&7Z JhMt, to*. . yu fff %&M * a * titer -- jzAOSCZZ/, (Mm* . /A*. %&M aicr E 713 == .S172 ETHICAL May, 1809 ADDRESSES The New Militarism by IV m. M. Salter PHILADELPHIA: S. BURNS WESTON PUBLISHER, No. 1305 ARCH STREET ETHICAL ADDRESSES SERIES VI. No. 5 MAY, 1899 Published Monthly (except July, and August) By S. BURNS WESTON, 1305 Arch Street, Philadelphia (Entered at Philadelphia as second-class matter) Yearly, 50 cts. Single Numbers, 5 cts. SIXTH SERIES— 1899 JANUARY.— The First Thing in Life, Wm. M. Salter FEBRUARY.— The Spiritual Meaning of Marriage, Felix Adler MARCH. — I. A Summary of the More Recent Views Concerning the Bible, W. L.Sheldon APRIL. — II .A Summary of the More Recent Views Concerning the Bible, W. L. Sheldon FIFTH SERIES— 1898. JANUARY.— The Ethical Culture Society as the Meeting Ground of Gentiles and Jews, Felix Adler FEBRUARY.— What is of Permanent Value in the Bible (The Old Testament) ? Wm. M. Salter MARCH.— What is of Permanent Value in the Bible (The New Testament)] Wm. M. Salter APRIL.— The Punishment of Children, Felix Adler. [Appen- dix, The German Ethical Societies, by F. IV. Foerster] MAY.— The Punishment of Children (Concluded), Felix Adler JUNE.— The Ethics of the War with Spain, S. Burns Weston SEPTEMBER.— I. The Plan of an Ethical Sunday School, W. L. Sheldon OCTOBER.— II. The Plan of an Ethical Sunday School, W. L,. Sheldon NOVEMBER— A New Nation and a New Duty, Wm. M. Salter DECEMBER— The Conservative and Liberal Aspects of Ethical Religion, Percival Chubb Bound in line cloth, 75 cents. Single numbers, 5 cents. EL jH 3 S. BURNS WESTON, 1305 Arch St., Philadelphia. raft. . r 12 1908 THE NEW MILITARISM * BY WM. M. SALTER. It would have been a pleasing task, under ordinary circumstances, to pay a tribute to the humanity and good sense of the Czar's recent proposals for an international conference in the interests of peace and to express satis- faction that our country, too, was to take part in the deliberations f As things have been till recently, no nation might with more appropriateness wish well to such an enterprise than we. ' Our deals were not mili- tary, and our outlay for warlike purposes was insignifi- cant compared with the gigantic sums under which the European nations stagger — and yet our people were not unpatriotic, and had it been necessary at any time for self-defence, millions would have risen to arms. But, unfortunately, America is now doing the very thing against which the czar made a pathetic protest — increasing its armament. True, our utmost limit is far short of the dimensions which the armaments of states like Russia and Germany already have, but the signifi- * Given before the Society for Ethical Culture, of Chicago, Steinway Hall, Sunday morning, April 16, 1899. f I had announced a lecture on this subject for the Sunday on which this address was given. I may add that since my lecture of last autumn, "A New Nation and a New Duty," printed in Ethical Addresses, two other lectures, "Imperialism" and "England in 1776: America in 1899, " have been printed in Unity (Chicago). What in the autumn I scarcely believed could happen has happened. Instead of liberating, or promising to liberate, the Philippine people, America is now endeavoring to enforce its sovereignty over them. : . (85) 86 THE NEW MILITARISM. cant thing is the direction in which we are moving, and the ideals that are forming themselves in our minds. Nor can we say that the increased expense we are contem- plating is necessary for self-protection — an excuse which would be commonly granted to be good ; the motives are of a totally different character. They are of a kind to which till recently we have been comparative stran- gers ; of a kind that would make us akin to the Euro- pean States themselves ; they are motives that look to something very like an aggressive career. Old, sick nations, with hands drenched in blood, might honestly come together and ask if fighting and preparations for fighting were worth while ; but for us young, unspoiled, just preparing to enter the lists and deliberately setting to work to persuade ourselves that it is right and even glorious to do so, to go to a conference in the interests of a reduction of armaments, seems almost a kind of farce. Since becoming painfully aware of the forces that are forming themselves in our midst, and particularly since reading a notable utterance made only this past week in our city, that invested with a sort of halo the new ideal,* I have felt that to discuss international peace now would be talking in the air. Peace is a great, a beauti- ful ideal ; but if there is to be any likelihood of Ameri- ca's contributing to its attainment, it can only be as in- fluences now arising in our midst are counteracted. We are now, under the influence of men of mark, forming ideals that will take us right into the circle of the great warlike powers of the world. We shall be increasing the chances of war rather than diminishing them. I * An address by Governor Roosevelt before the Hamilton Club, April loth. THE NEW MILITARISM. 