The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-03-17
BLIND PASSION FOR WAR.

L
has come the thought repeatedly in the
last six months that the whole world is
thirsting for the blood Of war. The
| sensible man knows how the slightest
pretext has been turned into the gray
est international difficulty, and he
| knows at the same time, that it is not
the intention of the diplomats, poliu-
clans or the newspapers to make 1T so
| without cause. There is something
back of it all-something lin the air.
which sets the whole world jabbering
for conflict on the smallest provocation.
! The matter has been often discussed re-
Gently in private conversations, but the
newspapers have overlooked it until re-
| Gently.
Now a writer in the London Spectator
calls attention publicly to the fact and
defies the philosophers or statesmen to
fathom it. He says: The present con-
dition of international affairs brings
forcibly to the mind one of the most
curious of all psychological puzzles.
Why do nations suddenly feel, as they
undoubtedly do, the stirring of an ap-
petite for war? Philanthropists argue
always that peace of itself always pro-
duces a desire for peace, that If a ma
ton can abstain from war for a gen
GRAFTON it will lose the desire for war,
Just as a man who has ''swOrn off,
for a long time loses the desire for
drink; but experience by no means war
rants their conclusion. On the con-
trary, history seems to suggest that
war coolS the desire for war, and that
peace generates it again. A nation
which has been engaged in a serious
war, even if successful, soon wearies
of the work, feels the excessive tension,
laments the number of its dead, and
fretS over the loss of personal COM
fort in the home, which is almost in
evitably one result of campaign. The
soldiers grow weary of the risk to their
bones, and those who are left at home
realize the horrors of battle with q
vividnesS which often produces, even
in warlike races like those Of western
Europe, a deep reluctance to be engag-
ed again. The French between 1871
and 1851 could hardly have been driven
to declare war, while even the Ger
mans, though persuaded in their own
minds of victory, regarded the idea Of
a fresh campaign with such horror that
it would have been impossible to con-
al ar1f on. 70
vote. 1t is after a long peace, when
a generation has grown up which
knows nothing of actual battle, that a
nation begins to grow restless, to recall
the pleasures instead of the pains OF
battle, to feel the desire of glory, and
to display a readiness to quarrel which
covers a secret desire for war.
Something of this no doubt is due 10
sentiment, men gradually forgetting all
in war that was not heroic or exciting,
and filling themselves with Kind Of
poetry which, as time goes on, mas
more and more in it of trumpet call;
but there is something besides, for
which recollection, or what may be
called the historic mind, will not alto
gether account The analogy between
Il nation and an individual IS closer
than we always remember. A gener-
alton without experience IS, in many
respects, like q young man who, even
| if he has work TO do, begins after lew
years to resent the monotony of life; TO
be impatient of humdrum even If profit
able: TO feel in his veins, without con-
scious volition, the desire for larger
arena, for deeper excitement, for adj
venture. even if il should bring botn
/ danger and pain. In the man the craY-
| ing is often satisfied by love; but a
nation cannot love; the one excitement
which stirs its blood 10 the adequate
| degree, which carries it out OF itself
! and out OF its weariSome sameness OF
I existence. is battle-a struggle with
EQUALS which involves both danger and
the chance OF gain. War with its
: happy chances said Napoleon Ill II
has often been said by historians that
the French In 1873 were positively sick
I or TIE lalltHt>S II v uaNA N-~-A $3.50
had been passed for thlrty-two years,
especially Of the last sixteen, during
which the nation had fourished com
mercially and intellectually, as
il never hourished before, but
had never enjoyed great adventure or
an enlivening thrill OF alarm You
|! can see the same signs of restlessness
in all the nations now, extending
even 10 Great Britain, where the thirst
* in part kept down by the ineessant
drawing of Of the wilder spirits Of each
generation 10 search for success and
careers in the wilder life Of India and
the great colonies. and showing itself
mostly viSibly in America where u the
absence Of enemies the desire for peace
ought 10 be perpetual
There * a certain fear Of war every
where, due 10 q perception Of the Fasi
scale on which il must be fought and
the terrible reduction IN the chances o.
escape which the new weapons VIII IL