Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-02-22 | Page 6 | Taf't's Advice

TAFT'S ADVICE. Former President Taft is to be commended com-mended for deprecating the Rooseveltian custom of calling pacifists "cowards, fools and mollycoddles.'' It is of the very genius of democracies to discuss questions and policies by the rule of reason. Not that zeal should be absent from the discussion ; on the contrary each citizen who has something to offer for the common enlightenment is expected ex-pected to put forward his arguments with fervor and sometimes even with the rough force of the fighting spirit. But it is contrary to the spirit of American Amer-ican democracy to condemn opponents with words that close debate. Tho pacifists make a philosophy out of the average man's desire for peace and, there fore, they are heard gladly. They voice a rational ideal. All reasonable men would live in peace with their neighbors if possible. And yet in our own civil war brothers were battling against each other for what they believed be-lieved to be right. Each chose sides at the bidding of his conception of patriotism patriot-ism and honor. There were pacifists in those days and their arguments were no less powerful than those used today even more powerful because they are designed to prevent fratricidal strife. And yet the north and the south went to war. The pacifists may have made a botch of philosophy, but the goal they aim at all men desire. Pomeone has said that Christ was not a pacifist despite the fact that he was called the Prince of Peace. "I come to bring, not peace, but a sword,1 ' He said. And His meaning mean-ing generally is interpreted to be that I relentless war should be waged against evil. In any event little is to be accomplished accom-plished by calling names. All of us sincerely wish to stay out of war whether wheth-er we be pacifists or not, and certainly no man should be called a "coward, fool or mollycoddle" simply because he crystallizes into a categorical imperative the desires and hopes of the average man.