87 may do little enough to stem the tide, but I may at least help make you conscious of it, I may fortify conscience about it — and on the other hand it is possible that this old-time, peace-loving democracy will right itself, and you or I, friends, by the thoughts and ideals we form in our minds, or by the thoughts and ideals we allow to vanish from our minds, may help determine the result. Thoughts rule the world ; the thoughts of Americans will rule America. What does America wish most of all and what is she willing to do to get what she wishes ? He who knows or can find out that, or can help deter- mine it, has the key to American destiny. The truth will be now, as always, that 'tis ' ' Not in our stars, But in ourselves that we are underlings." So far as I can make out, two sets of forces are urg- ing us in the new direction — forces of so-called religion and the forces of trade. I have reverence for real reli- gion, and so I say " so-called religion"; I really mean religious people rather than religion — and, to be exact, I should say certain religious people, though, since the other religious people so largely keep silent,* the fail- ure to qualify may be pardoned. The " religious " aim is to do good, to Christianize, to spread civilization. The thing forgotten is that we have to do right before we can do good. The early Christian church remembered this ; the church to-day is in danger of forgetting it. The first Christians following close after their master * There are notable exceptions, like Bishop Potter of New York, Bishop Coleman of Delaware, and Bishop Spalding of Peoria — not to mention a number of the Massachusetts clergy, and a few elsewhere, like the Rev. Dr. H. W. Thomas and the Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones of Chicago. 88 THE NEW MILITARISM. ever refused to bear the sword; "I am a Christian and cannot fight," they said. Now the church sometimes eggs on those who bear the sword, and one would not be surprised, to judge from the tone of the language we hear, to see missionaries and religious editors emulating the example of those bishops and abbots of a later de- generate Christianity, who led armies and fought in bat- tle. One of the most prominent clergymen in Philadel- phia* says in reference to the Philippines " The only thing we can do is to thrash the natives until they understand who we are. I believe every bullet sent, every cannon shot, every flag waved, means righteous- ness." An editor of a religious weekly,f meeting the ob- jection that getting control of the islands is too expens- ive since it will cost too much blood and treasure, says, "yes, if it is territory, empire, or earthly glory we are after. But, if we are seeking the salvation of the souls of the Filipinos, the prospective gain justifies the cost. ' What shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?' " (Of course, I may add, this leaves out of account the poor islanders who bite the dust before we have a chance at their souls — but no matter.) It will be said, these are extreme statements. No doubt they are ; and yet their signi- ficance is in boldly saying what is running in many minds in a more or less confused and inarticulate way. They do not love war and yet they think it has its uses when it opens up a new field in which to make conver- sions and they try not to be squeamish. Differing from the pious Fenelon who refused a military escort when starting off on a missionary expedition, saying that he * Rev. Dr. Wayland Hoyt. f The United Presbyterian. THE NEW MILITARISM. 89 would rather perish by the hands of those whom he wished to convert than expose them to the violence of the military, they think the military must preceede the the gospel. First force, first let the poor heathen know " who's who," then reason and love and the beauties of the gospel of peace. The ebullition of war sentiment, in contrast with the old-time faith in other methods re- minds one of Hosea Biglow in Lowell's lines: " We were gittin' on nicely up here to our village, With good old idees o' vvot's right an' wot aint ; We kind 0' thought Christ went agin war an pillage, An' that eppyletts warn't the best mark of a saint ; But John P. Robinson he Sez this kind o' thing's an exploded idee." And yet the standpoint is not quite new, for it takes us back to something as old as the Inquisition, as old as the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, and all the other massacres, too numerous to mention, in which men were killed or tortured that other men's souls might be saved. There was probably never love of killing ; only men made up their minds not to be squeamish over a little killing when souls were at stake. And yet these forces of so-called religion are prob- ably slight in influence, compared with the forces of trade, in determining the rising militarism. It is not love of souls but love of dollars that is the chief cause, though sometimes the love of souls plays into the hands of the love of dollars in an astonishing way. For example, a missionary in China, in the current number of one of our leading magazines, calls attention to the opportunities that China is now offering for vast speculations and strong 90 THE NEW MILITARISM. syndicates. " This is the period of concessions," he says, " of organizing for opening up the resources " of that great empire.