Cleveland High School - Beacon Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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--: 'X Causes of War By Marlys Baumann T HE CAUSES of war are often obscured so completely by various issues that it becomes difficult to discover the real sources of discord. Is it possible that countless lives have been sacrificed merely to appease the petty whims of civilized nations? Some wars have been fought because one group of people failed to understand the motives of another group. In 1775 England did not understand the people of the Thirteen Colonies. In theory the Revolutionary War was fought for political freedom from oppressive taxation and for the banishment of arbitrary power. Moses Coit Tyler, a noted American writer said, The colonies made their stand, not against tyranny iniiicted, but only against tyranny anticipated. Yet American and British views and policies were not irreconcilable. It is probable that the iniiuence of radicals on both sides of the Atlantic made war inevitable. Professor Hart of Harvard bluntly states that a peaceful solution for those difficulties would have been possible had it not been for the iniiuence of Sam Adams. It is inconceivable that we would still be a part of the British Empire if there had been no Revolutionary War. But it is conceivable that a peaceful separation would have come without that conflict. In 1812 we found ourselves engaged in another struggle with England, due to commercial injuries involving our right as a neutral nation in the Napoleonic wars. We hated the impressment of American seamen, and we believed that British agents were inciting the Indians of the Northwest against us. Yet our grievances against Napoleon were equally serious. What a strange picture was presented when James Madison, the great apos- tle of peace, became the companion in arms with the greatest despot on earth. It was a war of inconsistencies. The chief causes were removed when Parliament repealed the Orders in Council two days before Congress declared warg the greatest battle was fought after the peace treaty was signedg the treaty did not mention any of the real causes of the war. But at least there is reason to believe that our second war with England did much to end our commercial dependence on Great Britain and to establish the International Law of Neutrality. A dispute over the boundary of Texas led us into the Mexican war- a war referred to by U. S. Grant, who took part in it, as the most unjust war ever waged by a strong nation against a weak one. In the end our title to Texas was acknowledged, and the Mexican Cession was ceded to us in return for a payment of S515,000,000. The United States also agreed to assume the claim of its citizens against Mexico. Passing over the ques- tion of right and justice, it is certainly true that the great Southwest CND Page Fifteen

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l u l Q l E E F i or ripped all his canvases to strips? One could hardly find any canvas or any brush that could fill the place of a faithful friend. Someone had left the street-door open 3 he could feel the draft from it. The room was becoming cold. Several times he decided to go down and close it, but each time he found it too diflicult to gather enough energy to do so. Suddenly he was awakened from his stupor by a scratching sound out- side. Schurz went slowly to the door. He opened it just a crack, but as he did so it was given a mighty thrust, and something small streaked past him into the room. It was Flip. Around and around the room he went, yapping and upsetting every- thing in his path. Then he came back to Schurz and danced around his feet, rubbing his snout against the man's leg and barking into his face. Flip, cried Schurz, good old Flip. And he picked him up and held his face close to that of the little dog. Flip's tongue was caressing his cheek, his ears, his neck. His tail was beating wildly against his master's chest. Good old Flip, sobbed the man, you've come back to me. 2... X f 0 ZW X wl- 'aw i f Page F'ozwteen.

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under United States rule has progressed in a way that would have been impossible under Mexican rule. Not a quarter of a century elapsed before our country Was distressed by civil strife due not to slavery but to the clash of two hostile theories of government which dated back to the beginning of our national life. Was the national government supreme and the states only departments of the government or was the Union made up of sovereign states which entered of their own free will and could leave it whenever they pleased? The real truth was that the North and South did not know each other. It is said that when planning an invasion of the South, Lincoln walked over to a great wall map and began to search for a railroad leading from the North into that region. A general on the staff remarked, It is not there, Mr. President. If it had been there, we should not be fighting this war. It is an interesting fact that most of the railroad lines ran east and west, and communication between North and South was not easy. We are prone to assume that the War was necessary to rid the country of the curse of slavery, but let us see. In 1850 the United States Treasury Department investigated the cost of slavery in the Black Belt and found that every adult slave cost his master S5135 a year, including interest on capital, insurance, taxation, depreciation, and cost of maintenance. Fifty years later a Southern planter in that same region could hire a negro farm hand for 35120 a year. Economic conditions would probably have over- thrown slavery rather than a war costing hundreds of thousands of lives and billions in money which ended an economic system that had already become unprofitable. However, no price was too great to pay for the pres- ervation of the Union. But even here we see a curious inconsistency. The national government waged a four year war to prove that a state could not leave the Union and then the radicals of the reconstruction period spent ten years getting the states back into the Union. All remained quiet for a time. Then what happened? Another war! Our economic interests and our sympathies for the sufferings of the natives of Cuba at the hands of Spain made it impossible for us to be indifferent to Cuba's fate. However before Congress declared war, Spain had agreed to grant every demand our government had made except that of absolute independence for Cuba. Cuba Won her freedom. But when we consider the present situation in Cuba-in spite of all the guidance and aid the Cubans have received from the United States-we wonder if the returns of the Spanish-American War justified the cost. But Why can't we settle down? In a little less than twenty years we were fighting another great contest. This time the master of them all- the World War. The causes were mainly due to economic rivalry and the imperialistic policy of the other nations. Fifteen years have passed since the war ended, and we are still trying to decide who won the war. Page Sixteen