Fifty years ago today, only a year and a half after the armistice that ended fighting in the Korean war, the following Spokesman-Review editorial contrasted the themes of the season with the ominous birth of the nuclear arms race.

On this day of days, wherever the message of Christmas is heard, the minds of men will dwell on the theme of peace on earth. For centuries on end have men groped toward the goal of universal brotherhood, when good will and understanding would reign supreme in the hearts of all mankind.

But even as they pause for a season to ponder these things amid the tinsel and glitter of the yuletide holiday, the nations of this earth are girding for battle, and foolish mortals struggle on in the gathering darkness of another holocaust, which threatens to drench the world in blood. The one great lesson of history, which faltering men seem not to have learned, is that might never makes right.

Neither by the sword of Genghis Khan nor by the lethal H-bombs of a modern conqueror have men found a way to impose peace upon the world. Peace, in an atmosphere of hatred and prejudice, cannot long survive.

As men and nations have traveled through history up the long road of civilization, the ultimate goal of every human being has been peace. In every human heart there is a yearning for a place of security and serenity where the cares and burdens of life can be laid aside and the soul can find peace.

Yet generation after generation has found men devoting their energies and talents to the perfection of engines of war, each more fiendish than the one before, until it would seem that the end could only bring about the annihilation of humanity and the utter destruction of all that is good. Such is the course of war.

But it need not be so. Christmas proves that inherent in every human breast are the seeds of love and compassion which need only to be nurtured to bring them into full flower. If the energies now devoted to wielding the habiliments of Mars could be channeled into weaving the vestments of peace, the dawn of the millennium would be at hand.

So on this day of days, may the message of Christmas be heard in every land and in every heart. May the din of battle be hushed and the star of Bethlehem again guide the feet of erring humanity to the Carpenter of Nazareth, whose formula for the brotherhood of man is the only assurance of peace on earth, good will toward men.