* Trade, however, and those who take its standpoint, had scented the new opportunities independ- ently of the clerical suggestion. A judge on the United States bench who resides in our city pointed out last sum- mer the chances for America in the far East.f " It is a land," he said, " without railroads, without manufactories, without cities built on modern lines, without fields culti- vated by modern implements." More than this, he urged, we have come to a point where we need takers of our manufactures — we must have new markets, and neither South America nor Europe will compare with China. Hence he had favored acquiring Hawaii, hence he ad- vocated retaining the Philippines, not that he cared for those links individually, but that he cared everything for the chain that would thereby be made, holding us to the opportunities in China. And government, in his opin- ion, should foster the new commercial ventures, and the flag of the United States and its warships should be seen and respected in Asiatic waters. " I am not unaware," said the eminent judge, "that what I have said has the ring chiefly of commercial conquest " — but he urged that other and higher forms of civilization would natur- ally follow on after, when once the foundations of com- merce had been laid. What the judge thus urged in a temperate and dignified manner others put more simply. " The European market is becoming played out," says a representative American journalist,! " and it is to Asia * Forum, March, '99, p. 236. | Judge Grosscup, in an address at Saratoga, given in full in the Chicago Tribune, 23 August, '99. % Mural Halstead, quoted in Chicago Record. THE NEW MILITARISM. 9 1 we will have to look." "A magnificent foothold for the trade of the far East," says another journalist (referring to the Philippines) who was also a Peace Commissioner.* "America must have that market," declares America's leading railway man,f " in order to avoid the danger arising from an internal congestion caused by over- production due to the fever-heat construction of rail- roads." "We are after markets, the greatest markets now existing in the world," says an ex-Minister to China,| who is one of the President's Commission in the Philippines, who are to make recommendations as to what we shall do with those islands. Indeed this gentle- man had generously given his opinion on this question in advance — for in the February number of one of our reviews § he said, " By holding them we gain eight mil- lions of people who are ripe for the opening and exten- sion of a magnificent commerce" (so that the "link" itself would appear to have some richness about it); and he contemplates the question of our holding the islands entirely from this commercial point of view — if they will not benefit us, he says, " set them free to-morrow, and let their people, if they please, cut each other's throats or play what pranks they please." But by holding them, he urges, we not only gain eight million possible customers there, but "we become an Asiatic power, and we shall have something to say about the dismemberment of China." Another man prominent in American public life takes a similarly unsentimental * Whitelaw Reid, at Marquette Club, Chicago, Feb. 13, 1899. f Chauncey M. Depew, in interview reported in Chicago Record, Feb. 25, 1899. J Mr. Denby, in the Forum, November, '98, p. 281. \ The Forum, p. 648. 92 THE NEW MILITARISM. view.* The far-reaching question, he says, "is not sen- timental, but commercial. . . . The world's fight in the nineteenth century was liberty. The coming century it will be markets." And one of the leading newspapers in the country f says : " The Philippine Islands is our stepping-stone to China. . . . We must demand our share, if any further division is made of the Chinese Empire." Indeed it was announced a month ago from Pekin that there were indications that America was likely to prefer the province of Chi-Li.| Such seem to be the main forces back of the new military spirit. It used to be said that industry and commerce were peaceful agencies. And in settled con- ditions they are. One of the leaders in the peace move- ment in this country says that the war between the United States and Great Britain over the Venezuela boundary question was prevented by the commercial men of New York and the commercial men of London. Yet circumstances alter cases, and that there were those who took a different point of view at that very time is indicated in a remark made by a Southern gentleman interested in the growth of manufactures there, who said, " We need a war to open to the world our com- merce. We must find ways out."