UNNECESSARY RISKS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1466, 30 October 1915, Page 3

UNNECESSARY RISKS.

Various individuals have disparaged the motives of the men fighting in Europe against the Kaisers and the Turk, and oue loose thinker has called this war of nationalism against the wouldbe conqueror “the causeless war.” This same politician base,unioned bis fellow-countrymen against taking “ unnecessary risks.’’ Now, it is hard for us to be patient when we read such rubbish in the press. Without “unnecessary risks” there could be no Leonidas in history, no Columbus, no Champlain, no Wolfe, no Nelson, no Emmet, no Washington, no Lafayette, no American Republic. Without the taking of “ uuuecssary risks ” there would have been no Lincoln. When the men who followed Garibaldi from Rome asked him what their reward should be, they were answered : “ Hunger and thirst, forward marches, battles and death.” Garibaldi and his thousands took unnecessary risk* —and freed Italy ! When Ibsen’s Brand had led his men halfway to the heights they baited —but this was Brand’s speech to them ; How long the war will lasi ? As long as lilt-! What will yon gain? A will that’s whole, A soaring faith, a single soul. The willingness to lose, that gave A crown of thorns on every brow ; That is the wage you’re earning now! Which is better, the patriotism of Garibaldi, the devotion of a passionate and devoted France, the idealism of a defeated Brand —or the soft counsels of these moderns who set comfort above country, saving themselves above spending themselves ? This country does not want war, but if we tliought it incapable of war zeal once war agaiu became our national necessity, we should pray to God that He make us, In our next incarnation, Belgians, Serbs, or Frenchmen, —“ Collier’s Weekly.”