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The Commoner
18
VOL. -16,0... 2
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llfo for America "War Is a biological necessity,"
and nobody but "Theorists and Feminists who
aro but tho fovcrlsh phantasms and sickly dis
orders of national llfo." will over bo fools onoueh
to think that It can bo ourbed, restricted or out
grown, According to this man, who in every
DttKO of his book shows IiIh nhKoltitn cnntnmnt of
tho Christian God, and the Christian hopo of the
)world, what is now going on in Buropo must bo
,a part of tho world's life until human nature
changes; and as all who try to Quango it "aro
Jholpless as lico on tho backs of wild ducks" and,
as tho Genoral finds no evidence whatever in all
;rccordod time that human nature has changed
:ono iota, man is condemned forevor to be but a
fighting anin;al. Tho moment ho tries to quit
lighting and concentrate his energy in things
which minister to peaceful co-operation and
human happiness, ho loses tho fighting spirit,
and there is no other school of virtue which can
possibly furnish a moral equivalent to a periodic
wallow in tho mire made oozy with human blood
shed at tho hands of his follow men. And this
is tho man upon whoso observations and authority,-
more than from any other source, wo aro
told that America muBt prepare to fight Japan,
and that if wo aro not in a hurry about it Japan
will permanently take and hold tho whole Pacific
slopo! If his military calculation aro as far
awry (and they aro) as his moral vision and his
spiritual reading of tho destiny of humanity,
those who listen to him need guardians. God
pity Amorica and tho world if this creature who
lias not morally emerged from tho Tertiary ago
is to become our supreme prophet! And Heaven
pity tho American people if they are blind and
guilllblo enough to bo deceived into thinking
that when they follow Genoral Homer Lea and
tho kind who put their approval upon what ho
has taught, that thoy aro really preparing for
peace and not for war.
EUROPE'S PREPAItEDNKSS ACTIVITY LEADS
TO FEAR AND SUSPICION
Has not Europe had forty years of that kind
of preparation for, peace? Has not overy nation
over there boen worked into tho vast prepared
ness program by its. Army and Navy leagues, and
by its National Defence crowd, tho prime movers
of which were all the heaviest owners in the con
cerns which woro to furnish the "defence" at
the best paying rato of any monoy invested in
Europe? Has not overy natio in Europe been
led by Its military experts in'jQ fooling that some
body was sure to attack them, arid that their only
possible hope and safety lay In over new and over
vaster expenditures for soldiers and more sol
diers, guns and more guns, arid over bigger guns
battleships, and moro battleships? Of course'
all this was done solely for "defensive pur
poses"? Not in tho whole of Europe was there
anybody who contemplated "offense." If it
wore not so tragic, some of tho funniest read
ing in the world Js that which has come out of
overy country of Europe, even by its leading
philosophical minds, tho men in each country all
moral y certain that there was nothing wrong
hnVnl0H 0W'V "Pparedness." I quote from
tho lengthy statement signed by the leading
thinkers of Germany and sent out to America a!
tho nation's justification: "Since the German
army when it is summoned to war represents the
whole Gorman peoplo, and since the German
people is peaceably disposed, it follows that tho
army can only bo a defensive organization. Again
then lot us repeat that tho German army is a
weapon which can be and Is used only for de
fense against foreign aggression." Well, now
that looks perfectly reasonablefrom a German
standpoint. But our dear German friends do
not reason at all that way about the armies of
Russia and France, or tho navy of England. Here
is what they say about tho Russian armies: "The
Czar as an individual is most certainly not the
instigator of the unspeakable horrors that are
now inundating Europe. But he bears before
God and posterity the responsibility of having
a lowed himself to bo terrorized by an unsor in
ulous military clique." unsorup-
w!0118',??"'1 ifc llow mch moro innocent
i?.?lC fih m itary cliques on our own Bide of the
line than those on tho other! Again nv Z
peaceably disposed Germans: "The party of the
3rand Dukes in St. Petersburg and tSe party of
tho Russian officers, always ready for war and
tho PanSlavists, tho brutal and unscrupulous
representatives of the ideal that Russian Czar
ism was destined to rulo Eurone--tiiAo ?i
thd war " Now it so happens ZZflnt
to substitute Prussians for Grand Dukes mS
.Pan-Germanism for Pan-Slavism, and every one
of the Allies is using this identical language
about the menace of the German cliques. The
crime was always with tho other fellow. All
woro sure that they were perfectly innocent and
pure of motive. Tho only difficulty lay in the
rather troublesome and aggravating fact, that
never seems to have dawned upon military
minds, and which seems to be inherent in all
preparedness programs, that that which looks
entirely defensive to the men at the butt-ends
of these ever growing and multiplying guns per
sisted in looking horribly offensive to everybody
who was forced to gazo down the front end of
tho barrols. Of course, all this late unpleasant
ness in which Europe is at present involved
would have been entirely avoided if they had
all only had a few more millions of guns! If
tho wicked and foolish pacifists had not inter
fered with the military experts these guns would
have surely been on hand, and peace assured
so reason our wise military minds.' And, of
course, the whole character of millions of guns
and frowning battleships, when we get enough
of thom to be "adequately prepared solely for
defensive purposes" on this side of the ocean
will be so changed that they will look to all the
world not like "offensive things," but beautiful
tubes of peace through which we propose to toss
only love messages around the earth. And yet
our "wise and practical" friends profess to hold
a monopoly of knowledge concerning human na
ture! Instead of this preparedness program
leading to peace in Europe, it led, as in the very
nature of things it could not help leading, to
fear and suspicion, to crimination and re-crimination,
to a feverish rivalry, to spying, to con
stant reports of alarm; until, first one side and
thon tho other was in a perfect nightmare of de
mentia; to the awakening of all the worst ele
ments of the human heart; and the more des
perately each nation tried to get "adequately
prepared" the more certain was everybody that
war was inevitable, until the Bernhardi's and
Blatchford's in each country were openly pub
lishing that their own nation should strike the
other oven without warning.
