JLv
The Commoner
20
VOL. 16, NO. 8
What War Is
(Continued from Paga 17)
the zost and joy of living, you con
vert earthly oxlstonco Into a tragedy
and an unfathomablo mystery. Tho
war day by day adds to tho vast com
pany of mothers who aro wooplng,
and who, llko Rachel, can not bo
comforted, becauBO thoir sons aro
dead. Day by day tho multltudo of
widows grows, hour by hour tho
numbor of orphans Is increased. Ev
ery day God alono knows how many
women dlo of a brokon heart. War
kills women as well as mon. But
you can not kill men and women
without killing children. An Amer
ican who has just returned from Eu
ropo after a sojourn thoro of several
months roports that fully 500,000
chlldron have porlshod iu the pres
ent war, chlofly from tho lack of
nourishment. Ho says that in parts
of Poland thoro is scarcoly a child
left undor six years of age.
If thon war is tho killing of tho
strongost of a nation's men, war
moans tho impovorishmont of tho
blood of tho human raco. War re
duces tho physical staturo of man
kind. In poaco wo aro undor the law
of tho survival of tho fittest. In tho
yoars of peaco it is tho strong who
flourish and grow stronger, whoroas
in time of war humanity passes un
dor a different law, tho survival of
tho unfit. Peaco kills off tho weak,
war kills off tho strong. War, there
fore, is contrary to nature. It is a
iaw oi naturo that all living beings
shall struggle, but it is not a law of
naturo that human beings shall kill
ono anothor. Killing mon is a viola
tion of tho law of God, and nations
which delight in war are soon or late,
eliminated from tho earth. Tho
great empires of antiquity wont down
bocauso thoy were all warring om
pires. In war they sacrificed their
strongest men, and today many of
Mhoin aro only heaps of dust. Tho
Almighty will boat into dust tho em
pires and kingdoms of our modern
world if mon do not beat thoir
swords into ploughshares and agree
to mako war no moro. Tho art of kill
ing men has been so elaborated and
perfected by tho Inventions of tho
last fifty years, that war is deadlier
man it nas over been before, so
that Buropo is today reducing tho
staturo of tho mon of generations yet
unborn, and is enfeebling tho phy
sical and moral stamina of tho na
tions through moro than a hundrod
years to como.
Wo can see what war is more dis
tinctly because scienco has unrolled
it and spread it out. It has increased
tho intensity of its movements, and
so concentrated its energy that wo
can seo better what its purpose Is
and what is tho temper of its spirit.
Its spirit is murderous, and now that
its spirit can utilize moro effective
weapons, it piles up tho dead with
such celerity that tho heart stands
aghast. War is killing men, and the
moro swiftly it kills them, tho more
successful war is counted. Tho sav
ages used to tomahawk ono man at a
timo. War now exults in tho trick of
snufllng out a thousand lives at once.
Scienco has given new dimensions.
Formerly it had only length and
breadth. Men now wago war above
tho clouds and beneath tho surface
of tho sea. They go into the air to
kill, they descend into the ocean to
kill. Wherever they go they go to
kill. Threo kingdoms, the earth, the
sea, tho air, aro all now under the
dominion of war, and all of them
are bespattered with blood. War,
wherever it is waged, is the slaugh
tering of men. Tho Almighty has
stretched war out to unprecedented
dimensions in order that wo might
know moro unmistakablly what
war is.
Not only has tho present war colos
sal dimensions, but it is nunc ud
against a background different from
any which tho world had heretofore
furnished. Ours is a humanitarian
ago. The hearts of men tho world
over havo been growing gentle
through tho last hundred years.
Men everywhere aro thinking of hu
man betterment, and aro touched
with pity for those who suffer. To
alleviate tho sufferings of mankind
has becomo in widening circles a
passion. Great companies of men
and women havo dedicated them
selves to tho task of fighting disease.
Pain is ono of tho enemies unnn
which our age makes unceasing war.
Minions or dollars have been invested
in laboratories and hospitals around
tho world for the purpose of investi
gating the causes of diseases, and of
healing the multitudes who arA Rinir.
Men are increasingly sensitive to th
needs of their fellows, and to save
life, not destroy it, has becomo the
m Old-fashioned, conscientious honesty builds Estey
pianos today just as it did years ago. Small details make
or break great reputations. Estey fame is great because
the makers are proud of the inside the hidden parts.
m If such an instrument fits your ideal of a desirable
piano either m Grand, Upright or Player form, send
for beautitul art catalog.
Estey Piano Of?.
