Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1917-08-16
AN ESSENTIAL OF THE WAR
BY Louie d. Brandeis.

lasting pace usually emphasize one or
the other of the following means of se-
curing 1t:
First: The creation Of congress of
the nations to determine what should be
their relative rights, of an internation-
al Court to decide any disputed claims.
and of an International Police to en-
force the laws of this congress and the
decisions of this court.
Second: The characterization of the
nations. and particularly of the war
making power; so that the people, who
must ultimately bear the burdens OF
war, may decide whether war shall be
entered upon.
Third: Disarmament so that unpre-
paredness may prevent precipitate ac
tion-and encourage sober second
thought.
Fourth: The removal of economic
causes of war, and pre- eminentIy the
prohibition of preferential tariffs.
These suggestions, if carried out,
would undoubtedly tend to preserve
peace; for togetherthey would reduce
the provocations of war and lessen the
facility of conducting it. But is there
! not cause of war which is more funda-
mental than any of those which 1t is
sought thus to remove?
| Deeply imbedded in every nation and
people is the desire for full develop
| ment-the longing for self expression.
In the past it has been generally as
| snmed that the full development of one
people necessarily involved it's domin-
alton over others. Strong nations are
| apt to become convinced that by
| such domination only does civilization
advance. Strong nations assume their
own superiority and come to believe
that they possess the divine right to
subject other people to their sway.
Soon the belief in the existence of such
a right becomes converted into a con-
viction that duty exists to enforce it,.
| Wars of aggrandiZement follow as a
natural result of this belief
This attitude of nations and peoples
is the exact correative of the position
generally assumed by the strong in re-
spect to other individuals before demo-
cracy became a common possession.
The struggles of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries both in peace and
in war we're devoted largely to over
coming that position as to individuals,
to establish the equal right to develop
ment of every person and in making
clear that equal opportunity for all in
wolves this necessary limitation: Each
man may develop himself so far, but
only so far, as his doing SO will not
interfere with the exercise of like
right by all others. Thus liberty has
come to mean the right to enjoy life,
to acquire property, to pursue happi-
ness, in such manner that the exercise
of the right in each is consistent with
the exercise of a like right by every
other of our fellow citizens. Liberty
thus defined underlies twentieth cen
tury democracy. Liberty thus defined
exists in large part Of the western
world And even where this equal
right of all has not yet been accepted
as political right, it's ethical value is
becoming recognized.
The movements of the last century
have proved that whole peoples have
individuality no less marked than
that of the single person: that the
individuality of q people is irrepress-
ible, and that internationalism which
seeks the obliteration Of nations or
peoples is unattainable. AS demo
cracy rejects the proposal of the su.
perman who shall rise through sacri-
flee OF the many and insists that the
full development of each individual
is not only a right but duty to 30
clety, 80 the new nationalism pro.
claims the right and the duty of each
race or people to develop itself fully
The history of the last century shows
the persistence and intensity of this
feeling. 1t made great and unitec
country out of the Italy which hac
been declared by Metternich to be but
a geographical expression" 1t freed
Greece. 1t created the kingdoms o1
Roumania, Bulgaria and Servia. il
made little Montenegro an independent
state. 1t assures home rule in Ireland
1t revived the Cymrjc language II
Wales. 1t has kept alive the struggle
; for free Poland. 1t made Qua
, Monarchy out of Austria; and the de
mands of its many other peoples sub
jected to the German Hungarian rnl,
have kept it in constant turmoil. i
we wish to find the true explanation O
the readiness of the European peoples
to sacrifice their hest in men and prop
! erty-of their joyousness amidst losses
q which cannot be repaired in genera
8 tipnswe must look deeper for tn,
n a