IT is a very significant fact that in all civilized lands to-day there is the greatest activity in pushing forward preparations for war.
Whatever other branches of industry are idle, the effects of “hard times” and “over production” are never felt in the great workshops where are forged the nation’s implements of destruction. They are usually running “over time.”
One might imagine that civilization and war went hand in hand, or that war was an instrument of civilization, instead of being, as in truth it is, its destroyer.
Is civilization now preparing to commit suicide?
All Europe is an armed camp; and now the war agitation has involved the heathen countries of the far East, and extends its dark shadow across the water, so that it covers the nations of both hemispheres: and we are compelled to face the prospect of a general war, which will inflict a blow upon civilization that will sweep away at once the fruits of centuries.
This is the actual situation: and in view of it, how unwise to foster a sort of “patriotism” which glorifies war, and covets the opportunity to demonstrate national prowess amidst death and carnage.
Let us have a different patriotism taught to our youth and children.
IT makes a great deal of difference whether you get satisfaction out of those things which tend to ennoble and prolong life, or out of things that tend to debase and destroy it.