§ When conditions are unsettled, when for instance here in America we are pro- ducing, I will not say more than is needed at home, but more than can be sold ; when even such foreign markets as we have are not sufficient to take our products, then * Henry Watterson, in letter to Louisville Courier-Journal, quoted in Chicago Record, Feb. I, 1899. t Boston Herald, 15 December, '98. I Chicago Chronicle, 6 March, '98. I Quoted in Christian Register, Oct. 6, 1898. THE NEW MILITARISM. 93 new markets can not only be sought, they can be fought for as truly as anything else was ever fought for in the past, and the very commercial spirit may goad us on to war. From what I am able to observe, I should say that this was the main influence now urging us on and keeping us at our otherwise distasteful task of subju- gating the Philippines ; though those who want to con- vert the islanders and those who want in general to spread civilization there are also playing their part. We are but simply falling into line so far with Great Britain and Germany and France, all of whom produce more than they can sell at home, and all of whom think, whether mistakenly or not, that they can best get rid of their surplus products by owning colonies. One for whom all of us who love tales of adventure and songs of manly bravery have a tender feeling, has ventured to idealize all this by calling it taking up the white man's burden. But the men who are actually doing the busi- ness in South Africa or in Egypt or in India don't care to be covered with soft-sawder. They know what they are there for. As Mr. Edward Dicey says, " We don't go to Egypt to civilize it ; we go to get new markets." Another Englishman, while praising the Indian civil ser- vants and owning that they are probably higher than the average in conscientiousness, says,* however, that " to affirm that they are impelled to spend twenty years in governing India, from the philanthropic desire to " take up the white man's burden," or that such desire is any considerable part of the inducement to service, would be too grotesque a piece of bunkum even for the plat- form of a Primrose League meeting. The Saturday * J. A. Ilobson, in Ethical World, Feb. 18, 1899, p. 194. 94 THE NEW MILITARISM. Rcvieiv remarks, " The plain unvarnished truth is that the Empire was built up as the result of the pursuit of gain."* Indeed, in some instances England has pur- sued methods (or allowed methods to be pursued) that Mr. John Morley describes in this fashion (he is speak- ing of Chitral : ' ' First, you push on into territories where you have no busi- ness to be, and where you had promised not to go ; secondly, your intrusion provokes resentment, and, in these wild countries, resentment means resistance ; thirdly, you instantly cry out that the people are rebellious and that their act is rebellion (this in spite of your own assurance that you have no intention of setting up a permanent sovereignty over them) ; fourthly, you send a force to stamp out the rebellion ; and, fifthly, having spread bloodshed, confusion and anarchy, you declare, with hands up- lifted to the heavens, that moral reasons force you to stay, for if you were to leave, this territory would be left in a condition which no civilized Power could contemplate with equanimity or composure. These are the five stages in the Forward Rake's progress." It is well not to deceive ourselves. In joining the list of the great colonial powers there is no need to set up a claim of peculiar magnanimity and disinterested- ness. No doubt, after we have got possession of our new territories (if they are really to be such), there will be gentle men and gentle women who will spread many good influences among them, just as white-winged " em- issaries of civilization" have in time followed the trader and the chartered company wherever the English occu- pation has gone. But the dominant motive that is de- termining the country at the present time is the com- mercial one — it is the new markets, the chances for investment, the possible concessions and franchises that * 17th September, 1S9S. THE NEW MILITARISM. 95 are luring us on ; it is the Eldorado that we think we descry across the seas that makes us so resolutely clutch and seek to hold the bit of standing ground that the fortunes of war have thrown into our hands. This commercial spirit is but thinly veiled in the stir- ring address given in Chicago this past week, to which I have already alluded. It was a brave man who gave it — brave on the field and brave at home ; an honest man too, a man who speaks as he thinks. But the ideals he held up scarcely go beyond holding our own in the great struggle now going on for naval and com- mercial supremacy in the world ; and what does go beyond this is simply honor in accepting what seems to him our duty of enforcing on "new-got peoples" this same military and commercial rule. There was much about " the strenuous life," about not shrinking from danger, from hardships or from bitter toil — but it was all to these ends. The army and the navy were to him " the sword and shield which the nation must carry if she is to do her