New York Gify
ambition and. aim of society. City
officials look carefully into the milk
bottles overy morning, determined
that even the babies shall be in no
wise cheated or wronged. Clinics
are opened for the poor, and wherever
men and women suffer, aro found
skilled and sympathetic servants
eager to minister to theit needs. The
whole world has within a half cen
tury been fitted up as a hospital, and
the supreme aim of civilization has
been the saving of life. And then,
after we had gotten the wards all in
order, and had supplied ourselves
with anaesthetics, antiseptic, and
antitoxins, and a thousand appliances
and remedies for the warfare against
pain and tho redemption of human
life, all at once war burst through
tho door, shouting: "I come not to
save but to destroy." Then, if never
before, we realized that war is a
devil, that war is from the lowest
depths of hell. Wo never realized
his hideousness until we saw him in
tho light of a world that has learned
from Jesus of Nazareth the joy and
glory of social service.
War is no longer half hidden in
the darkness. War stands out be
fore us. in the limelteht. naked. We
Americans occupy a box seat in the
theatre, and the bloody drama is en
acted before our eyes. We can see
it as no other non-European people.
We are connected with the scene of
conflict by electric Wires and the
moro subtle wires of the ether.
Photography had been perfected be
fore the war began that wo might
see the pictures of its most hideous
details. No other war has ever been
exhibited to the world in such un
ending panoramas of pen sketches,
and no other has ever been shown in
moving pictures. It is clear to all
who have eyes to see that war's
crowning ambition is destruction.
Science has sharpened its features,
and we see it through an atmosphere
which has been cleansed by the new
dreams of a Christianized .heart.
And what do we behold? We see
that war is an atrocity. Much has
been said about the atrocities of the
various armies engaged. Why should
we bo surprised at these? War itself
is an atrocity, and is the mother of
overy other atrocity which the hu
man mind can conceive of. It can
not do its work without lying and
stealing and killing. Wherever it
goes it spreads desolation and
slaughter, and the ruin of everything
which the heart holds dear.
We seo now that the naturo of it
can not be changed. We talk some
times of civilized warfare, and some
havo gone so far as to speak of
Christian warfare, but there is no
such thing, as Christian warfare, and
you degrade tho adjective "civilized"
whenever you apply it to war. War
is barbarism, and you can not elim
inate its barbarity. War is savagery
and you can not make it humane.
War is now in essence what it was in
the days of Tamerlane and Attila, in
the time of Ramses II, and Ashur
banipal. As soon as the German
army crossed into Belgium men be
gan to do precisely what men did
there two thousand years before
when Julius Caesar carried tho Ro
man Eagles across that land, they
proceeded to butcher other men, and
graves were fllled with the mangled
bodies of the slain. A library was
burned just as tho Alexandrian
library was burned, a cathedral was
ruined just as the Parthenon was
ruined, homes were demolished just
as they were in the days of Genghis
Khan, innocent men and women were
done to death just as they were in
the days of Tiglath Pileser. We
now know that war can never be re
fined, purified, or rendered human
War is a monster of the primeval
slime. Warriors no longer figh from
the backs of prancing chargers thev
Ho on their bellies in the trench
Performing the work ot the cave
dweller it is fitting that they should
take the cave dweller's posture Wir
is of the earth earthy, it is appro
priate that those who engage in It
should bo compelled to wallow in
the mud.
We now see that war is a blunder
an absurdity, a form of foolery a
species of insanity. Can you conceive
of anything more idiotic than that
which Europe is now doing? Not ono
of tho nations is fighting for a glori
ous principle. They are all fighting
u Bcn-uoioiiBB. iney are putting
into the furnace all the money they
have earned during the last hundred
years. They are consuming not only
their present possessions, but are
mortgaging the future. They are
tying a millstone around the neck of
generations not yet born. The na
tions are spending, it is estimated,
one hundred million dollars a day.
The debts of all of them mount into"
the billions, that of one of them
standing now at eleven billions. The
wise men of Europe are piling on the
backs of the nations burdens under
which they will stagger for genera
tions. War is a wrong, a monstrous
crime against mankind. Eumnn in
showing us what an unspeakable
crime it is. The war ' is covering
Europe with graves, but that is not
all. It is covering Europe with
maimed and crippled men. That Ib
not all. It is covering Europe with
pauperized and homeless women and
children. That is not all. It is im
poverishing society; It is eating up
the foundations for education and
research, and the multiform work
for social amelioration. That is not
all. It is impoverishing the mind. It
is blunting sensibilities, feeding wild
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