The Harrison times., 1917-05-19
NO MORE KINGS, NO MORE WARS.


cred one of its textbooks to have a
fuIsome eulogy OF the Kaiser Of Ger,
many
Some persons insist that the offend
I ing pages be cut out
II the board has wisdom, it will lose
no time in cutting them out, and will
next try to find out how they ever
got in.
At first thought this seems narrow.
prejudiced bitter and merely a parti-
san feeling that springs up because we
are now in the war
But it isn't. 1t is just plain old CON-
mon sense and good reason.
For a long time we in this country
have been in a most singular dream
about all these things.
We have imagined that it was broad
minded, modern, advanced, and part
of our famous American good nature
to be easy and tolerant about kings
Every people to their taste" we
said What's the difference? Let
them have a king or a republic, it's all
one to us. Nothing is involved but a
name, anyway. In these days all peo-
Piles are free and the monarchy of old
en- times is nothing but a tradition"
That is what we said and that is
the way we acted. There is no ques.
tion about tive have our own share
of responsibility for the hell that has
swept over the earth these last three
years. We, the greatest of republics,
supposed to be thes leader of the
worlds democracy we not only con-
doned monarchy, but we snuggled up
close to it, we patted it on the back,
we called it good old fellow" and
made friends with it, What should
naturally happen then except that it
should persist in the world and con
tinue to poison it?
Because the simple, plain, basic
truth is that between the idea of mon
arChy and the idea of democracy there
can be truce and no compromise. The
two will not jibe. 1t is one thing or
the other. If you are not against
monarchy, you are for it, If there is
to be any democracy in the world,
there can be no such thing as good
monarchy, and if there is to be any
monarchy in the world, there is no
such thing as friendship between it
and democracy.
Soon or late there will be row.
When in 1912, after the wallop mon
archy got in the Portuguese revOlu-
ton, Kaiser Wilhelm formed his ANAL
gamated trade union of European
Kings, he knew what he was about
He knew the time was close at hand
when the king business would make
its final struggle against the advanc-
ing tide of democracy and he got sup
port from all the kings.
Kings always work together-sec-
reilly or openly, they are always in
sympathy.
So that from the point of view of
progress, human advancement and the
side of the people, there is no such
thing as good king and cannot pos
sibly be, and there is no possible rea-
son why the children of a democracy
should be taught to admire a thing so
evil and so perilous to them and their
faith
If he were good he would not be a
king.
In this particular instance the gro
tesque and silly eulogy of the Kaiser
that was handed out to the school
children of Chicago praised him for
what he had done for Germany.
But what he did for Germany was to
develop and build to the limit all her
resources that she might strike a dead
ly blow at the liberties of mankind and
bring all the world under the domin.
ion of the iron fist
If we are to teach children to ad-
mire such things, we must teach them
also to admire the insoence of brute
strength, admire autocracy, admire
treachery, crookedness, lies, or any.
thing else that may be needed for ma.
terial success.
This ought to be enough, but there
is still something else.
Democracy means peace, The kings
mean war.
If there is an educator in the coun.
try that hasn't laid hold yet of this
final fact he isn't fit to be an
educator.
No more kings, no more wars. 1t
isn't a phrase; it's an eternal truth
Joplin Globe
Far From Unanimous,