The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-08-04
The Purpose of War.
:. ~ Or. FRANK CRANE
tCopyrtght. 1915. By Frank Crane,


Every fort, trench, battleship, sub
marine, and airplane has for its object,
directly or indirectly, the manning or
numbering of men.
Every soldier in brilliant uniform.
every officer upon prancing horse,
all the glitter and imposing display
OF troops, all the Haunting of flags,
all the impassioned lingo appeal, all the
urging toward adequate national de-
tense, means at the core that differ
ences of opinion between governments
shall be adjusted by blowing off limbs,
crushing heads, gouging out eyes, dis
emboweling men, and causing them to
suffer excruciating anguish.
Don't forget this. It is time we ap-
proach this war business with clear eyes
and common sense.
The gist Of war is that state questions
shall be settled by the torture and muir
der of certain number Of citizens.
We tolerate war simply because We
are medieval minded. blinded by Gus
tom, asphyxiated by the universally of
folly, our intelligence stupefied by an
cient fraud
How our children's children shall look
back with puzzled amazement upon our
day, when to arrange boundary we
murder million, and to determine how
we shall be governed we pour out hogs
heads Of blood!
Even as we now wonder how gentle
men used to think their honor could not
be maintained without duelling; as
courts used to make the defendant pass
with bare feet over glowing Goals to
prove his innocence; as churchmen
once harried and burned heretics to up
hold the faith.
We are still brutal, savage, unreason-
ing. We are civilized only on the sur
face. We are little advanced beyond the
Hottentot and the red Indian.
There is but one rational stand for q
sane, intelligent man to take, and that
is that under no circumstances will he
participate in the madness of the world;
he will not aid in any wise in war MAX
ing.
A number of college students have
formed league pledging themselves
against enlistment to fight citizens of
another country. All the Fiji editors
and Apache statesmen nave pounced
upon them in vituperation. Valorous
orators have cursed them. The Rev.
John Haynes Holmes, prominent New
York pastor has been called all manner
of names for indorsing the movement.
Suffice it to say that never until the
people everywhere take precisely the
stand Of these courageous youths and
this fearless minister will the world
stagger out of the slime and shame Of
its present state.
/ confess that when see the leaders
of thought in my country SOLDERING
about in arguments to make this nation
formidable military machine, AND
WHOLLY NEGLECFUL OF TAKING
ANY STEPS TOWARD WORLD Gov
EMINENT AND THE TOTAL ABOLI-
TON OF WAR am respondent.
ne OILY WdT Tie OUltcu OtdtSo oIlOuIu
engage in is a war upon war.
Failing in advocating world federation
at this time, we fail in our world duty.
If we follow the crazed footsteps Of
Europe we shall 60 down as Europe has
gone down; the excellency Of our civili-
cation Is drowned in sea of blood.
1t is more intelligently heroic to suf-
fer, to be spit upon, to be rallied at, and
if need be to be shot, as an opponent Of
war than as defender of ones country.
To save humanity from war is far
nobler aim than to save one nation from
another.
Says the author of the recent volume,
"JAccuse":
1.-THE war neurosis' has really become
epidemic, like the st. Vitus' dance and
fagellation in the middle ages. Just
as the dervishes in the Far East repeat
over and over again the same prayers,
and go through the same gymnastic