duty among the nations of the earth " — an army and navy, then, not for defense merely, but as a means of grasping those " points of vantage which will enable us to have our say in deciding the destiny of the oceans of the east and the west," i.e., of doing just what we are now doing in the Philippines. If we follow the appeal contained in this address, there is no telling where the nation will bring up. Revolutionary France first sent out her armies in self-defense and in the inter- ests of liberty. But we are to start out on our new career disdaining liberty. Our youthful leader professes scant patience with those who cant about " liberty " and the "consent of the governed" in order to "excuse them- 96 THE NEW MILITARISM. selves for their unwillingness to play the part of men." I repeat, I know not where under such leadership we shall go. We may do all that England has ever done. We may even repeat Chitral, which John Morley has characterized. There are absolutely no warnings given us by the colonel of the Rough Riders — our new " gen- tleman on horseback." Warnings against bad govern- ment, yes — but no warnings against governing where we have no business to govern. In the Philippines we have a show of right ; but since it is not right accord- ing to ancient American principles, why may we not go sometime where we have no right at all ? The down- ward grade once started on it is easy to take. Would it not be well to hesitate and consider before embarking on this new career ? " Old things need not be therefore true, O brother man, nor yet the new ; Ah ! still a while the old thought retain And yet consider it again." Do we realize what militarism means ? First, let me sav this new militarism is for the benefit of a class, not for all. An army of defense is for the whole country ; an army or a navy to be used across the seas is for those who venture across the seas — and particularly for speculators and franchise-takers and plunderers of all sorts. I have been struck with the fact that in many cases the European states are no stronger for their colonial pos- sessions. Mr. Bryce says : " Madagascar and her Afri- can colonies cost France far more than their trade is worth. The same is true of the African colonies of Ger- many."* Why do these countries keep such colonies? * Chicago Record, 15 April, 1S99. THE NEW MILITARISM. 97 The answer is, I suppose, that Frenchmen and Germans make money out of them even if France and Germany do not, and that these countries submit to be taxed for the benefit of the favored individuals. The second point, accordingly, is that though latter-day militarism is for the benefit of a class, the whole country has to pay the bills. If we decide to keep the Philippines, they will not be likely to be worth anything to the nation for a long while to come, according to good authorities ; but they will be worth something to those who get rail- road and other franchises or who build factories and hire cheap Filipino labor, and we shall all, including every workman who has a cent he can spare, be taxed to keep up the government under which the favored few make their money. What taxes may be resorted to we do not know. An army of 100,000 men (which, as things are going, seems a modest requirement) will cost, it is estimated,* something like $100,000,000 a year, or about $76,000,000 more than our army cost before the Spanish war. Pensions, too, will come in. Already some $20,000,000, it is said, have been added by the Spanish war to the pension account. The English gov- ernment is almost at its wit's ends to devise ways and means for its army and navy budget ; for " you can't keep up a splendid empire for nothing," says Mr. Bal- four. The London Times even suggests the corn duties again. The Spectator suggests economizing on schools. And Great Britain has an income tax ! What may we be obliged to do for whom an income tax is set down as iniquitous and unconstitutional ? But all this is a small part of the meaning of militar- *So Carl Schurz, in Boston Transcript, 8 April, 1899. 9^ THE NEW MILITARISM. ism. The shocking thing is that large standing armies are apt to grow restless and to want to fight. In 1875 Alexander II wrote an autograph letter to Bismarck, saying that the Russian army was restless after twenty years of peace, and asking if Germany would stand aloof if Russia attacked Austria.