New-York tribune., 1918-03-31

chusetts! Quite an army of US Yam
KEGS have helped to build up the old
state since the beginning, with sword
seeking placid peace under liberty
In the days of peace, before this war,
used to think this rather truculent
motto-an unnecessary brag, perhaps
What" l said, cant we have peace
without carving it out with a sword?
Just look-years of peace. The worlds
improving. There will never be any
more war. Let's disarm."
Then came the Teuton madness, and
Belgium's fate. But for Belgium's
sword-alas! that it could not save
herself! France would have gone;
then England; then ourselves. Where,
then, would have been our Peace?
Nay, where our Liberty" itself? We
who love peace need to keep the sword
still bright and ready.
To Emphasize the Wish
In spite of her pugnacious motto, l
think Massachusetts is no more quar-
relsome than any other state, though
We have never side-stepped a fight
when right was at stake. We've never
stood for bullying nor watched the
underdog get whipped without pro-
test. We Yankees crossed the sea to
find liberty for the arts of peace, and
brought our swords with US to empha-
size our wishes. We loved and cher
ished peace, as every sane patriot does
to- day, but we were never "pacihsts" IN
the sickening modern sense.
Those first ancestors of mine used to
carry their muskets to church, to keep
the peace. They needed to, while saw
ages prowled and howled around them
in the forest; savages almost as bad as
the ravishers of Belgium, but not quite.
They did not know the fine shades of
torture that Kultur teaches.
NY ancestors built their houses with
overhung second stories, with loophole
keep tabs on the stranger who knocked
at the gate They had to, while the
enemy alien was so close and cunning,
Things are not so changed.
They hacked an oasis of peace for
themselves in the wilderness with a
sword"
Then German King
Then along came crazy old German
L j IL, I>,.f f,-I,
who menaced the peace-even as a
crazy German Kaiser does to-day. He
tried to tax our tea and stop our COM
merce and hold up cur shipping and
prevent our boys from coasting on Bos-
ton Common. But We wouldn't stand
for it, We hauled out our old swords
again and defended our right to enjoy
placid peace in liberty after our own
ton fired the first shot to make the
world free for democracy. And that
shot is echoing still, l fancy, in the
ears of Kaiser Bill. The first blood
shed in the Revolution was Massachu-
setts blood. And we paid the first of
the awful price for union, liberty and
peace in the Civil War. Now, our Red
Cross unit was the first to go, our SOL
der boys were among the first at the
front behind Pershlng in the crusade
for peace. No, little old Massachusetts
has never forgotten her motto.
And yet | think she has not fallen
behind in the peaceful arts of civiliza-
tion; in the making of books and pict-
ures and statues; in the building of
libraries, CHURCHES and hospitals; in
works of charity and learning; in busi-
ness and agriculture and Yankee inven-
tion But we've never let the sword get
rusty that was TO defend all these.
"peace-With a Sword"
don't say we have done moro or
better than others. This is only to de-
fend our -pactist motto and our
non n-pacifst tradition, in these days
when near-sig sighted dreamers quake and
bubble and make mischief with their
scruples.
Even when we have won that right
eous Peace we are now fighting for, that
motto will still have its significance
1t is brief paraphrase Of the Presi-
dents plan to make the world safe for
democracy. 1t is, in effect, the motto
of the Allied nations already. 1t is a
hint as to the eXpediency of universal
military training. And whether they
ever know it or not, it expresses the
purpose of that League to Enforce
Peace, that police comfy OF nations,
which patriots hope will follow this
war and prevent another.
So don't worry lest we become mill
taristic! Remember peaceful, happy,
prosperous, good old Massachusetts,
thriving all these years under the
motto "Peace-With Sword"