ven a slight infraction on any imaginary,
mathematical line.
We cherish the thought that the youth of our land are being taught
self-restraint. It is ever impressed upon them that there are courts
of justice for the settlement of controversies. Law and order have
become stock phrases, dinned into their ears at every turn. The man
who would settle his difficulty by trying the physical metal of his
adversary is of the past. By the new order he is taboo as a savage.
Individual self-restraint rings out in our vocabulary as nationally
descriptive. The babe at the mother's knee learns first the virtue of
it; the child at school is tutored to it soundly; the man in life is
lectured with it regularly. Brotherhood! Love! Self-restraint!
But what of the self-restraint of the nation? In the teaching of the
individual, is it not odd and inconsistent that we forget the
teaching of the unit? We paint the inner rooms of our national
character with colors bright and pleasing, but the exterior, though
weathering the heavier storms, is forgotten. If the child be taught
that individuals should arbitrate their differences, can he not learn
that the individual nations are subject to the same rule? If
arbitration is best for each man, surely it must be best for all. If
the child be taught that self-restraint is the boasted characteristic
of the model American, should he not learn that the model American
nation should be self-restraining? Let us learn this lesson, and
surely we will never war. Herein shall we find the solution of this
great problem. We can preach about peace and write pretty orations,
but if we are to impress it upon the hearts of the world, we must
teach it, and in a systematic manner. It is not to be learned in a
day. It is the labor of a generation and more. It must be a fully
developed characteristic. Man is learning self-development; now we
must turn to the bigger ideals--national restraint, national
development, international brotherhood.
Do you say this is idealism--visionary? On the contrary, it is
thoroughly practicable. The only way to attain world-peace is for the
individual citizen to think peace, to teach peace, and to act in
accordance with such thoughts and teachings. Just as public opinion
causes war, so only through cultivated public opinion can we hope for
peace. I do not say to sink our battleships and turn free our army. I
do not argue that we should quit guarding ourselves and throw
ourselves open
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