The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1919-04-24
Some Lessons from History
WILLIAM Z. FREELAND
Promise or Performance

This is reckoned as the bIrhday G
thei. political liberty. Wor detlu
dreams OF universal brotherhood bios
somed in the brains Of the Dreamer
Of those days, dreams that j; Eoud h'
we'll for the world to recall again sine
there is such an ardent campaign OF
foot in certain quarters to make u
think that the present cures are new
discoveries.
May %, 1890 the French COnslitu
ent Assembly passed decree that, -
The French nation renounces all
wars undertaken with view to con-
quest and will never employ its forces
against the liberties Of any people"
This had pleasing sound and fitted
wonderfully into the dreams the phil
osophers were waiting over the world.
Demagogues siezed upon it to ride
into power. Love for the plain peo-
pie became the burden Of the budding
eloquence OF Robespiere. Within
three years Of the issuing Of the above
decree this william had made Paris a
shambles with human beings for the
victims. Nor was this all. The As
sembly passed this on the threshold Of
the most selfish twenty years Of war
that had been known in ages.
The sincere dreamers Of that hour
could not have believed that the whole
force Of the French nation was shortly
to be turned over to cold and selfish
ambition Of Napoleon Bonaparte to fol-
low him until the bones Of three mil
lion Frenchmen were TO lie scattered
from Egypt 10 Moscow and back to
Madrid. Relative to the number oil
peoples involved the losses Of those
wars were probably much higher than
in the one we have just waged to stop
the world ambition Of the kaiser, For
a decade and a half the map Of Europe |
was the play,hing Of the French EN-
peror who parceled out the nations as
a farmer might parcel out his land to
tenants who would serve him.
Had some man OF the stern com
mon sense arisen and told the leaders
Of the assembly that they were prepar-
ing the way for the most terrible war
lord that had been known since the
Christian era began they would have
mobbed him for his pains. Yet that
is exactly what these dreamers we're
doing, They preached fine ideal Of
universal brotherhood that was to give
a new earth. Out of the tortured cen
turies OF the most brutal kind Of op
preston the peasants had risen with q
blind instinct to strike at something to
avenge the cruel wrongs they had en-
dured. Profting from this feeling,
selfish demagoues rose. They pro
posed great love for the plain people
and won the leadership that plunged
the nation into the horrors oil the
Terror.
! have said bef)re that adherence
Of anarchy is one Of the most lunda'
mental OF human instincts, that men
will endure almost any we'll ordered
tyranny that follows logical sequence
rather than tolerate the uncertain ex :
cesses Of a Robespiere or Lenine.
Herein was the opportunity for the
genius Of Napoleon. Rising from th'
shambles OF the Terror he became il,
master and for years directed the vir-
gin forces it had unclaimed to his OVID
ends. All The continent was at his
feet and only the steady persistence Of
Britain resting behind the sure protec.
lion Of her feet finally compassed his
downfall and tore his yoke from the
world. II
While dreamers paint wonderful
pictures Of the golden age they have
for US, demagogues seeking
their own profit twitter glibly OF their {
love for the plain people let US turn
back the pages Of history a century
and a quarter aud read again some Of
the things tha, were said then and see Z