The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1918-04-24
MORAL AIMS OF the WAR
FULLY DISCUSSED by DIR. GULICK
AND DIR. sLOCUM AT FIRST
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
LAST NIGHT.
Duties Of Christians In Supporting
War Clearly Observation-Disclosures
In Afternoon Largely
Attended.

There was q large audience pres
ent at the First Presbyterian Church
last night to hear DR.. Sidney Gulick,
the famous missionary and church
man, and DR.. william Frederick Slo-
cum, for many years prominent in
ternational newspaper correspondent,
who has had great deal to do with
the economic and social conditions OF
America and Europe, especially In
Germany, The meeting was under the
auspices of the National Committee
on Churches and Moral Aims For the
War.
These men also had charge Of a
conference at the church yesterday af-
ternoon, at which time some interest
ing discussions took place and some
very fine points were brought out.
The mass meeting in the evening
was presided over by Rev. s. X. Hunt,
PRESIDENT of the Maysville Minister
ial Association. After the singing of
q hymn Rev. w. B. Campbell, pastor
of the First NJ. e. Church, South, led
in prayer. Rev. Hunt then introduced
Dr. Sidney L. Gulick, who spoke on
"The Moral Aims of the War"
DR.. Gulick said he rejoiced that
President Wilson in entering the
world war placed the moral issues so
clearly and emphatically in the fore
front. 81 support this war; he said,
mot merely because am citizen
and in spite of my being Christian,
but exactly because ! am Christian
citizen. God has placed us in dual
world, a world of matter and mind, of
force and ideas, of necessity and of
freedo'n, Of body and of spirit, and he
has commanded us to subjugate and
rule the world of matter and of force
by the superior might of mind. IF
ideas and of spirit. This means that
we must use force in the interest of
right, that we must overthrow force
used"
"The fundamental issue that has
been forced upon the whole world by
Germany's outrageous conduct is that
of the real nature of the State. The
question is this: Is nation or
State, moral of strictly physical
entity? Is It being whose grIwth
and relations with other states are to
be determined exclusively by phys.-
cal laws? Or should they be subj. I
to moral laws?
Germany holds the physical view.
The relations of one state to anOth,r
are merely relations of power Might
makes right. A nation may do wha
ever it can do. A nation that has the
strength must expand; must crush |
weak though resisting neighbors;
must develop by their destruction,
ust as the big fish must feed on and |
,wa low the little fish. This is the
aw Of nature, say the Germans The
worth of nation is proved by its
urvival over competitors. In nature,
he fit survive; they prove their fit
ess and universal by overcoming
heir rivals. They must either destroy
r absorb them.
This German view has been prac-
ced by every tribe, people and race
ON the dawn of history. 1t is the
octrine that has now for several de-
ades been consciously developed, de-
,nded and deliberately taught in /
ermany.
an contrast to this view is that (
cid by the democratic peoples of 6
urope and America, that state Is {
oral entity and should be controll
| by moral principles that the small '
I'd weak and backward states and
copies have intrinsic rights which
, nation, however powerful, may I
Chilly transgress or invade. Y
Whatever may have been the i'm
ediate or more remote occasion Of 4
e war, the real issue at stake is