The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1914-08-28
THE PEOPLES AND THE WAR.


In the first Of a series Of pamph-
let's to be issued by the G Gayma&stic
society Prof Ferd!naai Scheyill of
the University of Chicago, a special
list in modern European history, says
the things that needs Llost to be
said of this huge tragcGv of western
civilization.
We cannot fail TO b. deerly inter
ested in the part played by politics,
by diplomacy, by military policy, by
nationalist conspiracy aIi assas".na-
ton, toward precipitatihg thls world
disaster. We are not likely h over
look the fact that .he 'eior' tC war
was determined upon, net by the
peoples engaged nor by their elected
representatives, but in tie secrecy Of
chancelleries, in an atmosphere Of
miltarsm, and at the VIII Of auto
Gratis. In Russia, Germany, Austria,
government is dominated by the mil
itary artistocratic caste, and Ipon this
cast must rest large part of the
responsibility for the resp. to war.
Yet there is war spir,; in all Wig
orous peoples, not only tue war spirit
which is honorable, but that which
is not honorable, and beneath the
faults Of peoples, the defects cf our
western culture. AS Prof. Schevill
says, behind this war is the whole
civilization of Europe, which. brill
liant though it be in some respects,
must be suffering from many ard
wasting cankers to have been hrouch.
TO this sorry pass. Let the newspa-
pers and diplomats eXpatiate as much
as they will on this or that incident
which caused the war, the real rea-
sons lie deep down at the very roots
of our culture. They lie in our wild
Elrsuit of wealth, in our rampant
commercialism, in our race hatreds,
in our insufficient love of our fellow
men, in our competitive and military
psychology and in a hundred other
things constituting in their totality
what we boastingly refer TO as our
civilization"
If military autocracy has precipita-
ted war, the peoples have accepted
military autocracy and been accom-
plices in its ambitions. And when
the war is over, though this dynasty
has fallen or that has been exalted,
though this territory finds itself with
in one new political boundary and
that territory within another, the
peoples Of Europe" as Prof. Schevin
reminds us, will remain substan,
italy as they are within their his.
toric boundaries"
"Rlt these battered and impoyer-
1shed people he adds, will be pre-
served for no other purpose than for
new wars and new disasters if they
do not fit themselves out with a
new mind. And that means that the
indiyidual-for everything depends in
the last analysis upon him-must
learn the lesson Of peace and love.
for which in Europe much more than
in America he is as yet not greatly
receptive If the European man does
not acquire a new set of dominant
ideas the present war irrespective
of who wins or who loses, can only
add another mass of terrible rancors
10 those already existing Rancor
piled on rancor-that way madness
lies. Europe has followed a wrong
track and must imperatively call a
halt"
Two great changes, indeed. are nee.
essary in Europe. The peoples must
throw off their ruling castles and they
must control the passions which their
ruling csstes especially have cult
waited in them. They must get rid of
military autocrscies. They must also
rid themselves of the fallacies they
share with their rulers. But it will
not serve the people to learn the
lessons OF peace and love" il they
submit themselves to the rule OF
caste which scorns these lessons
Chicago Tribune.