* But last spring our soldiers out at Fort Sheridan were reported eager for a fight, and one said if he could put a bullet through a couple of Spaniards he should be ready to die. If kill- ing is the business of certain men, how can killing any longer be a horrible thing in their eyes ? Then what passions war is apt to unloose ! Men be- come beside themselves — our own men, Americans, as truly as any other. An officer of Admiral Dewey's fleet says in a letter printed in the New York Tribune, " Every day I hear opinions to the effect that these peo- ple ought to be wiped off the face of the earth, and have no right to live." A dispatch stated that when the first load of wounded soldiers at the battle on March 25th started for Manila they shouted back to their com- rades going to the front, " Give 'em hell, boys ! " A Chicago boy writes to his father from Manila, " I am still above the old sod and trying to make the Filipinos good men. The only way to do this is to bury them."f A member of the Third Artillery writes, " We bombarded a place called Malabon and then we went and killed every native we met, men, women and children. It was a dreadful sight, the killing of the poor creatures. The natives captured some of the Americans, and literally *So Die Neue Frei Presse, Vienna, in an article recognized as inspired by Bismarck, and referred to in the New York Times, 8 November, '96. f Chicago Record, April 14, 1895. THE NEW MILITARISM. 99 hacked them to pieces, so we got orders to spare no one."* Another says, " To shoot a man at six feet range with a Springfield rifle is a hard thing to do, but the orders were to let no insurgent live, and off would go the whole side of his head, or he would fall with a wound through the abdomen large enough to drop a potato through, "f An officer of the Red Cross testifies to passing among the heaps of native dead where were to be seen " total decapitations," " horrible wounds in chest and abdomen," showing the determination of our soldiers to kill everything in sight. "J Such is war, not as we read about it in the story books or in poetry, but as it is in ghastly fact ; such is what human beings will do, even our own kith and kin, when exasperation goads them on. Do * Anthony Michea to his father, Captain George Michea of St. Cathar- ines, Ont., printed in Springfield (weekly) Republican, April 14, 1899. f The authority for this is a Manila correspondent of the New York Sun ; I found the passage in the Springfield Republican just quoted. % Mr. Blake of California, quoted in Springfield Republican of same date, " The Rev. Chas. F. Dole of Jamaica Plain, Mass, writes to the Boston Transcript (of April 15) of a letter he has had from the father of one of our soldiers at Manila, who wrote to his father as follows : 'The longer I stay here and the more I see and think of the matter, the more fully convinced I am that the American nation was and is making a blun- der. I do not believe the United States is equal to the task of conquering this people, or even governing them afterwards I don' t think I would miss the truth much if I said more non-combatants have been killed than actual native soldiers. I don't believe the people in the United States understand the question or the condition of things here or the in- human warfare now being carried on. Talk about Spanish cruelty ! They are not in it with the Yank. Even the Spanish are shocked. Of course, I don't expect to have war without death and destruction, but I do expect that when an enemy gets down on his knees and begs for his life that he won't be shot in cold blood. But it is a fact that the order was not to take any prisoner, and I have seen enough to almost make me ashamed to call myself an American.' " 100 THE NEW MILITARISM. we want more of it or do we want less ? Well, I can assure you that if we fall in with the new militarism we shall have more of it, whether we want it or not. We shall go on having more of it from year to year, or at least from decade to decade ; we shall be doing our part, along with Englishmen and Germans and Frenchmen, to rid the earth of its brown men and black men — and then we shall not have gained much, for where they live the white man can only live with difficulty. And as for the respect for property which war cultivates, the fol- lowing from a letter by a soldier of the Washington Volunteers will suffice — it may seem very tame after the things just recited, but it will let us down gently : " We burned hundreds of houses and looted hundreds more. Some of the boys made good hauls of jewelry and clothing. Nearly every man has at least two suits of clothing and our quarters are furnished in style ; fine beds, with silken drapery, mirrors, chairs, rockers, cush- ions, pianos, hanging-lamps, rugs, pictures, etc. We have horses and carriages and bull carts galore, and enough furniture and other plunder to load a steamer." This, by the way, throws an interesting light on the common idea that they are mere savages we are sub- jugating in the Philippines.