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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1915)
rw, flp!H The Commoner VOL. 15, NO. 1 L F. &. B W kft n The Commoner ISSUED MONTIIIiY Entered nt tho Poatofllco at Lincoln, Nebraska. as econd-cluBH matter. W)M.MN J. IIKYAW Kdltor mill Proprietor Kdltorinl Rooms mid IhiBlnewi C'HAKirfl W. UriVAN Mtocnlo Kdllor and PuMI'hor Onicc, Sutlo 507, Tress nulld'nir Om Year $1.00 XlX MOHtllM X0 In Clubs of Flvo or more, per year. .. .75 TJireo illonUin . SIiikIc Copy 10 Samplo Copies Free. Foreign Pott. 25c Extra. SUnSGllIl'TlONS can bo sent direct to Tho Com moner. They can also bo sent through newspapers "which have advertised a clubbing rate, or through local agents, whero such agents have been ap pointed. All remittances should bo sent by post office money ordor, express order, or by bank draft on Now York or Chicago. Do not send Individual chocks, stamps or currency. III92VHWA LS Tho data on your wrapper shows tho tlmo to which your subscription 1b paid. Thus January 14 means that payment has been re ceived to and including tho Issue of January, 1914. CHANG 14 OP ADDRESS -Subscribers requesting & chango of uddrcss must glvo old as well as new address. ADVERTISING Rates will bo furnished upon application. Address all communications to THE COMMONER, Lincoln. Neb. Tho bravest battle that over was fought, Shall I tell you whero and when? On tho maps of tho world, you will find it noU 'Twaa fought by tho mothers of men. Joaquin Miller. AN INDICTMENT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY An advocate of militarism presents the follow-" ing indictment against Christianity: "While a nation is still vigorous, while its pop ulation is expanding, whilo tho blood in its veins Is strong, then on this head no scruples are felt. But "when its energies begin to wither, when self indulgence takes tho place of self-sacrifice, when its sons and its daughters become degenerate, then it is that a spuriouB and bastard human! t ariahism masquerading as religion declares war to be an anachronism and a barbaric sin." TJiero Is no extreme to which one will not go whon ho becomes an advocate of brute force; worshipors of war regard all appeals" to con science as an evidence of weakness. Unless Christianity is a failure and its founder a fraud mankind must look to the teachings of the Naz arone as the hope of a struggling humanity. The song of peaco that greeted His birth was accom panied by a suggestion as to tho means of pro moting peaco, namely "Good-will." Good-will, not hatrod, is the basis of peace. Peace will be as sured in proportion as men learn to regard each other as brothers and to treat each other a3 neighbors. W. J. BRYAN. A NEW YEAR'S RESOLVE Conscious of my responsibility to God for ev ery thought and word and deed, and in duty Ifcound to render to my fellow men tho largest possible service as the best evidence of my lovo for my Heavenly Father, I resolve to strive dur ing the remainder of my life to increase my ca pacity for usefulness. To this end I will give up any course of conduct that tends to weaken , my body, impair tho strength of my mind, or lower my moral purpose, and I will not only en deavor to cultivate habitB of industry in both body and mind, but will seek and follow worthy Ideals. RENEWALS The subscriptions of those who became subscribers with the first issue of Tho Commoner, and have renewed at the cldse of each year, expire with the Januaiy issue. In order to facilitate the work of changing and re -entering the ad dresses upon our subscription books and mailing lists and obviate the expense of sending out personal statements an nouncing that renewals are due, sub scribers are urgently requested to renew with as little delay as possible. The work of correcting the stencils entails an enormous amount of labor and tho publisher asks subscribers to assist as much as possible by making their re newals promptly. m f Mr. Bryan's Address Before American Peace Society Ladies and Gentlemen: I hardly felt that I had time to como down to your meeting this evening, and yet it seemed to mo that tho celebration of tho eighty-sixth an niversary of a Peaco society was so extraordin ary an occasion that I could mako an extraordin ary effort to bo here, even if but for a few mo ments, und I shall occupy that time in the pres entation of a single thought. It is not always that one, in speaking, can follow a rulo of ora tory, which I think has some sanction, namely, that in a speech you should have one theme, that you discuss it, and then stop. There are really threo rules in that ono rule. It is not always easy to select a theme; it is sometimes hard to discuss it when you have selected it, and it is still moro difficult to stop. Now, I shall tako ono theme, consider it very briefly, and then stop. Not having had time to prepare an ad dress, I shall take a thought that camo to mo this afternoon. Tho thought was suggested by tho fact that for eighty-six years people interest ed in the causo of peaco havd been connected with this society, and have kept up its continued existence. Eighty-six years is a long while, and if wo could ask those who organized tho society, or its early members, how long it would take to bring tho world to the acceptance of peace, they would not havo named so long a period as has elapsed. I attended a medical college commencement in Chicago about thirty years ago, and I recall n nravpr offered on that occasion. I never have been able to learn whether tho man who offered the prayer appreciated it as much as I did or not. Ho was praying for tho young physicians about to graduate; ho prayed that tho Lord would give them ability, sympathy, and industry, etc., and after enumerating all tho other virtues that a physician would need, ho prayed and I thought with great fervor that the Lord would givo them "patience," Cor "patients.") I did not know then, and havo never learned since, Vow bo Bpelled tho word. But it seems to mo that every ono who is connected with a really great work must realize the need of patience. Tt is natural that, when anyone discovers an abuse, ho wonders why all do not see it, and when ho finds a remedy that seems adequate, he wonders why all do not accept it. Wo all havo had tho same experience that is, wo havo met peoplo who have devoted many years of their lives to something very dear to their hearts; their enthusiasm has outrun their accomplish ments, and they