Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1914-11-26
WAR AND PLAY.
Prohibit Guns Not Games

cruel, numerous war, with It's SICK
ening waste In worldwide proportions
and in method most brutal and bar
barous, falling upon us with unbe.
lieyable suddenness and now already
prolonged into pitiful exhaustion and
the disappointment Of hopes defer.
ed. still RACES In Europe with as little
promise OF peace as when II began
The International honor OF treaty
agreements flung to the winds, neu-
trail territory invaded and outraged.
and the regulations OF war wickedly
violated, cruel bombs hurled from the
air into innocent peaceful villages OF
helpless women and children. deyas.
tating stupendously. manging wick.
eddy. numbering deyllshly, destroying
everywhere and everything, sparing
not even the sacred cathredrals. con.
tanning the irrecoverable artistic and
spiritual assets OF a hundred years
defaming and degrading the very
moral instincts OF all participants and
transforming civilized peoples into a
barbarous horde-Jullas Caesar with.
out the Inheritance OF Christian In.
! huences. never lost more utterly his
sense Of humanity or OF rudlmen;ary
decency.
Yet out of It all shall come an abid.
ing good. Each bellgerent country
will acquire spirl. OF national con.
seriousness hitherto unknown. In this
new and larger sense Of national un.
! ity, old domestic difficulties will be
absorbed Russian Jews will enjoy a
real citizenship England's Irish ques.
ton will be forgotten; the French
Clerical Peril" will be superseded by
a new religious awakening. and most
far-reaching and consequential OF all
-militarism shall he forever crushed.
The present war will not cease until
this last great blessing Is attained.
Above and beyond all racial prejudice,
above the Unbalanced minds and III.
chosen means OF kaisers, czars and
kings points the directing finger OF
destiny. Temporary defeat shall not
daunt her. lnconclusiye victory shall
not compromise her purpose. The
WEAKNESS of hopes deferred embit.
tered by semi-staryation shall not
blunt the edge OF her resolve.
Meantime our great American
statesman and president has most APP
propriately declared, MY thought Is
of America" To the true and ingeni.
GUS American nothing Is useless. moth
ing in vain: he finds in every man a
teacher, in every event an occasion
for self Improvement What, there.
fore. shall America gain from this
beastial European catastrophe?
First: The incarnation Of Americas
most sublime idea, that there are no
Germans or French or English here.
That Irrespective Of lineage or birth
or previous governmental or religious
allegiances. every citizen Of the United
States Is an integral part Of one great
united nation and Is first, last and all
the time a loyal American.
Second: America viii gain that
commercial supremacy OF the world
which our legislative policies Of the
past fifty years have failed so utterly
to secure. Our foreign trade will be
doubled and new home industries will
be stimulated We shall have learned
through necessity to make many OF
the commodities we now import, and
we will supply practically the whole
western hemisphere with American
products.
Third. 1t will be impressed upon
us once for all that contrary 10 Ger
tain political demagogues peace car
, never be preserved by preparation fol
war; that militarism is not protective
but provocative. Instead, therefore
of the manufacture of the siege-gun.
for the destruction Of life, we will
manufacture goods for the preserya
ton and comfort Of life. Instead o
instruments Of torture, we will max,
: instruments Of pleasure. Instead o
the accoutrements Of war, we viii
s arm our citizens with the accoutre
I ments Of play Instead Of employing
; the surplus energies Of our youth II
the non.productiye activities of devas
tation and ruin, we will give then
those wholesome recreations whicl
increase their capacity for toll. In
stead of sending our young men ava,
to weary marches, hunger and death
; we will keep them at home, contentet
and peaceful. Instead of providing
s our little boys with toy rifles, knive
! and Indian war dress, with which t
; develop the savage spirit of destruC
s ton and murder, we will give then
{ miniature bowling alleys and turnin
; poles, home billiard tables and indoo
) baseball with which to develop tn
{ spirit of domestic contentment and
Unhappy family consciousness. lnstea