The Washington herald., 1915-12-14

Special ConspoaAnt q rhs Waahinstss Head.
New York. Dec. lA-That the old adage
Ito tho effect that war results In the sur
vival OF the fttest IL not true Mr.. VIII
Irwin rises to assert:
IT'S Just the reverse" says Mr.. Irwin.
The strongest. finest. healthliest young
men Of . country are called out first and
sent to the firing line to be shot. They
are the flower Of the country. Nearly
all OF them are unmarried ana 10 they
leave no children to inherit their physical
perfection. When they are killed on the
next force to 70 to the front to take their
place and be killed u the second line. or
the first reserve. They are mostly men
approachin middle ago. who have some
children and men who are only second
class physically.
''The third army to 60. when the other
two have been slaughtered, 10 the old
and decrepit men and and the physically
unit That's what's left to survive a
war-the little whiffets and the enfeebled.
Survival of Unattest.
1t Is not the fittest that survive a war.
II Ii the unAttest. In modern warfare
on thing 10 sure-the best manhood In the
eourty is killed OF first. In the days of
the cavemsn. when war was waged with
clubs. doubtless the strongest and fittest
survived. But schrapnel shells are not
discriminating. They kill the fine. robust
young man Just as easily as they do the
little whifYets.
IT'S Just as the Chinese minister said
when Brussels was about to be lombard
ed. He asked the American Minister
what he was going to do with the Ameri-
csn citizens In the city. The American
said he would gather them In the legation
under the American flag and they would
then be the same as though they were on
United States territory.
Ah,' replied the Chinaman, but a
cannon. he has no eyes,
"Since the war started 100000 Of the
finest manhood in Europe has been killed
and as the war will probably last an
other year 100000 more OF them will
be lost to civilization and the progress
Of the world. They cannot be replaced
Tho fittest Of the warning nations will
have been killed
Hardened By Peace.
They say. also. that war hardens and
strengthens q nation and that peace
makes 1t soft. Not a bit Of It. The con-
trary has always been proved. This wal
proves II. Peace hardens a nation and
war weakens II. Only the weaklipgs are
left after a war. The Central European
nations had been at peace practically
since the Franco Prussian war. nearly
half a century ago. and never were sol.
diers harder or more heroic than In this
war. Heroism Is universal. 1t is so com.
mon no attention II paid to II. Never
were soldiers more heroic than these raw
peasants who compose the fighting armies
and who had never smelied gunpowder
before At the time Of our great civil war
We had no war worth mentioning for near
ly half a century. Ninety-nine per cent
OF the armies Of both North and South
were men who had had no experience in
war. and nobody can say they were
soft
Many people assert that war Is a good
thing and that II purses a country to
that country's ultimate good. Well. IL a
country needs purEins and It is necessary
to kill OF part of the population I have
an idea which I think is a great improve
ment over war.
Employ cholera to that end.
Cholera Is a disgusting. but not neces-
sarily fatal. disease. 1t Is no more dis