* * The writer is E. D. Furman, in a letter to the Spokane Spokesman- Review, and the passage is quoted in the Springfield (weekly) Republi- can of 14 April, 1899. In this paper (of the same date), is also found a quotation from a letter of Captain Albert Otis, written from Manila to a Brunswick, Me., local paper; "I have six horses and three carriages in my yard and enough small plunder for a family of six. The house I had at Santa Ana had five pianos. I couldn't take them, so I put a big grand piano out of a second-story window. You can guess its finish. Every- thing is pretty quiet about here now. I expect we will not be kept here very long. Give my love to all." THE NEW MILITARISM. IOI But after all the pitifullest thing about the ascendancy of the new militarism will be the spiritual decay of the American people. There may be no decay for any of the European States in doing what they are doing, for they have nothing to fall from. Fortunately or unfor- tunately, America has had an ideal. You may say it is not in the "Constitution." I grant it. It belongs to the American spirit all the same. You may say we have sinned against it, and this too is true ; but we have generally owned that we sinned against it, and we have been more or less clearly conscious of the shame. We have had a palliation, too, if not an excuse; for negro and Indian have been on our own soil, and with the Indian at least we have been in competition. None the less we have kept the ideal ; it was to live and to let live ; to be free and let other peoples be free ; to abhor conquest and force save against those who in some sense belonged to us, or whom we expected to make a part of us. But now we are not willing even to let a far-distant people be free ; we never should dream of incorporating them in our body politic, yet we want to rule them — rule them with an eye to the China trade and with a view to whatever possibilities of richness there may be in their own domain. Whatever idealism there was in going into the Spanish war is already spoiled — forever spoiled. Then our voice was all for liberty. Where is the inno- cent who calls on liberty now ? Some of us are begin- ning to feel almost as if we had been tricked in the first place, though I cannot yet believe it. One of the most lamentable falls has been that of one of our great religious weeklies. From declaring, in December last, that Spain had no real title to the Philip- 102 THE NEW MILITARISM. pines and hence could not transfer one to the United States, the paper has now come to maintain that sov- ereignty there is ours to have and to keep — all in four short months !* The blurring of the percep- tions of the mind, the sophistication of the soul, is the tragedy of tragedies. If the light that is within a man becomes darkness, how great is that darkness ! Such is something of the meaning and consequences of the new militarism. Can any one who realizes this give it any welcome ? Looking at it even from a mate- rial point of view, what are we likely to permanently gain ? The problem is to get rid of our surplus pro- ducts which, though our home people may need, they are in no condition to buy. But according to New York merchants doing an export business, the Cuban markets are already glutted with American commodities, for which no demand can be found, this being particularly true of breadstuffs and provisions.! There appear to be plenty of hungry mouths there, but they cannot buy. Why may not the Philippines and China herself be in this condition sometime ? And when China herself begins to work with labor-saving machines, what then ? With her cheap labor, why may she not undersell us in our own markets here at home as well as abroad ? Yet when there are no new markets for either her or us, what shall she or we do when there comes to be a glut ? • But that day will surely come, as sure as the world is one. Who does not see that the problem is to so order production that people shall have something to buy with ? Yes, who does not see that that is really the *The Outlook, editorials of December 17, 1898, and April 15, 1899. f See Springfield (weekly) Republican, of April 7. THE NEW MILITARISM. 103 problem now ? Our home markets might be multiplied ten, twenty and perhaps a hundred fold, if someone only knew how to give the people, all the people, some- thing to do. This is the riddle the Sphinx proposes to society, and if society does not solve it, it is only hur- rying on to a catastrophe, the like of which has never been dreamed. What shall we do with the rising military spirit ? Nip it in the bud, and go and study the social problem. Say now and let the people say, " We have pursued a mistaken course, O brothers across the sea, and we own it. We cease hostilities, and we ask you to cease. We will withdraw our soldiers, save a police force to pro- tect life and property and to guard you against other aggression. Come, let us confer together, let us rea- son together. We declare that we claim not a thing that is yours. And yet, barring this late madness into which we were betrayed by either thoughtless or wicked men, we believe that we are a little further along the pathway of progress than you, and if you would like, we will still stretch out the friendly hand. We will act toward you, and we promise that we will act toward you, as we have promised to act toward Cuba." This may sound cowardly, but it is the bravest thing this people can do. It sounds very well to talk of "the strenuous life," but to strenuously put down a people that is struggling to be free is not noble, nor, consider- ing who they are, and who we are, is it even brave. If we want to be really brave, let us take a foeman who is a match for us ! There was little