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THE KING’S BUSINESS that such men are morally the better for their experience of war? If the war had not occurred, they would probably have gone through life without ever having the wild beast in them aroused. There is a wild beast slumbêring in almost every man, but civilized men know that it must not be allowed to awake. A civilized man who has once been under the domain of the wild beast has lost his moral self-respect, his integrity, and uprightness : a secret' shame makes him cynical and despairing, without the courage that sees facts as they are, without the hope that makes them better. War is perpetrating this moral murder in the souls of vast millions of combatants ; every day many are passing over to the dominion of thé brute by acts which kill what is best within them. Yet, still our newspapers, parsons, and professors prate of the ennobling influence of war.” country has in its mood something of the heroic—unless it feels not only devo tion to ideals, but the purpose to measure the realization of those ideals in action.” These words, taken in their context, if they mean anything, mean that this nation must not nominate him for the Presidency unless it is. desirous of going to war with Germany or some other country (presumably however, Ger many, when one remembers what Col. Roosevelt has said in the past on this subject). In other words, Col. Roosevelt declares that no one must support him for the Presidency who is not desirous of going to war, and his choice by the people as a whole would practically mean a declaration by the people as a whole that they want war. O f course, there is a possibility that if Col. Roose velt were elected to the Presidency he might be sobered and calmed by the responsibility of the office. Men oftentimes are calmed under those circum stances. And it is not altogether impossible that he is playing, more or less to the galleries. But if he is sincere, then his election to the Presidency would in all probability mean war. Every one who is eagerly desirous of war should therefore vote for him. I f we believe that there are better .ways of settling international difficulties, more Christian ways, then we should vote against him. Perhaps there is no possibility of his being elected even if he got the nomina tion o f some leading party, and yet in these strange times one can hardly tell what might occur. Doubtless many, many thousands of those who voted for him in 1912 are glad that he was not elected, and are rejoicing that we have had, in these perilous times, a calm and self-restraining, and well-poised man in the Presidential chair, and yet, there is a very large class of people in this country to whom such manifestoes as those of Col. Roosevelt appeal. A promi nent Republican newspaper, The Des Moines Capitol, speaks of the Colonel’s declaration as being “ so full of American red blood that one who loves his country feels like proposing three cheers.” Doubtless this is the feeling of a great many. Bravado, bluster, and national self-assertion appeal to a great many American people, and there are not a few who consider calm, Christian reasonableness and self-restraint as cowardice. These are days in which Ameri cans who really love their country and who love other countries also, and who believe that nations as well as individuals should be governed by Christian prin ciples, should spend much time in prayer. Col. Roosevelt has issued what is practically a mani- festo as to what he shall demand if any party sees fit to nominate him for the Presidency. He has said: “ Now it would be a mistake to nominate me unless the Do We Want War ?
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