The Washington herald., 1914-12-21

the places OF workers drawn into the war. 1t
is notorious that war, while causing mpover-
ishment to vast numbers of people, can seem to
make what we call good times" Things hum in
war time. There is excitement in the air, intense
human interest. People lose something of the pru-
dence and the moderation that characterize them in
peace. They tend to break away from their selfish
and limited little groups and they become identified
with larger life curiously free from pettiness. 1t
is when the is over that the truth is discovered
through the reactions from false values, from the
illusions of war. Then it is made plain that waste
has to be paid for and dearly paid for, too
In war the loss of life is not the only human
sacrifice. There is human sacrifice in the wanton
destruction of the human life that has gone into
the material things destroyed the things made by
the sweat and the blood of labor. War is a mon
strous joke, with labor the butt. II might just
as we'll fling to the winds the labor of millions of
men, extending over long period, and laugh aloud
at the sport.
Labor, unhappily doesn't understand as yet If
it did it could easily put stop this iniquty For
the most ghastly feature of this joke is that the
wanton destruction of the products of labor is done
by laborers themselves under the guidance of mas
ters. After serving one group of masters to add to
the labor products of the world they serve another
group of masters to destroy the labor products of
the world. 1t is to laugh and to weep at the same
time. How can the Great Master feel in looking on
at such defiance of all the teaching accepted as
divine?
The behavior Of Iaborers in war is, indeed, one
of the wonders of living They will not only de-
stroy their products but they will fight against
and destroy one another, the members Of their own
class their brothers in blood and in disinheritance
And they will do this monstrous thing to the ap-
plause of the masters There will be great soldiers
monuments raised in honor of the dead among
them, those who in trying to kill their brothers
were killed by their brothers, glorious reminders of
fratricide.
But suppose those laborerS were to get together
as one laborer. and suppose they to refuse to
destroy the products of labor and were to assert
the claims of labor their inalienable right? What
would the masters say then? 1t is safe to say that
the masters would be scandazed and would say
that the laborers were behaving like law-brcakers
and ought to be punished. They have said exactly
such things and they have felt in this way when a
few laborcrs have gone on a strike
And yet they will organize a strike disturbing the
whole world, and, because they give it the name of
war; they will expect the laborers to keep it going
and to risk giving up their lives for it
War, after all, is essentially strike. But it is
more impudent and ruthless and more destructive
and far-reaching than any strike has dared to
be. The present is so appalling that if it rep
resented the revolt of labor the members of the
the small minority. would feel that
the end of the world was at hand. And yet, repre-
senting minority control by a ridiculous paradox,
iusties itself and uses 1ahorers as nlayers in
game pawns the firing line, strikers not in name ;
but in fact strikers against their own facing deadly
foes without and being foes of their own and con-
trolled by foes. Most of all they to be ptied,
the laborers in this war.