s of 1915.
Virginia, West Virginia, and South Carolina are organizing, and a
sixth group will then be formed--the South Atlantic Group.

S. F. W.

THE CONFLICT OF WAR AND PEACE

By PAUL SMITH, DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana

First Prize Oration in the National Contest held at the University of
Cincinnati, May 17, 1907

THE CONFLICT OF WAR AND PEACE

The past ages have witnessed a long conflict between two opposing
principles--the principle of might and the principle of right. The
first instituted the duel between equals and condemned the impotent to
slavery; the second ordained the courts of civil justice and signed
the Emancipation Proclamation. The principle of might licensed
despotism and degraded the many in the service of the few; the
principle of right proclaimed democracy and consecrated the few to the
service of the many. Thus in the realm of the individual and of the
state the diviner conception has won its triumphs, and to-day force is
tolerated only as it serves the cause of justice. But in the larger
international sphere the advocates of might prolong the ancient cry
for war; the disciples of right protest in a gentler demand for peace.

The partisans of war urge four capital reasons in behalf of their
principle: personal glory, moral education, class interest, and
national egoism.

We have as a heritage of our military past, not a sense of the grim
tragedy of war, but traditions which award the highest meed of
personal glory to the warrior. The roster of the world's heroes
contains two classes of names--great soldiers and great altruists.
Poet and orator and populace unite to do honor to him who was not
afraid to fight and to die for his home, his king, his liberty, his
country, his convictions. Bravery has ever won its laurel crown, for
an instinct within us applauds physical courage and aggressiveness.
And the gilded uniform and clanking sword, the drumbeat and the bugle
call, the camp fire and the "far-flung battle line," stand as the most
dramatic expressions of a deep sentiment, primitive and thrilling.

Akin to this martial hero worship is the argument that success in war
gives training for the higher contests of peace. Out of the war of
1776 the nation took George Washington for President; out of the
Mexican War, Zachary Taylor; out of the Civil War, General Grant; out
of the Spanish War, Theodore Roosevelt. Th