Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], March 27, 1915, Image 1

About Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1902-1919

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Vol.24 fl' " SALTLAKE CITY, UTAH, MARCH 27, 1915 No 14
An Independent Paper Published Under
:: the Management of J. T. Goodwin ::
$, EDITORIALS B Y JUDGE C. C. GOOD WIN
Who Knows?
IN many churches last Sabbath the prayers for
peace among the warring powers o the old
world were the feature of the services.
That was well, for it well becomes poor -mortality
when in trouble to turn in prayer to the
Infinite God, for without faith in Him and His
mercy, man is but an animal, a high-class ani
mal, perhaps, but nothing more.
But in. this connection there are other things
to consider. A few years ago a great war sud
denly ibiirst upon our country. As it increased in
its migu exactions of life and treasure the pray
ers increased for peace, and for the sparing of
the lives of the brave men that were being slain
daily.
But the war, like a fearful glacier, ground its
way onward, until half .the land was but a wreck
and, over all its area there was mourning for the
loved ones that had died and were dying.
It finally ceased ibecause one side was so ex
hausted that it could no longer continue the strug
gle. The close was marked by the sacrifice of
one man who had been more conspicuous than
any other, whose name was on every lip ana
I whose heart had always been filled with charity
and was utterly void of malice.
i Then, when the people became sobered enough
f to think, they saw, finally, that, after all, the
I? men who had struggled; those who died in field
and hospital, those who had contributed their
k means and their prayers, were but instruments
to carry out a plan, were but debtors, each in
1$ his way paying his portion of a debt, from which
r . no release could be obtained until the last frac-
tion of principal and interest had been paid.
I) The land had been consecrated to Liberty.
The inspired fathers had framed a government
. different from any other.
'r Other nations had erected triumphal arches to
I celebrate their victories.
r The fathers built an arch to celebrate a right
r about face for mankind, and the keystone of
that arch was the declaration that "all men are
created equal and endowed with certain inalien-
L able rights, among which are life, liberty and the
h pursuit of happiness."
f" When those words first rang out upon the
world, mankind was thrilled.
fe. But the fathers failed to make good their dec-
laration. For men to be equal, they must have
I equal opportunities. The fathers failed to make
t this good. Against tho protests of their wisest
hi ' ' ones tliey recognized slavery and drew the pro-
I? tection of tho constitution, which they prepared,
, I around it.
II In the books of the Iniinile this was recorded
fm as a debt which was to draw interest until paid,
and it was marked, too, as a Hen upon the lives
and the property of the republic. It continued
.1
to draw interest for four score and five years
and then eternal justice ordered the lien fore
closed. It had to be paid, principal, interest and costs;
though the exaction covered the whole land with
wreck and death.
Looking backward now it is easy to see that a
higher than mortal power set the stage and called
the tremendous acts.
So, now, when it is proposed to try to stop the
war beyond tho sea with prayer, to thoughtful
minds the questions come: "Why is the war rag
ing?" "Why was the stage set?" "Who is calling
tho fearful acts?" 'What were the wrongs ibehind
it?" "What are the purposes intended to be
wrought out before it shall be closed?"
A hundred years ago the foremost of military
captains was preparing for what was to be his
last campaign. For a score of years he had swept
Europe like a scourge of God. All the soil had
been soaked in blood by him.
Until he was overthrown and had died in cap
tivity, men could not see why he had been per
mitted to be the scourge that he was.
The truth came to them at last that under the
tyrannies that had, through centuries, been prac
ticed, tho masses of the people had been reduced
to a state but one remove from serfdom; that
the soil had to be be saturated with heroes' blood
to restore the elements out of which the tree of
liberty grows.
It is still all dark beyond the sea, but we be
lieve that when the final settlement is made, man
will bo more exalted there than he ever has been
on that soil; that the voice of the people there
will be more potential than it ever has been, and
that the power will be taken from a few men to
dictate war or peace at will; that though the cy
clone spreads the land with wrecks and fills
hearts with mourning; still the air is clearei
when it has passed; that God does not care for
thrones or sceptres, but that He does love men
and finally insists that justice shall rule.
Seeking a Renomination
IT was announced some days ago that the Demo
cratic national committee was about to start
a boom for President Wilson's renomination next
year.
Already it is noticeable that every week two
or three persons drop off the cars, to take in Salt
Lake for a day or two, and that though modest
and retiring apparently in disposition, are still be
guiled by aggressive reporters, to give out brief
interviews for publication.
In this way, presumably, during the coming
few months, tho common people will learn some
thing of the real greatness of our chief magis
trate. But care should be taken by tho managers of
this business, not to get their wires crossed. For
example, last week a lady admirer of the presi
dent was here and in naming the claims which
the president can prefer as reasons why he should
change his mind and his platform pledge and
be renominated, emphasis was laid on the anti
trust legislation which has been pushed through
during tho past two years, and the levying of tolls
on such coast shipping as may desire a passage H
through the Panama canal. H
Now, would it not be better to talk that in the M
east rather than the west?
The supreme court has been obliged to hedge M
on some of its decisions against the big trusts, for
the reason that they were pressed by vindictive H
attorneys intent on obtaining verdicts, ibut abso- H
lutely ignorant of what the effects on business M
would be in case they carried out their designis M
and desires. As a result the F :r' trust, M
which has heen denounced as a pu1 nemy now M
for years, has obtained a clear biu , nealth and M
the big steel trust is about to obtain the same en- M
dorsement. M
To turn a gifted and vindictive lawyer, but a . M
baby so far as business goes, loose upon a great M
industry with all the machinery of the govern- M
ment for his backing, may sound most patriotic,
but it is a mighty outrage nevertheless. H
Some of the prosecutions carried on against
certain railroads during tyie past two years, have
been nothing but persecutions, and some of the H
officers engaged in the work, richly deserve ar- H
rest and trial and the scorn of honest men for H
their nefarious work. H
The Panama toll business should not be much H
applauded in the west, for if there was either H
honesty or good sense in that legislation, the, H
obliquity of vision which afflicts western men is H
so great that they cannot see it. H
There, too, are men so dull that they cannot H
understand why a president of tho United States H
should seek a renomination, because with their H
ideas of the great office they would expect that a H
man occupying it would say: J,If what I have H
done in this office does not appeal to the people H
to want me again, then it ig clear that I am not H
great enough to deserve it." H
The War on the Bosphorous H
HP HE great Russian victory in Poland is most H
' important, and most dangerous to Austria- H
Hungary. It practically opens the way for Rus- H
sia to advance upon Hungary and Is a fierce men- H
ace to tho Austria-Hungary empire. H
But in some respects the most important pres- H
ent operations of the war are in the Dardanelles. H
It is 402 years exactly since Mohammed II was H
completing his investment of the Christian capltol I
of the east, which was when the siege closed on H
the 22nd day of May, 1513, with the death in bat- I
tie of tho Emperor Constantine II; the extinction H
of tho eastern Roman empire; the fearful looting H
of the olty and the establishing of the Ottoman H
power in Europe, a most graphic description of
which is found in Lew Wallace's "Prince of India."
Tho fleets of the Allies are slowly forging their
way through that historical channel, and unless
turned back will do for the Moslems what the
Moslems did for the Christians then. The Mo
hammedans will be driven back into Asia, their
power utterly broken and probably the czar will
make of the ancient capltol of the first Con
stantine, his winter capltol.
But with that city captured and all restric
tions for the passage of Russian warships from
the Black Sea to the Mediterranean removed; the