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The Commoner
XUGUST, WIG
17 '
sot escaped tho old Greek notion of Fate. H te
thousands of years behind the tlmei. Men art
free, and thdy can end war when they will.
When ft Is amid that yon can not change hn
Hian nature, and that, therefore, wars must oc
cur forever, you are listening: to a philosophy
which is false. It Is not true that human na
ture can not he changed, for if it can not bd
changed, then there is little use for our schools
and churches. But it is not necessary to change
human nature in order to abolish war. War
will be abolished just as soon as men changa
their views about it. Slavery was once univer
sal, All the wisest men of antiquity believed
slavery was essential to a well ordered state. By
and by they changed their mind. Slavery is
gone, but human nature remains what it was.
Men and women were once killed by the
thousands on the charge of witchcraft. They
are now killed no longer. The reason they are
not killed is not because human nature has been
changed, but because we do not believe in witch
craft. We have changed not our nature but our
notions.
HUMAN NATURE NOT CHANGED
The wisest and most learned jurlsits of Eu
rope once believed it necessary to torture pris
oners in order to find out the truth, but the aid
instruments of torture are now in museums.
Human nature has not changed, but we have
found a more sensible way of arriving at the
truth. War survives from generation to genera
tion not because it can not be abolished, but
simply because men have mistaken ideas about
it. It is more mischievous than slavery, more
stupid than, persecution for witchcraft, and more
irrational and cruel than judicial torture, and
it will be abolished as soon as men change their
views. The world is hoodwinked by the phil
osophers into thinking that war is inevitable.
The man who thinks so does not know what
war is.
The paganized philosopher says that war is a
school of virtue. It will be more difficult to say
this now that the Carnegie report of the Sav
ageries of the Balkan War, and the Bryce report
of the German atrocities in Belgium, and the
sickening story of the butchery, of the Arme
nians in Turkey are spreadbefojrf the eyes of
the world. War, is a school of ) virtue in the
same .sense as pestilence is a school of virtue,
or as famine, is a school of virtue. Men do
brave things ip all these direful visitations for
the simple reason that man is by nature a heroic
creature, and even in war the glory that is na
tive to him flashes out. We must distinguish
between what men dp in time of war and what
war itself is. In the' midst of a vast conflagra
tion firemen do heroic things. They climb to the
top of ladders high, plunge into smoke-iilled halls
and attics, rescue imperiled women and child
ren. Mothers do brave things. They snatch
their children, from the jaws of death at the
risk of their own lives. Boys do chivalric
things. They venture where the danger is
greatest, They rescue those who without their
assistance would be lost. But what they do is
not to be put. down to the credit of fire. Fiya
furnishes an opportunity for the heroism that is
in them to show itself, but the fire does not cre
ate the heroism nor is the fire responsible for
it. The fire itself is a deadly, devouring, heart
less thing. It smother's babies in their cradles,
it suffocates old men and women in their attics,
it burns up invalids in the hospital, it consumes
works of art, and old manuscripts, and priceless
heirlooms. Not one merciful or beneficent thing
does it do from the beginning of the conflagra
tion to the end. All it does is td" blacken and
char and burn and destroy. War is Are. In the
fire men often exhibit a courage and a self
sacrifice and a nobility which compel the admir
ation of all who behold it, but war itself is cruel,
Pitiless, devilish. War burns up ancient libra
ries, famous cathedrals, priceless art treasures.
It consumes things of beauty which all the ge
nius of the world can never replace. It drives
aged men and women from their homes into the
fields in midwinter to freeze and starve. It
shatters the roof over the head of invalids, and
kills the nurses who wait upon them. It blows
houses to splinters and makes wreckage of
homes. It kills fathers and husbands and sons,
blows women to shreds and snuffs out the lives
of babies in their cradles. There is nothing
barbarous and inhuman and devilish which war
does not do. It is the sum of all vallianies. The
manifestations of its infernal spirit are number
less and run beyond the descriptive powers of
human speech. Never put war down in the list
of things which are good. Put it down in the
list of things that are direful and horrifying
amis, pesjtBsno, tsfercalosls, small-pox, bu
foaUi lacat, canesr, ajad earthquake. All these
axe sagels o mmcj compared with war.
