Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-04-08
LIFE WITHOUT AN
ARMED GUARD

(By Edward X. Graham. President
of the University Of North Carolina.)
Far from being a detached and UNI
accident, this is the wars
inspiring and rel sublime compensa-
ton, that the time is at length ripe
for the final settlement for the whole
world Of the conflict between two ir-
reconcilable ideals governing the re-
lations of men. that are at the roots
Of all human progress conflict to-
ward which from a thousand detach-
ed battle fields h currents of his
tory have been converging through
all the patient centuries. From that
early dawn Of time when man made
his first accidental fire captive and
nurtured that fire in his fight against
his fellow animals, and cold and hun
ger. to his latest conquest Of space
with the wireless, mans expanding
and aspiring life has been a fight for
just this ideal Of freedom-to be free
~ at home, physically, mentally,
spiritually and politically on his
planet, and so master Of his environ
ment.
Through science and invention he
steadily linked the physical world to-
wider and deeper units Of UNDER
standing, and cooperation and self
government: and the living spring
that was the source OF all his rest
less striving and suffering and sacri-
nee was the God-implanted. indomit-
able belief in his innate rights to life.
liberty and the free pursuit Of hap
piness.
"PaEanism utterly denied such
rights. 1t allowed no value to a. man
place, or power made him. Even
deep-visioned Aristotle. o remem-
Der, taught that nature intended
some men to be slaves and chattels."
It was the religion of Jesus Christ
gathefing up the wisdom of the
struggling centuries that gave the fin
al status to mans value in the world
Of things in the proclamation Of the
common fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood Of man.
That means 80 indefinitely much
this doctrine of men as the sons Of
God-in every human relation that
we have not ven vet caught its full
Significance. The history of the 1900
years after Christ is the story Of
mans effort to understand and di-
gest into practice that simplest and
most wonderful Of spiritual doctrines
and apply it to the cooperative en-
cali government. This practical at
tempt to put his civil and political in
stitutions in accord with his spiritual
faith came at last and>it came here in
America. That is what America is.
We said that by nature all men are
free and equal, and that governments
are Of. by and for all the people; that
rights begin in and with the people
and go upward from them, and not
downward from the state. To the OPP
pressed of all nations it means a clear
pathway to merit of whatever kind:
it meant having an infinite chance
and knowing you had 1t.
The shot that was fired at Concord
as a proclamation of the divine right
| of the individual in government was
heard around the world-in England
Following the French revolution and
the medieval despotism imposed on
the states Of Europe by the settle
ment of 1814-15, freedom made its
separate. fight in Italy. Austria and
Germany. and by 1913 there was the
vision Of Europe as>one great elnan'
cipated land" But that fabric Of the
dream. Of freedom collapsed as 1T had
done so often before, and under the
leadership Of Bismarck in Germany
absolutisrn became once more ascend.
ant. to remain so for 70 years.
bismarck, at that time, clearly
stated the issue; it is the issue now
and will be till the world is wholly
free. EIe said: 1.-THE strife. of princi'
pies which. has shaken Europe is one
in which no compromise is possible
They rest on opposite bases. h one
draws its law from what Is called the
will OF The people. The other rests or
authority created by God"--by which
he meant hereditary military despot'
ism. And he stated the logical method
Of carrying out this policy; the meth
cd Of "blood and iron." The issue !.
the same. the method is the same
the glorious difference is that in
stead Of being a conflict in separate
states or declarations, as 1t has always
been before and as Germany sough'
to make it in 1914-instead even O
its being a fight to make merel,
Europe ian emancipated land" it il
now a clear fight to a finish, and with
out quarter, between national self
. government and military despotism
humanity and ,Germanity, for the lib
erty' Of the human race and the whole
trend Of international and civilizet
evolution.