Show = = THE DECALOGUE AND DUTY The current Atlantic Monthly opens with an article from the pen of H D Fedgwick Jr on Nations and tho Decalogue the burden of which is that the great social experiment is to be tried whether the partisans of the national belly or the partisans of the national conscience shall prevail and what America will do to make straight the way of Christendom The rlter quotes from Senator Bevrldgo that The Philippines are so valuable in themselves that we should hold them He refers also to Glandstonefl failure to bring tranquillity to South Africa by the surrender after Majuba Hill and igaln he Insists that nations are not much different from a few individuals and again carries the Idea that In the dealings of men the ten commandments should be the rule The article sounds like a scholarly production emanating I from a theorist who from his study I would dictate the government of a world and who has never experienced I the practical friction which teaches men that the great work of the myriads I myr-iads of mankind Is to make a living and that a vast majority of the worlds people are not yet educated up to the I point of accepting the ten commandments command-ments as the substance of the > code which should govern their lives We Judge by the article that privatc lytho writer shocked at what Is goIng go-Ing on In Luzon but that at the same time if he lives 1 In Boston he would bo moro shocked at a proposition to dismiss the police of that city on the ground that it is wrong in Boston especially to restrain and govern tho sinister elements of that city against tho consent of the governed and that I a sincere belief In the efficacy of the ten commandments ought to be sufficient suffi-cient to protect the good against the badWhen When bookish theorists take up an Idea and pursue It not Infrequently they overlook the fact that a goodman good-man people arc not quite ready to re celvo and accept the idea without question The reference to Mr Gladstones goodross and magnanimity does not carry out the main principle which the writer of the article evidently desires to establish to be the rule of the lives of nations England had a Premier who whatever else may be said of him carried the British Nation along on tho lines laid down by her most successful managers Ho took from Russia all the advantages which she had won inn in-n successful war against the Turk he acquired Cyprus he obtained control ofthe Sues canal and a footing In Egypt His Premiership was covered with triumphs Gladstone unconsciously perhaps had a hate born of envy of that Premier Pre-mier He had too a bitter uncompromising uncom-promising race prejudice against him He attacked him and his policy and those attacks together with the raco prejudice overthrew him and gave to Gladstone his place As if in retribution retribu-tion Gladstone failed in every Important Impor-tant emergency He failed In Ireland he failed In North and In South Africa Afri-ca he caused England to lose more prestige than she had before since she gave up her American colonies and them off or t to restore that prestige has cost and Is costing Great Britain thousands thou-sands of superb lives and uncounted treasure It Is not fair to quote one sentence from a mans speech without explaining whether that sentence gives < i a clear Idea of the whole speech or lot but there Is a moral point even In the two I lines takort from the body of the spcuch of Senator Beverldgc because the material and moral world go together to-gether and history is filled with examples exam-ples where the javelin and the short sword of Rome where the cannons of the modern world have been missionaries mission-aries The forest has to be cleared before the field can be mado to produce bread the rough stone has to bo chiseled chis-eled Into form before a cathedral can be built or a glorified statue revealed Our Nation did not of choice go to Cuba or the Philippines The evidences are clear that the Infinite had grown weary of Spains cruelties and her arm In her Island colonies had to be broken When that was done then responsibilities re-sponsibilities were laid upon our Government Gov-ernment which could not be avoided When attacked the attackhad tob rcpollcd In Cuba our authority re suited In feeding the hungry clothing the naked cleansing the cities to mt ltcl 1 them habltiable establishing order and opening the schools Tho people there who can think stand lost In admiration admira-tion at what has been done and is being be-ing done but there are depraved souls there who would If they could restore tho old conditions They dre dogs that want to return to tholr vomit In the I Philippines the Bame class when the restraints of Spain were removed mistaking mis-taking liberty for unbridled license he tom the real work could be begun commenced killing our soldiers There is a largo class in our country which would deny to our soldiers and our Government tho right of selfdefense Thoy call what is being done there murder and a war of conquest and would turn the islands and all the decent de-cent people there over to tho tender mercies of the Agulnaldo cutthroats They sec no cruelty In that they count as nothing tho giving up there the prestige of our country not he dIng d-ing what It cost Great Britain to recreate re-create her ancient prestige In Northern Africa or what she Is paying for the conscientious weakness of Gladstone In v South Africa I Referring again to the extract from Senator Bcvcrldgcs speech us a man when he moves into a wilderness fells the trees builds his house and plants his garden before he sends for wife and babies so In this modern world I Commerce Is tho pathfinder to new realms and It goers and plants Its stakes before the Bible and the schoolhouse school-house follow The only questions where conscience comes In are Had we a right to go to the Philippines Had we a right to break the arm of Spain there Had we a right after that to evade the duties Imposed onus on-us In pursuing those duties was the I right of selfdefense taken from us And finally Is there any purpose toward I I to-ward the Filipinos lo restrict them In time least In their efforts for life liberty lib-erty or the pursuit of happiness If we can answer all the questions satisfactorily I satis-factorily what need we care for the howl of demagogue politicians or the I cant of revcrsedbralned moralists |