The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1915-03-18

and it would seem as though mans
enlightment had only made him more
terrible. Looking over Belgium we
see eight hundred thousand homes in
ruin. Crouched around the individual
ash heaps of their homes are three
million six hundred thousand agoniz-
ing mothers with their ragged, starv-
ing children freezing and dying in the
wintry blasts. The far-flung battle
line stretches across France, Austria
and Polond in one great waste of
successive trenches heaped with I'M
buried dead, on which the birds of
prey sit feeding. Everywhere there
is deafening roar of conflict, the
shouts of men, the thunder of awful
siege guns, the shrieks of the insane,
and the means of the dying. Rivers
run red with blood and are often turn
ed from their channels-choked with
human corpses. From the sea titanic
dreadnaughts batter down the cities
and hurl tons of steel at their distant
opponents. The under waters TEEN
with floating mines, submarines and
torpedoes, while the sky is clouded
with aerial fleets pouring destruction
on the helpless.
AS we thus feel the earth tremble
beneath the march of the iron heel,
we cannot help asking the cause of it
all. Why did our dream of universal
brotherhood end in such a tragedy?
1t is said to be causeless war; but it
is not analysis shows that
militarism was the cause. Had there
not been siege guns, rapid firing can
mons, aeroplanes, poisonous gases,
mammoth dreadnaughts and subma-
rines; had there not been military
cast of Cars, Emperors, Kings, dip
lomats and boasting generals, five
hour ultimatums over such petty
bubbles, could never have been sent.
The past century of militarism has
rendered the past century of mans
achievement a colossal heap of ruins.
From this dire carnage there arises
one great question: Shall military
preparedness and war go on for
ever?
Now as we look back over history,
we find that it is public sentiment
tl.at has solved all great social ques-
tens. Before high tides of public
sentiment thrones have tottered and
fallen, creeds have vanished and slav-
cry has become crime. No oppres-
sion ever ceased, no great wrong ever
was wiped out, until the indignant
masses rose up against it. 1t is pub
lie sentiment, therefore, which must
solve this most vital question of mil
itarism and war.
Let US, then, call our world wide
brotherhood to account and see what
position the people take regarding
armament and war. Capitalist, do you
want war? Never! At the very out
break of European hostilities you
announced that you would
neither finance nor promote war in
any way. 1t is true, war creates de-
mand for powder and bullets; but,
do your believe in promot-
ing this parasitic industry at the ex-
pcnse of all others? 1t was but yes
terday that the telephone and the tel
egraph brought to your office orders
asking for your products of cotton,
wheat, oil, coal, and machinery. To-
day you speak to your former custom
ers and hear in answer nothing but
the angry rage of war. Yesterday
your proud ships steered for a thous-
and welcoming ports. To-day those
ports are strewn with mines and
guarded with torpedoes and dread
while your ships lie idle, rot
ing at the wharves. But yesterday,
you may have sanctioned
as protection and means
of securing peace. To-day you realize
that this great, intricate, information
al business machine, with it's 28,0OO,-
100000 dollars of trade each year,
this world neighborhood of commerce,
cannot be ruled by destructive armies
and navies, but can exist only upon
harmony and OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
ton made possible by international
law.
Laborer, you who are the very life
blood of modern society, are you de-
sirous of war? Assuredly not, all
your great leaders are opposed to it.
Who is it that pays the tremendous
war tax of 3OO,OO0,0O0 of dollars,-a
sum which exceeds the entire cost of
our public school system? Who is it |
that must bow beneath Europe's over
war fund of 1900, 100000 |
of dollars? So enormous are the
sums that they bewilder US and defy
Who pays them? 1t is |
you, farmer; working in the scorching |
sun. 1t is, you factory worker;
sweating before the blast furnace.
Miner, it is you, you who work in the
deep, dark mines. Men of toll, it is |
you who pay from pour scanty wage
this crushing tax of war. And what
does it all profit you? You have no
quarrel with the peaceful workers of
a neighbor country. Cannon, sword
and dreadnaught do not secure you a
better wage. The ruin of industry
does not give you more work. No!
Laborer, your reward at best is mega