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The Commoner.
VOIiTJMB 13, NUMBER J,
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trios so long and intimately united in the bonds
of friendship. I have had opportunity to renew
. in this country an acquaintance with his oxcel-jfonr-y.
the Japanese ambassador, which began
nearly Gight years ago in his far away homo. I
fool that both his country and ours are fortunate
in having in the diplomatic service ono so .fully
equipped for the duties that fall to an ambassa
dor. While no ono could surpass him in devo
tion to the interests of his countrymen, it would
bo equally impossible to surpass him in the
courtosy and kindness of spirit which are so
valuable in international affairs. Ho has set so
high a standard that the president has been
careful to soloct as our representative to Japan
a man of the highest character, of large ex
perience, and sincerely appreciative of the great
ness and the progress of the country to which
ho goes.
"I am sure that Mr. Guthrie will meet the
most exacting requirements of his great office,
and that the delightful occasion in which we par
ticipate tonight may be regarded as fitly repre
senting the amicable international relations
which it will bo tho pleasuro of these two gentle
men to maintain and strengthen."
A GOOD SUGGESTION
San Francisco, May 29, 1913. Chas. W.
Bryan, publisher The Commoner Dear Sir:
Do tho people who voted for' Woodrow Wilson
real'lzo tho magnitude of thp work they have,
chosen him to do; the difficult task ho hasionhis
hands just' now and iB so earnestly, faithfully
and courageously seeking to 'perform' :ih! order
that the common people may be relieved of tho
burdon tho republican party has1 mado-tliem
Carry for so many years? Do they realize 'that he
needs their help? If they do' it is their plain duty
to demand from their senators that they give the
president their support on the tariff bill now
ponding. It is tho duty of every democratic
county committoo and all other democratic or
ganizations to get busy right now to lend what
aid they can. Let them call meetings and adopt
resolutions calling their respective United States
senators to give the president their prompt sup
port.' Ltit this bo dono all over the country at
once. Will The Commoner help to wake' the'
people up and make them understand that, they
must not desert their faithful leader in this time
of need. Ho needs their help right now.
Let the senators hear from the people they
have been chosen to represent in no mistaken
words. Keep the wires hot. "Vox populi vox
Dei." Yours truly, ROBERT A. LAUR1N;
NO TWILIGHT ZONE
Unless we misread the unanimous opinion of
the United States supreme court in the Minne
apolis rate case, tho decision is neither a' victory
for the railroads nor a victory for the stato.: '
The cou&t refused to accept the contention
of the roads that the rates fixed by the Minne
sota commission were in effect a regulation of
interstate commerce, although, it held that in
one instance the rates were .confiscatory and
hence invalid. On tho other hand, tho court re
jected tho extreme state rights cortention that
the rates were wholly within the province of
tho state and hence not subject to federal regu
lation or review.
The court declined to admit that there is a
twilight zone in the regulation of commerce.
New York World.
PERTINENT
The New York World suggests that, theso
questions be submitted by thp senate com
mittee to the distinguished lobbyists:
"How did you happen to enter the service in
which- you now aro engaged, and when did the
pay begin? Did you become an ex-congressman
.because you were a lobbyist, or a lobbyist be
cause .you were an ex-congressman?"
In! the beginning it would bo well for tho
senate and the house to withdraw floor privi
leges to ex-members who use their prestige to
act as lobbyist to special interests.
SPEAKING OF CRIIE
. TheNew York Herald protesting against re
form., legislation, prints a cartoon entitled, "The
Crime of Being a Business t Man." Now thp
Herald should' print a comp'anion picture en
titled, "The Crime of Being a Consumer'
"Wars Are Not Paid For in War Times;
The Bill Comes Later"
David Starr Jordan delivered tho commence
ment day address at tho N6braska State Uni
versity, Lincoln, Thursday, Juno 12. The Lin
coln News prints the following report of Dr.
Jordan's address:
"The great aim of the peace movement is to
throw war into the background, to make it tho
last resort instead of the first resort in case of
differences between nations and displace its
hideous accessories with the courts and con
ferences that make for peace through law.
There is but one form of peace which is endur
ing. This is the peace of law. The peace of
force, won at such enormous costs of debt and
treasure is but veiled or frustrated war.
"In the movement for peace, our nation which
is the land of peace, notwithstanding its share
of silent knaves and noisy fools, must take the
lead in this matter. It is the sole international
country, the sole federation of great nations
into one democratic ' whole. The world is
governed by public, opiriion. There is no other
final court of appeal. To control' public opinion
we must enlighten it. Knowledge breeds virtue.
The graduate Of the university should be a mis
sionary of peace, justlco and democracy. And
so, I bring before you' today my appeal against
war. !..-
"I. shal not, speak , .of. tl its horrors, though,
there, Is nothing, qlse;sph.oprible;l not of its, sor
rows, though tn.qseVhaY.beeii woman's burden
for, thousands of, rears,;, npjt .baits' qdst in money,'
as told by'the. endless ea'rava.n, of ciphers--? 2 7,
000,000,000 the accumulated ' debt, of frus
trate warf for the last century of Europe.,
"I shall . sp.eak, not.pf, the. waste of .money,
unparalleled tin, the. history of,, this, world, ithe
earning (of .Roor imensj liyes, spent in futile
murder, but of the greatest waste of all that
of life itself. . . ,
."It is a fundamental, fact of biology that the
laws in .heredity which, apply, to jpum are,th.ose
which govern. the lower, animals ias well. 'Like
the seed is the harvest this is the fundamental
law. The men you ..breed' from determine the
future. Heredity runs level. No race of men
nor animal has improved save through selection
of the best for parentage. None has fallen save
through the choice of inferior stock for paren
tage. Whatever influence may cause the de
struction of the strong, the brave, the courage
ous, the enterprising, will ensure a generation
which shall show 'these qualities in lower de
gree. "Rome fell because the old Roman stock was
for the most part banished or exterminated.
