The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1951-05-10
Fdcts dnd Fdncies
.=
BY-Huzel Peuse
IN SEARCH OF A
continued

r"--- ~ - g.
In the attempt to personlfy
the enemy, who will be tagged?
Will they be selected after a
careful examination of the be-
liefS of each of the worlds 20
billion inhabitants? To attempt
to do so would preclude war,
because the political leaders are
incapable of doing the testing,
and because the job is so large
that it would never be COM
pleted by any central examln-
ing committee of this type.
What, then, is to be done?
The leaders ignore the fact
that they are incapable Of ex-
aiming even one person and
hide their incapacity behind a
grandioSes facade of decoys.
They label entire nations or
continents or races as enemies
of. liberty when, in fact they
are unable to Judge even one
person In this respect and not
even know the questions to be
asked. u
So the nation goes to war
and while war is going on, the
real enemy-long ago forgotten
and camouflaged by the pro-
ceSSeS OF War-rides on to vic
tory in both camps. The real
enemy is, in fact, immune to
the weapons of physical COM
bat used in war.
Further evidence that in war
the attack is not leveled at
the real enemy is the fact that
we never seem to know what
to do with victory. When
guns are silenced by the white
fla gof surrender, what is to be
done with the victory? Are the
"liberaed" peoples all to be shot
Or put in prison comps or
what? Is the national boundary
to be moved? Is there to be
further destruction of the prop
erty of the defeated? The fact
that those responsible for the
settlements of liberation" have
themselves acquired the disease
while administering the process
SeS OF war, makes any logical
solution even less likely.
False ideas can be attacked
only with counter-ideas, facts
and logic. There is no other
way. It is necessary to realize
that an idea can't be forced in
to submission by kicking it in
the shins or beating it over the
head. Nor can you shoot an
ieda.
It is worth remembering that
the Roman legions were never
able to defeat the Christian
idea by this method two thou
sand years ago.
The British military might
never was able to defeat Chan
di, the little man without
weapons. Christ and Ghandi
were both killed, but their muir
der seemed to give impetus to
the spread of their ideas rather
than the destruction cf them.
Karl Marx perhaps more than
any other person developed the
body Of thought that is today
the leading enemy of liberty.
It would have made no differ
ence if Marx had died a year
earlier or later because his
ideas had been put into circu-
lation and were not MORALLY a
part of him. Nor can these
ideas of his be destroyed today
by murder or suicide of their
leading exponent or of thou
sands of the .devotees. On the
contrary, persecution seems to
unite those of one faith, and
spreads heir ideas as nothing
else will do. Least of all can
the ideas Of Karl Marx be de-
Stroyed by numbering innocent
victims of the form of slavery
he advocated, whether they be
conscripts in armies or victims
caught in the path of battle.
Ideas must be met by ideas, on
the battlefield of belief.
Government in this country
was designed as an agent to
protect persons and property,
to maintain peace and order by
resolving conflict through a
judicial system. And it was sup
posed to administer resistance
to threats from outside the
country, but without ever be-
coming an aggressor in the