"But see," says the philosopher, "what bless
ings have come through war; liberty, progress,
the eznarndpstio ancient tyraanles, and the
opening of new ages tor the mind! It is over
battlefields that the race has marched to glory,
and It is through the baptism of battle fire that
men have added new cubits to their spiritual
stature." Bo says the philosopher, but the in
ference he would hart s draw is false. He
points out the good things which have followed
war, and says, without war these good things
could not have been gotten. It is hero that the
philosopher goes astray. Every good thing ever
attained in war could have been gotten more
economically in some other way. It is truo that
war has not been able to block permanently the
progress of the race. It Is true that many
blessings, physical and intellectual, have boon
handed to us through battle fire. This is evi
dence that God's purposes can not be perman
ently thwarted and that He can compel the
wrath of man to praise Him. He is omnipotent
and man is finite, and no matter what the finite
creature does, the Infinite can circumvent him
by his mercy. God is love and the whole world
is foundationed on love, and no matter how
furiously man may hate, the lovo of God flows
round him, and makes channels for itself even
through provinces consecrated to the passions
of hatred and vengeance. God is good, and be
cause of His immeasurable goodness it is impos
sible to do anything wicked in this world from
which at least one stream of blessing will not
flow. Men have fought and humanity has ad
vanced. The philosopher dwells upon this and
concludes that with more fighting more progress
will follow. Humanity has advanced in spite of
the fighting, and not because of it, and if men
had never unsheathed the sword the race would
be vastly farther on than it is. The world Is
poor today largely because se much of the
world's wealth has been consumed in war. Hu
manity is impoverished in its heart life because
of the storms of hate which have swept over it.
Many nations once mighty are now only dust
heaps, They were beaten into dust by war. Na
tions now playing a part on the stage of the
world's' life are scrubby and stunted because the
richest juices of their blood were long ago
sucked out by war. All the nations of the earth
are paralyzed and handicapped in their physical
and intellectual and spiritual development and
operations by the blood they poured out in pre
ceding generations on the battlefield.
These are the three veils which philosophy '
weaves. First, war is inevitable, because human
nature is bellicose and can never be altered;
second, war Is a school of virtue; third, war is
a means of securing blessings which can be ob
tained in no other way. Throw those three veils
over the face of war and yon can not see what
war is. What can not bo avoided, wo shall
never gird up our loins to conquer. What seems
to develop the manly virtues, we shall never in
round terms condemn. What leads to blessings
can never seem odious to one to whom those
blessings are dear. Philosophy takes the edge
off the world's horror of war by weaving round
the head Qf the monster a delicate network of
lies.
NOT EASY TO KNOW WHAT WAR IS
It is not easy to know what war is. Language
can not tell us. Art refuses to tell us. Art is
in love with the beautiful, and when she speaks
of war she seizes upon the lovely and picturesque
aspects, blinding by creations of the Imagination
the eyes of understanding, so they can not see
the hideous things which He concealed under the
things which are fair. Military preparedness
also refuses to tell us. It fills our ears with
thrilling music, and our eyes with gorgeous col
ors, and our hearts with patriotic emotions, and
hides from us the fact that Its steps lead down
to the chambers of death. Philosophy refuses to
tell us. She takes this old scourge, and decks
it with flowers, this ancient curse and wraps it
In garlands, this primeval abomination and
dresses It In purple, this chief of the devils and
exalts it as a god. It is in the universities of
Europe that war has been most idolized, and It
is men who have had high reputations for learn
ing who have flooded the world with eulogies of
war.
Iii the fulness of time war came. The lexi
cographers had completed their definitions. The
artists had painted their pictures and composed
their music, the high priests of military pre
paredness had perfected their gorgeous ritual,,
the wise men of the -schools had thrown over;
war ail the glittering folds of a materialistic phil:
osophy, and then God said, "I will sow let yo (
see what war is." It is now clear to the waol )
world that war Is a species of man-killing. It k
an antiquated governmental dovlco for settling
International disputes by killing men. Look at '
its instruments. Thoy aro all instruments of in
struction. Tho destruction is to bo wrought o
tho bodies of men. Look at that bayonet. It
was not made for tho killing of horses or lions
or tigers. It was mado to run through a man.
