The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-24
NatiorldI Morality
Bx pR. FRANK CNANE

There ;s no region in which the dangef of yielding to the spacious arguments of Sue
 cess is so fatal as in statecraft There are not two moralities nor tive forms of nobleness-one for the Individual
 and one for the state.
 In fact. the law of life is just as inevitable
 for nations as for men,
 Every one of the Ten Commandments is as true in relation to the United States of America, to France, or to England as it in relation to you or to me.
 4pride goeth before a falI as surely in the case of Spain as in the case of Napoleon-
 sThey that take the sword shall perish by lthe sword" is as true Of the oyer-mlntarizeo countries of Europe as it is ot the cowpoy who comes to town with belt full Of dirks and guns.
 r A bandit nation is as sure to get what | is coming to it' as the bandit of Hounslow
 Heath is to get his dues. History is full of instances of the accu- racy and certainty of moral punishments: The only consideration that maintains states md statesmen in policies of moral wrong, in unjust opportunism, IS exactly the same consideration that makes boy stea, For a man get drunk T won't be punished now = q After us the deluge,' said Mime de Pom F Ioadour Iarouse attributes the saving 70 A
 of man to say it. The idea that a nation must always pre- serve it's prosperity, of even it's existence, IS
 as immoral as that an individual should do so. ,s1la :. Self-preseryation may be the first law of nature, but it is more essential to know l the last law of nature, to wlt' 10 risnt | if you die by it."
 A nation is under quite as much obiga- tion to act justly as the individual IS, and to act so even if it inyoves loss or extirc- tion. @
 The idea that the nation is soulless. non-moral machine, exempt from spiritual rewards and punishments, IS the very essence of Machiayelism.
 | To go that way is to fall into the pit And to show you that this is not the bourgeois narrowness of religious conviction but statement of the truth any ctear-eyed thinker must admit, will mark you for this passage in Ernest Renan. who has some times been called an infidel:
 .srhe thinkers of Israel were the first who Erevolted against the injustice Of the world, I who refused to submit to the abuses and privileges without which there is neither army nor strong society. They lmperiiied the existence of their little nationality, but founded the< religious edifice which, under | the name of Judaism, Christianity, Islam ism has served as a shelter for humanity until the present time. This is lesson that modern peoples should mediate. l And read this carefully, as he goes on to say "The nations which shall yield to social
 questions shall perish but if the future be- long to such questions it shall be beautiful | to have died for the cause destined to triumph
 Righteousness is not whim, nor arbitrary
 creed, nor changing statute, it is in the na-
 ture of things, it is law, like gravitation is law. And of law, the golden saying of the E'Tiudicious Hooker" was, that no less cen be said than that "ali things in heaven and
 earth do her homage-the very least as feel. ing her care. and the greatest as not ex- empted from her power"