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Show PEACE, WAR, AND A NATION S DUTY. There will probably come a time when all diseases will be cured, all wounds healed by painless remedies. Possibly enough of grace will return to the world to make it possible to i, arrest disease by a touch or a word. But that time has not yet arrived, and eminent surgeons demonstrate every day that only through a capital capi-tal operation can a life be saved. As with men so with nations. They become distempered, so surcharged by hate or lust of power, or ignorance, or superstition, or either of a thousand other foes to enlightenment, that only an heroic operation can save them. It is all well enough to preach peace, to build temples to peace; but as with a sick man, while there are palliatives, while there are medicines "which remove or drive away the obstructions which cause the illness and give nature a chance to recuperate, none of them is a specific against certain ills, none is infallible against certain diseases. Mr. Carnegie is preaching peace in and out of Mason, and does not know that his words ought to be published side by side with advertisements ad-vertisements of the quack doctor which calls upon mankind to take his medicine and suffer no longer. Much territory has been taken by conquest, now and then a principle has been vindicated through war, but considering that history is . moatly made up by the accounts of wars, one would think that men would weary of them, but they do not The only way they can be avoided is by changing the hearts of men and the effort to bring around such a change is baffled on every side by the ignorance and superstition that still encompasses the earth. This being true, it is pure wickedness for an enlightened nation not to be at all times prepared to defend itself and the enlightenment it represents. The plan of arbitration is good for the more civilized among the nations, but even in a court of arbitration arbi-tration the representatives of any power have just the influence which the nation they represent repre-sent can bring to bear in case of war. When the negotiations which culminated in the treaty of Berlin were going on, did Disraeli depend upon the moral power of the empire he represented to bring around an agreement? Not at all. He had a division of the army of India hurried to Egypt, and a double squadron of British warships rendezvous in the Mediterranean. Mediterran-ean. He carried his points though Great Britain had only n indirect interest in the treaty between be-tween Russia and Turkey, which was the matter under consideration. There came a time when conditions in Cuba became so intolerable that nothing but an heroic operation would suffice, and the United States had to be the surgeon. It cost this country some thousands of lives, but half of those lost would not have been lost if we for ten previous years had been preparing for such an emergency as came upon us. It begins to look very much as though another an-other heroic operation would have to be performed per-formed on Mexico before long. Should that come many more valuable lives would have to be sacrinced than had we but used common prudence pru-dence during the past ten years in being prepared. pre-pared. Every high school boy who graduates should for a year and a half be trained to arms and taught the requirements of camp life. And were that the rule in our republic the danger of our having any serious clash with any outside power would be reduced 75 per cent. |