enough glory in whip- ping poor, decrepit Spain — but there is almost as much 104 THE NEW MILITARISM. glory in chasing poor Lo across the plains as in routing the Filipinos. There are those in these days who think to serve the state by riding rough-shod over the rights of man. There are others who think the only function of the state is in securing the rights of man. For the latter class, too, is a strenuous life ; for them is vigilance ; for them is a heart of steel to fight down the proud ; for them is battle and conflict, and an end of slothful ease and of ignoble peace ; but it is right and not might for for which they strive, it is love between men and not armed egoism that is the bright vision luring them on, and when they know what right is and what love de- mands, they will stand for it against the world. xCAL, Addresses FIRST SERIES— 1394 /hat Do We Stand For ? by Felix Adler ; An Eth- / of Life, by W. M. Salter ; What Does It Mean to .gious, and What is Religion ? by \V. L. Sheldon ; The religion of Ethical Culture, by M. M. Mangasarian; The Modern Saint, by Felix Adler ; Morality — What Does It Mean ? by \V. M. Salter ; True Liberalism, by W. L. Sheldon ; Teaching and Teachers, by M. M. Mangasarian ; Prayer and Worship, by Felix Adler ; The Highest Rule of Life, by W. M. Salter. SECOND SERIES— 1895 What We Mean by Duty, W. L. Sheldon ; Our Besetting Sins, M. M. Mangasarian ; " Ethical Agnosticism," Wm. M. Salter ; Consolations, Felix Adler ; Worship in the Spirit, W. L. Sheldon ; The Freedom of Ethical Fellowship, Felix Adler ; The Next Step in Christianity, Wm. M. Salter; " Ethics or Religion?" Wm. M. Salter; The Four Types of Suffering, Felix Adler ; Octavius B. Frothingham Memorial Exercises, Edmund C. Stedman, George Haven Putnam, Justice George C. Barrett and Prof. Felix Adler. THIRD SERIES— 1896 The Monroe Doctrine and the War Spirit in the United States, by Felix Adler ; The Venezuelan Question, by Wm. M. Salter ; The New Woman, by W. L. Sheldon ; Bad Wealth and How It Is Sometimes Got, by Wm. M. Salter ; Address of May 15th, 1876, by FELIX ADLER ; Twentieth Anniversary of the Society for Ethical Culture of New York, addresses by Alfred R. Wolff, Wm. M. Salter, M. M. Mangasarian and FELIX ADLER ; Armenia's Impending Doom, by M. M. Mangasarian ; The International Ethical Congress, by Felix Adler ; Woman's Influence in Public Affairs, by Mrs. Lydia Avery Coonley and Mrs. Mary J. Wilmarth ; Good and Bad Side of Novel Reading, by W. L,. Sheldon. FOURTH SERIES-1897 The Cause of Ethics, by W. M. Salter; Our Faith and Our Duty, by S. Burns Weston; How Far Does The Ethical Society Take the Place of a Church? by Felix Adler ; What to Believe: An Ethical Creed; by W. L. Sheldon; Moral and Spiritual Educa- tion of Children, W. Sanford Evans ; The Progress of the Eth- ical Movement, by F. W. Foerster ; The Justice of the Single Tax, by W. M. Salter ; The Modern Attitude Toward Religion, by Prof. Morris Jastrow ; Why Progress Is so Slow: Edward Bellamy Again, by W. I.. Sheldon ; Does Juetice Triumph in the End? A Study of Shakespeare's " Lear," by W. L. Sheldon. Each Series, bound in fine cloth, 75 cents postpaid ; single numbers, 5 cents. S. BURNS WESTON, 1305 Arch St., Philadelphia. V lNTEf?!NlflTIOrl> JOURNAli OF E \ \ OCTOBER NUMBER-Vol. IX, No. i. THE PARTING OF THE WAYS IN THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THt. UNI IED STATES. Felix Adler, New York A MORAL FROM ATHENIAN HISTORY. Bernard Bosanquet, London BELLIGERENT DISCUSSION AND TRUTH-SEEKING. Richard C. Cabot, Boston. LUXURY AND EXTRAVAGANCE. John Davidson. University of New Bru wick, Canada SEX IN CRIME. Frances Alice Kellor, University of Chicago. JANUARY NUMBER— Vol. IX, No. 2 THE TSAR'S RESCRIPT. T. J. Lawrence, Downing College, Cambridge, Eng. COSMOPOLITAN DUTIES. John McCunn, University College, Liverpool. "THE WILL TO BELIEVE" AND THE DUTY TO DOUBT. Dickinson S. Miller, Philadelphia. THE IDEA OF PROGRESS. J. S. Mackenzie, University College, Cardiff, Wales. SOME AIMS OF MORAL EDUCATION. Frank Chapman Sharp, University of Wisconsin. DISLU>S10N. Can there be a Moral Realization 0/ an Individual Self? APRIL NUMBER— Vol. IX, No. 3 THE RELATIONS OF THE SEXES. James Oliphant, Edinburgh, Scotland. THE ETHICS OF INTELLECTUAL LIFE AND WORK. Thomas Fowler, President Corpus Christi College, Oxford. THE TEACHINGS OF FR1EDR1CH NIETZSCHE. Charles M. Bakewell, Bryn Mawr College. "THE MERCHANT OF VENICE" AS AN EXPONENT OF INDUSTRIAL ETHICS. J. Clark Murray, McGill University, Montreal. THE ETHICS OF PROHIBITION. Rev. D. J. Fraser, St. John, New Bruns- wick. DISCUSSIONS. Belief and Will, by Henry Rutgers Marshall ; " The Will to Believe and the Duty to Doubt," by William Caldwell ; The Oxford Chairs of Philosophy, by J. S. Mackenzie. BOOK REVIEWS an important feature of each number YEARLY, $2.50. SINGLE NUMBERS, 65 CTS. The above publications may be ordered through S. BURNS WESTON, 1305 Arch St., Philadelphia PRESS OF INNES & SONS 200 SOUTH TENTH ST. 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