Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 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 applaudsphysical courage and aggressiveness. And the gilded uniform and clanking sword, the drumbeat and the bugle call, the camp f...