There was no other cause, The Romans were
gone and .that was the 'end of it; while the
sons, of slaves, camp followers, scullions 'and
peddlers filled the Eternal. City. The republic
fell when ' Vir gave 'place to , Homo,' real men
in Rome to mere beings. The empire fell when
the barbarians filled the 'unoccupied' city, un
occupied so far as tho men of the old Roman
type was concerned.
"We ask no other reason for the disappear
ance of Greece. Greek art, Greek philosophy,
Greek literature, tho perfection of form in
thought, in action, in speech all of these were
impossible save to men of Greek blood; arid
when these had fallen in suicidal war there
was no longer the heredity which could replace
them.
"Some twenty years ago, I visited the city
of Novara in northern Italy. On the battle
field there tho farmers had plowed up the skulls
of the slain, had stacked them up until they
formed a pyramid some fifteen feet high with
a little canopy which kept off the rain. 'These
wore the skulls of young men between eighteen
and thirty-five years of age, young men from
the farms and shqpg and schools, some from
France, some from Italy, .the rest from Austria.
And as these were, according to custom, the
best among the yeomanry, so in their homes
since then the generations, have arisen from in
ferior stock. By the character and fate of tho
common man and the opportunity offered to him
the nations must ,be .judged. On him the fate
of the nation depends,, and the waste of Novara
is a waste which is enduring. It is like cuttinc
tho roots of a tree w.hile its flowers and fruit
age continue. The roots of, today determine
the fruitage of the future. , Those nations wh 6
have lost their young men ip. war have in so far
checked their own dovqlopment.
"Not one Novara could" work ruin to any na
tion. But no Novara ever stood alone. In Lom
hardly is the little town of Magenta. You knnw
the color we call Magenta, the huo of tho blonrt
that flowed out under the locust trees in the
park,, tho blood that stained the river below
the hard-fought bridge. Here in a cloister of
the old church of Magenta you will find the pile
of skulls skulls of bravo men. You can know
it by the bullet holes which the spiders for hall
a century have vainly tried to heal.
"Let us recall the grand army of Moscow
600,000 menk the finest body of men that ever
stood in. line. Let us recall the blasts of win
ter, the burning city, the lack of base of sup
plies, the hatred of the people of the invaded
co.untry. And after that let us see, with the
historian, the. pitiful retreat of the 20,000 men
who remained of this great, army.
"The inevitable result of all this must be
the loss to the nation of the qualities which
are sought for in the soldier. It leaves the na
tion .crippled. The effect does not appear in tho
effacement of, art or science or creative imagi
nation,. Men who excel in these regards are
iiot drawn by preference or by conscription to
the life of the soldier. If we cut the roots
of a tree, we shall not affect, for a time at least
the quality of .its flower or fruit. We are limit
ing its .future rather than changing its present.
In like manner does war affect the life of the
nation.,. Jt, limjts the future rather than checks
the present;. .,-',..,
"Those , who fall in war are the young men
of. th,e i nations, mem between the ages of eigh
teen, and thirsty-five; they are the men of cour
age,, dash and recklessness, who value their
lives as naught inth service of the nation. The
men who ae (left are, for. better and for worse,
the reverse of, all;. this, and it.is they that de
termine, wjjat, the future 4of the" .nation shall be.
They hold ,its . history ' in . their grasp.
"However, mobl,e, encouraging, inspiring the
history of modern .Europe may be it is not the
history, we would, have-(the right to expect from
the development t of .its original elements. It
is not the history that -would have been made
had these same elements been released from the
shadow, of reversed selection cast by fratricidal
war. The angle of divergence between what
might have been and what has. been is measured
by the parentage of strong, capable and courage
ous men slain on the bloody fields of glory.
"All this applies not to one nation alone nor
to one group of nations, out in like degree to
all nations that have, sent forth their young
men to the field of slaughter. As it was with
Greece and Rome, with France and Spain,
Mauritania and Turkestan, so has it been with
Germany and England; so with all nations that
have sent forth 'the best they breed' to foreign
service, while retaining cautious, thrifty medio
crity to fill up tho ranks at home.
"Three million, seven hundred thousand men
fell in Napoleon's campaigns. No wonder the
life of Europe is impoverished. No wonder that
France is a wounded nation, as are all others
whose men were caught up in that holocaust.
Napoleon, it was said, . 'has peopled hell with
the elite of Europe.' Stacked up on the field
as at Novara, their skulls would make a pile
thirty times as high as our own Washington
monument. To this cause of reversed selec
tion almost alone we may ascribe the social ana
personal deficiencies of the common folk oi
Europe. If we send forth the best we breed,
there is no way by which thoso of the future
shall be other than second best, nn
"In the break-up of the Roman empire, no
province had a better future than Spain, ana
she, like others, had. staked and lost her fortune
in war. na
" 'This Is Castile,' says a writer. 'She makes
men and wastes them.' 'This. sub! irre and ter
rible phrase,' says Captain Calkin3, 'sums up
the whole of Spanish history.' , , .or
"What shall we say of -England and of ner
place in the history of war? England has mao
this a British world. Her young men have sow
to all regions where free men can live. She i
carried the British peace to all barbarous lanu
and she has made it possible for civilized m
to trade and pray with savages. The actiyu
of Englishmen have been greater by m ami"
than within the little island from which fcng"
men set forth to inherit the earth. . n.
.. "The foreign service of England for a
dred years, hag furnished careers for tue
v.
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