by the present belligerents.
The question of accepting or re-
jecting that basis amounts to this:
Shall the nations of the world in the
future continue to base their inter-na-
tional relationships on the old pagan
principle Of the strong ruling the weak
by brute force: or upon the Christian
principle of the strong and weak liv-
ling together in peace and mutual help
fitness and generosity? Shall the in
ternationalism of the future be based
on pagonism or on Christianity? To
that simple but momentous issue the
whole problem reduces itself, and it
is that issue which the President of
the American republic has placed
squarely before the nations of Europe
and the world. No wonder that one
senator called it startling" nor that
another senator pronounced it the
greatest thing of its kind in history.
In all human history, never has such
sermon been preached, never has
such a plea for the practice of Chris
tianity been made, by the ruler of one
nation to the rulers of other nations.
1 am proud tonight to be an Ameri-
can, and to think that it was the chief
magistrate of my country who did that
bold, splendid thing.
Ultimately the pagan basis of peace
will be rejected, it has always failed,
and always will fail, because it must
fail; for it is founded upon inherent
injustice. Ultimately the Christian
basis will prevail, because it must pre-
vail as the survival of the fittest; for
it is founded upon inherent justice and
truth
And when it is recognized, be 1t
sooner or later, it will simply mean
that the nations of the world have ac-
cepted those principles of human gov
eminent for which the flag of the stars
and stripes was, lifted up by patriot
men and women, amid blood and tears
more than hundred years ago; it will
mean that the nations of the world
have accepted those principles Of
human brotherhood for which the dy-.
ing form of the Man of Galilee was
lifted up, amid the darkness and hor-
ror of Calvary, nearly two thousand
years ago.