Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-08-20
IN DEFENSE OF WAR.
Can Be eanished from World Only BY
Debasing Human Nature.

The truth is that the denunciation OF
| war rests at bottom upon a gross ma
terialism. The horrors of war are
obvious enough; but it may reasonably
| be argued that they are not greater
than the horrors of peace. There can
be no sacrifice without price, no
spiritual conflict without material suf-
fering. To see only the horrors and to
see i'm them the be-all and end-all of
warfare, is to be guilty Of that singular
blindness, lie vulgaire des sages. which
is possible only to the morbidly intel
ligent. Pain, on this theory, is the one
great evil; to avoid pain any sacrifice
OF honor, self-respect and wholesome
ambition is justifiable. 1t is re-
pulsjVe doctrine when set down ex-
plicitly in words but it underlies much
OF the so-called humanity" Of the
apostles of peace. Is our self-exami-
nation to result In the confession:
There is nothing in the world worth
the deaths of our fellowmen and the
tears of women and orphans?" The
ordinary conscience is, happily, above
such a creed. While the world remains
what 1t is, nothing of value can come
into being without struggle and the
war is the colossal form Of this dire
necessity.
Limit the chances of strife as much
as we may, and mitigate it's atrocities,
we must face it's ultimate certainty;
and the true way in which to ennOble
war is not to declare it in all it's forms
the work Of the devil, but to empha-
size the spiritual and idealist element
which it contains. 1t is a kind of
national sacrament, grave matter in
to which no one can enter lightly and
for which all are responsible, more
especially in these days when wars are
not the creation of princes and states
men, but of peoples. War. on such a
view. can only be banished from the
world by debasing human nature: for
war implies seriousness. and If the
human race is only made frivolous
enough. the Saturnian era will no
doubt begin
Count Tolstoy appeals for support 10
the "sincere, serious, rational man,"
but his appeal is more logical if adj
| dressed to the trifler. Let militarism,
which is the degeneration of the fight
| ing spirit, once become a power in the
land and we shall have guarantee of
peace, because the ideals which sup
port war will have been destroyed. and
the last appeal Of humanity turned
| into a game.
| In a world of overgrown ornaments
and huge lifeless armies there will be
neither the impulse to fight nor any
real machinery to fight with. If We
| can imagine Europe in the kind Of
military straight-waistcoat which
adorned the forces that We're scattered
at Jena. we should have the soundest
guarantee of a sodden and hideous
| tranquility. Or let the nations become
incurably frivolous. incapable of hon.
est ambition. and, therefore. of honest
sacrifice, and we shall get the same
pleasing result. Any word of war
would be promptly hushed up.
for would not war disturb the great
| international motor race next week. or
the inter-European wrestling match
which is fixed for the summer?
The truth of the matter is that until
nationality and national ideals are
abolished. and all the races and states
| are fused into one, to make war i'm
| possible you must destroy. not the
| baser desires of man. but his essential
idealism. IF reformers are prepared to
60 thus far. they have logic on their
side. whatever we may think of their
wisdom: but to counsel a universal
apathy in the interests of truth and
righteousness seems to us neither
logical nor wise.-London Spectator.