It is sometimes slow, but it has its effect on men
in the end And whenever a nation has most
completely secured for its citizens this essential
requisite of industrial growth, that nation has de
veloped most rapidly. With us it has done more
to produce our phenomenal growth than anything
else. We have prospered in our industries so
marvelously as a natjon, not because of our tariff
system—it has been in spite of that —but because
(i) of our own peace policy—the safety and se
curity given our citizens, (2) our great national
resources, and (3) the natural adaptability of our
race for working together on a great scale in per
manent harmony.
Nothing is more clearly illustrated in the
history of civilization than this all-important first
cause of national development— peace. The Ro
mans, as early as the time of Caesar, appreciated
its importance and waged almost incessant wars
on their frontiers that the barbarism of the sur
rounding people might not destrqy the fruits of
their more advanced mode of life, and that their
institutions of civilized life might expand and
multiply in peace and safety. At that time the
internal development of the people was extremely
slow—they had at the same time to defend them
selves vigorously and constantly from outside ene
mies. Indeed the greatest work they did, it is
said, was to defend themselves and their civiliza
tion so long from the brute force of surrounding
barbarism, but the undertaking was in the line
already indicated. First, secure peace, and then,
after that is obtained, men will turn their atten
tion to the peaceful arts and industries of life.
War has been a necessary resort of nations
even siiice the fall of the Roman Empire. And
if ever justifiable it is for this purpose of securing
peace and safety to a people engaged in industrial
pursuits. In this spirit England prevented the
raids of the Scotch Highlanders, and Russia sub
dued the Caucasus by war; and more recent still,
the North conquered the South in our late civil
war, compelling it to remain a part of the great
American Union, in order that the advantages
THE FREE LANCE.
which result from a strong and powerful govern
ment might be secured rather than the strife and
uncertainty of numerous small and separately
governed communities. But with us and with
England, so far at least as our mutual relations
are concerned, there can be no reason for war. It
is, therefore, a most significant indication when
these two great Teutonic nations clasp hands in
bonds of perpetual peace, and cement this union
with a permanent tribunal of arbitration for all
time to come. It marks the highest stage of civ
ilization attained by any nation, and is more than
likely to usher in a new era in international rela
tions, for “in this age there can be no peace that
is not honorable; there can be no war that is not
dishonorable. The true honor of a nation is to
be found only in deeds of justice and in the hap
piness of its people.”
Editor of The Free Lance : Permit me to
congratulate you upon the success of your news
paper enterprise thus far, in both its editorial and
publishing departments. Your editorial work is
well done, and the typography and make up of
the pages are very attractive.
And now since you have become one of the
editorial fraternity, I beg to- offer a thought or
two touching some of the practices of your
brethren of the craft , Editors claim to have
a wider influence than any other class of
men. They claim to mould public thought and
action more powerfully than preacher, orator or
teacher. The claim is perhaps just. The news
paper is undoubtedly the exponent and measure
of the culture and civilization of a people.
“Over-running,” says Emerson, “the old barriers
of caste, and by its cheapness bringing the Uni
versity to every poor man’s door in the newsboy’s
basket. Scraps of science, of thought, of poetry
are in the coarsest sheet, so that we hesitate to
burn a newspaper till we have looked through it.”
But nevertheless there is one type of newspaper
PAR TISAN NE WSPAPERS. *