NERVOUS TENSION BREAKS INTO PRESENT
MANIA OF KILLING
Finally, the nervous, tension broke into this
present mania of killing which is the most hor
rible thing of its kind that has ever disgraced
the human spirit, Our more reasonable descend
ants of three hundred years hence will look
back upon man's domination by the militafv
minds and philosophy of our day as the most
wlerd, unreasonable and inexcusable supersti
tion to which the race has ever been subject
ria by fire and battle, the exhaustion of .Europe
J?i in vni" effort, t0 PPssess the Saviour's tomb.
Children's Crusades, the burning of witches, wil
all appear manifestations of right reason in the
human spirit compared to an. age that puts itself'
blandly into the hands of military coteries which
thought, or pretended to think, that they .really
were working for peace by training millions S
moh day and night to think and planfo?war
and by pauperizing the people by laving hi ever'
more dangerous weapons of destruction
ii wi of the priests of ancient Rome who
worked the superstitions of the simple common
people through the supposedly divhTe oSes
that whenever, they .met in the streets thov
SS5 SllibiSg1 l derISlVe oyJtl
Mineral gullibility of human nature. I qimnpnf
laugiung up their sleeves at the easv wnv in
which by playing upon fear, and wfth an adroit
swer with Von Moiti ' and ;hey wln an"
dream; aVnot 3&?FP
the mini ot Jesus Chris are in ni" '?"? mIn,d and
will destroy modern civilization. Europe, right
now is its first victim. And that mind is now in
America, in a perfect hysteria, screaming to us
that we aro at the mercy of a mad world unless
we, too, go mad and surrender our Christian
principles and practice for the worship of that
Moloch to which Europe's children are being fed.
Dr. Jefferson, one of the sanest and most pro
phetic men in America, is absolutely right when
ho declares: "There is no question before tho
world in which tho future of Christianity is so
vitally involved as this .question of international
peace. The church can not survive if militarism
is to rule. Christianity must languish if Caesar
is to sit on the throne. A house divided against
itself can not stand. A nation can not perma
nently have the ideals of Christ in its homes, if
it enthrones the ideals of Caesar in -its capital
We can not successfully teach the boys the
Golden Rule, if diplomats are lauded for ignor
ing it. We can not sing hymns to the God of
Love, if tho money of the people is progressively
squandered in the manufacture of instruments
of destruction. We can not get men to look
adoringly upon Jesus dying on the Cross, when
the magazines and papers are filled with pictures
of battleships and batallions of soldiers drilling
for the work of human slaughter. Christianity
and militarism are implacable and deadly en
emies. You can not serve them both, you will
come at last to hate the one and love the other
otiie" WH1 Cllng t0 thG ne and desPfs'e. the'
If there is such a thing as moral certainty, it
is that an enormous increase expenditure of
money for military purposes on the part of
America at the present time, it is a confession
ofZ fPnantlmt ?,UP fa,ith ln the Christian way
of life for the nations is weakening before the
Philosophy which has as its most consistent ad
vocates, Homer Lea and Bernhardt
It is a confession that the military mind in
America is already more powerful thTn tie
Christian mind. Have we not ever since-this
whim w Ln ",n T, EuroPen Christianity
which had so signally failed in its God-appointed
task to curb the murderous , spfr.it of Kpe?
OuTctSSH8' F WPWltottit .
our Christianity is of a different fibre. NpwVis
our supreme opportunity to save America from
coming to whatever world conference follow
this war, with our own faith in the oLisiway
lSted l0BtUS?aken " coParativoly unpoai
luteci. But let us go to that conference with
nlfT1 diately behind u Ttha w &
if, J ?Gred SUC1i an easo in our owh 'pro
gram of preparedness" as has never' heehVn.?
hI ?2T ther nation in tIme of peace anf it fn
feVsesesrtoeabhor S How S"' " P"
NEVEB IN 'S&Ifesw
There has never been n ii - .
existence for fifty years wh ? m Ur national
care of for some wa that they can -take
full of bitterness thai oSrJi , hearts are so
fifteen years dither stde Lme W,t.h,n tne next
and it looks a if the new in ther .fight,
the European power enslpT??1 wiU keeP
European power whatever it t the front' that
its present enemies bini? i 5' Can couut 0I1
back. It is one of th?g!mmQdiatel3r uPn its
that it ever?eedsfmtVwaremIervirf S f"JT
garia three years ago weran?,.. V5,a and Bul"
garia is now doing fto !? l a?d Wnat Bul"
the present conflict which sho,, ?Uher pIde in
the near f uture m SS. d at any tlme in
America, can "most covtltw Th to attack
Present enemies That telLT111 n from lte
ant fact whichto enti e y 'oveiTookeZ JmPrt
military people who professTo beaSlS