havo become discouraged. A man once went to a physician with a break ing out on his hand, and the doctor gave him somo ointment, telling him to mako an applica tion every day for a month, and then return and report progress. At tho end of the month he came back. The doctor asked him how his hand was getting along, and ho replied: "Well, doc tor, looking at it from week to week, I some times think I can see a little improvement, and, looking at it at tho end of the month, I guess it is better, and, doctor, itmay get well, but I'm afraid it won't bo in my d&yJ' Now, I think we all may havo had something Of that feeling, and it has somewhat tinged our enthusiasm with sadness to think that after all our efforts wo may not live to see the consummation of our desires. It may be appropriate, therefore, to say a word tonight about patience; to tell you not to c, huow yourselves to grow weary in weii-uoinir. tor tho world does move, even if it does not movo ns rapidly in somo directions as some of us might wish. If any of you who havo given your hearts to the peace movement feel that it moves slowly, ust look at other things which have been ncwmplishad, and see how slowly they seemo.1 to movo. Take, for instance for to me it is the pupreme ttluFiiation tho moral codo of the Man of Galilee; you examine it, and you seo that it fits into human life as no othor code of morals does. You find that it covers all the phases of human existence; whero it at first seems strange, upon cx&miuatlon it seems most truly true; yet how slowly it has grown! But it does grow. The doctrine of lovo is, after all, the only grow- ing doctrine in the world; it is the only force to which there can be no permanent opposition; it Is the only weapon for which there is no shield. Q If I were to give a name to the address I am going to deliver tonight, I wpuld call it "Object Lessons in the Mexican Crisis from a Peaco Standpoint" Since this is not only a live, but a father difficult, question, I am accepting re sponsibility not only to my conscience, but to ray constituents. You must permit me to refer to my notes occasionally, so that no misrepresenta tion may bo made. In what I am going to say, I really. do not ad dress myself to those present so much as to tho thousands and hundreds of thousands whom you all represent. Of course I. do not know whether this speech will bo printed. If it wero a war speech, I could guarantee that it would bo printed; Tjut sinco it is a peace speosh, I can al most guarantee that it will not be. It seems liko an anachronism to talk peaco in thin tlmo of exciting Var preparations. To do so will probably remind you of the old German who rushed along the street in a very great hurry. He was stopped by a friend of his and asked what was tho cause of his hurryT He said, "I want to insure my. house." His friend re plied, "Thero is no need of hurry for that; you can do that somo other time." The old German rented, "You talk liko a fool; it is burning al ready." I know that the beating of the war drum is the death "knell to argument and that the appeals to what is called patriotism completely drown the voice of reason. And yet, my friends, this is a most propitious time, in my humble judg ment to test the truths and merits of the peaio propaganda, because we can make the test at tho hand of our immediate experience. Oceans of ink have been spilled since tho Mex ican crisis has resulted in actual hostilities, yet is it not strange that the press should havo ut terly failed to draw the right conclusions from tho situation that the great American papers should havo neglected to point tho object lessons so patent that even tho thoughtless can easily grasp them? I will tell you in a minute what I mean by that. The stock argument of tho defenders of our military system is that armaments aro an in fallible guarantee of peace. There was a time when they were moro honest when they franRVs ly admitted that armaments of war but incited war; but that theory has fallen in disrepute, so much so that these defenders do not dare to montion it. Since the peace mpvement has been . growing so active' they have been moro diplo matic. They aro now for peace, not for war. It is tho insurance, they say, whih we will pay for our national security. Yet you will agree with me that today, if it were not for the remedy of fered by the friends of peace, this country would be in the throes of war. Not only havo our vast armaments completely failed to preserve the peace from a military standpoint we have never been better 'prepared' to preserve it than now but I also venture to assert that this very pre paredness was and is an inducement to let loose the dogs of war. In the recent issuo of ?. daily newspaper it was pointed out that since the Cri mean war that is, in the last fifty years there has been an actual war practically every three years; but it evidently did not occur to the ed itor to conclude and if it occurred to him, ho had his reasons for not concluding that, since the old remedy of preserving peace had utterly failed,"it was now high time for a new one to be tried. And do you know that wholly aside from the- fact that great naval armaments are in themselves a temptation to put them to use, mero unforeseen accidents can play an important part in bringing on war accidents which are solely due to the presence of battleships in for eign waters? If the "Maine,," for instance, had not been in the harbor of Havana, we know there would have been no Spanish war a war' which, not counting pensions and its direct cost, has in creased our- naval and military expenditures by about $175,000,000 a year. And with almost the same justification we might say that if Ad miral Mayo had not been at Tampico there would have been no occasion for the president to com mence hostilities againgt Mexico. I mention these facts not in a spirit of criticism, but only to show how utterly absurd, if not ridiculous, .is the claim of our jingo friends that armaments and battleships are a guarantee of peace. Thus, in the lijght of the most recent events in our own history, the defenders of .militarism stand con victed of preaching fallacy. Like the man who was killed by an explosion in trying to make gold, they have been smashed by their own false theory. Iiow,YI?y,.friends' tne Preservation of the PeaCe, I beliGVfi. hna llaon olw-i4 t,,1 K iha highest aim of statesmanship. So well is this recognized that, as I have shown, the military