Look at that rifle. Notice the bullet. It was
mado to kill a man. Examino that hand gron
ade. It Is cunningly devised to explode just at
the moment when it can kill a man. Scrutinize
that shrapnel. It Is a shell with thin walls and
iusldo of It thoro aro two hundred and sixty-two
bullets, and some gun cotton and some powder,
and a time fuse, and when tho appointed instant
has come, it explodes, and tho bullets go out la
all directions In search of men. Thoy are con
structed to kill a hundred men In a minute. See
those bombs. Thoy aro works of art. Tholr
only excuse for being Is tho killing of men. See
those rolling billows of poisonous gases. Thoy
sweep across tho fields seeking mon. Thoy were
generated for tho express purpose of smothering
men.
SUPREME PURPOSE TO KILL MEN
Everything else In war Is incdental except the
killing of men. Property Is destroyed. Roads
are torn up, bridges are burned, homes are de
molished, but all this is only or the purpose of
obstructing and trapping men so that thoy can
bo killed. Fortifications nrc attacked and blown
to pieces, forts are assaulted and captured, but
this, too, is only incidental. Tho attacking army
is after men. No war can be ended by tho cap
turo of tho masses of concrete and steel. There
Is no victory in war except by tho killing of
men. As long as the enemy's army is alive, the
enemy Is not conquered. Tho enemy can not be
vanquished except by the killing of men. Men
are often wounded In battle, but that la not the
primary purpose of war. The supremo purpose
is to kill men, or to mangle them in such a way
that they can never fight again. Men aro some
times captured in war, but this Is not the su
preme purpose. Prisoners aro a burden and a
nuisance, they handicap tho operations of the
army which takes thom. Thoro Is nothing so
desirable in the waging of war as tho killing of
men. If it can be reported that ton thousand
men wero killed, the nation that killed thom is
glad, if twenty-five thousand aro killed, the vic
torious nation Is elated, If the number rises to
fifty or a hundred thousand tho nation Is hilar
ious. Victories are graded according to the
number of mon who are killed.
War is the killing of young men. Old mon
do not go to war, or if they go, they are not In
the fighting line. Thoy aro officers, and they di
rect operations from the rear. Only young men,
as a rule, aro killed In war. Men who have
lived their lives and done their work, and who
might therefore bo spared without mankind suf
fering irreparable loss, aro not wanted in war.
Only young men whoso life is all before them,
whose faculties are not yet fully developed, and
who have not had a chance to make their con
tribution to their nation and the world, -only
these are appointed to slaughter. The war god
is exceedingly fastidious in his selection of men.
He will accept only the strongest. He discards
with disdain the dwarfs and the hunchbacks, the
men with a shrunken arm, the men with a club
foot, tho men with weak lungs or an irregular
heart, or a body emaciated by disease. Only
the healthy and the vigorous and the robust are
led forth to be killed. The god of war refuses
to have anything to do with the blind, tho deaf,
the dumb, the crippled, the maimed, tho semi
paralyzed. He demands always and only the
best. Ho will not use the feeble-minded, the im
beciles, the idiots, the lunatics, the inmates of
insane asylums, he demands men who are in
full possession of their faculties, who are wide
awake and alert, and who can seize instantly
every opportunity for killing' another man.
But youcan not "kill men without killing wo
men. The lives of women are inextricably in
terwoven with the lives of men. Whatever hurts
men hurts women, whatever wounds men causes
women to bleed. Every man Is the son of a
woman. Not a man can bo killed without a
sword going through some woman's heart.
Many men have sisters, many have wives. Many
have daughters. A man's life may be vitally
intertwined with the lives of at least four wo
men nig mother, his sister, his wife and his
daughter. Kill a man and you quench the light
of the day for some woman, you take out of life
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