Arizona republican., 1905-07-28
PHoENIx. ARIZONA. JULY 28, 1905
Striking at the Root of War

Rabbi Levey, vice president of the Universal Peace union. is a reformer who believes in getting down to the roots of things. He perceives that before wars cease the spirit of mili- tarism must be eradiCated from hu- manity and that all attempts to reform the race into utter peaceableness must begin with the individual He also holds that if the individual man is transformed from belIgerent animal ready to fight at the drop of a hat for "the little things he cares about into a good and timid creature, with out a grain of fight in him, the indi- viduaI man must be caught young He proposes to begin his work of re- form in the nursery. He believes that the military toys and amusements of male chfldhood-the playing soldiers" the toy armies. the toy cannOns, rifles. swords, uniforms, and so on, are largely responsible for the spirit of militarism that prevails among men and for the warlike unrest that dis turbs the nations. This is not mere theory with Rabbi Levey. He is about to make an effort to apply his idea practically.
 After attending the convention of the peace union shortly to be held at Luzerne he proposes to visit all the great toy manufacturing centers in Europe and to labor personally with the leading tOymakers to induce them to cease manufacturing all toys carry ing with them the least suggestion of miIitarism. It is to be feared that Rabbi Levey's efforts will not be es- pccialIy successful. A photograph of a toy manufacturer voluntarily aban- doning the most important branch of his business-for the toys that appeal to the military instinct in the small boy probably excel in numbers and popularity all other toys together, eX- ccpting the toys that appeal to the maternal instinct in little girls-wiH never be secured by the most enter prising camera ffend. Even if his ef- fort were altogether successful and all military toys should vanish forever and be forgotten. as though they had never been, it is to be doubted whe,h- CT the cause Of universal peace would be greatly advanced. The fighting spirit seems to be an inherent and essential trait of masculinity the cause rather than the effect of the average small boys preference for military toys over all other toys. The only way to rid q man of the fighting instinct is to kill him. And one may be unregen- crate enough to think that a man might as well be dead as incapable of being reused to the fighting pitch by any provocation.
 Still Rabbi Levey's idea is not en- tirely unphilosophical. There is no possible doubt that a mans adult views are considerably colored by his nursery experiences. Our first ideas of the state of kingship are derived from our nursery story books and their illustrations. These commonly persist through life, especially in the United States, the great mass of whose citizens never have an oppor- tunity to correct their first ideaa of royalty by comparison with actual. visible royalty. The concept called to mind by the word king" invariably includes the sweeping robes of ermine and velvet, the crown, the scepter and other royal appanages of the pictured monarchs of his nursery literature.
 His adult knowledge of things as they are at once corrects this concept, but even while his reason accepts, his instinct revoIts at, a king in a pot hat and a business suit" carrying a walking stick or an umbrella in lieu of a scepter and looking just like anybody else" It is very likely that most persons whom circumstance es do not bring into intimate contact with actual royalty find it quite impossible always to rid their minds of the effect of their nursery ed ucation in respect of the manners. ] customs and appearance of kings and queens. princes and princesses. When the surviving Jefferson Bricks of our day express their scorn and contempt for the "effete monarchs of Europe it is obvious that they have in mind the crowned, robed and sceptered kings of the nursery picture books.
 It is impossible for Jefferson Brick to conceive of a king as a hard-work- ing business man. getting but precious little out of his job and no fonder of dressing up" in absurd finery than any other business man. Indeed, if Jefferson Brick happens to be a grand high something or other in an Ameri- can secret society he probably appears in robes of state far oftener than any monarch m Europe. The common