The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-10-22

of the crowd. 1t is probable that the
next congress will be for it strong. Any
statesman can wave the flag and appeal
to our fighting blood.
The other plan is to begin to agitats
for some form of world government,
some intelligent cooperation among ma
tons. effectually to police the world and
hold the ruffian states in check.
Which Of these programmes do you
favor?
The plan you choose will be the one
this country will adopt.
1t is not an academic question. 1t has
been tried out. The experiments lie open
to your inspection. Suppose you take a
look
Every nation in Europe has tried the
plan of maintaining an armed force to
protect itself.
Every one of them, mark you, insists
its arms are only for defense, never for
invasion.
Has il saved any nation from war?
Every nation is guilty. Germany has
only carried the idea farthest toward its
logical conclusion. What has she got
from it?
Millions of her fittest children slaugh-
tered, her industries paralyzed, her busi-
ness ruined. her foreign commerce
wiped out
That's what adequate defense has
done for her.
1t has raised up against her enemies
all over the world. Instead of trading
with Russia, France. Italy and England,
she has transformed these states into
bitter foes.
II will take years for the destructive
hates to die down.
Millions Of Russian peasants rot today
in Polish fields, the result of Russia's
preparedness.
Millions of French and English youth
have been mutilated and murdered, to
pay for the wise. patriotic and noble"
plan Of preparedness to which an insane
world was committed.
Who pays?
You,
Not the kings and mobiles and states
men, but you! If you did not march out
in obedient droves to the slaughter-pens,
nations would settle their disputes some
other way.
It is you who die 1t is you who re-
turn. one-legged, blind. deaf, disease
snritten wrecks, to be burden on your
fellows.
II is your mothers whose hearts break.
your wives that wall, your children that
are turned out TO beggary.
And somebody must pay the money
bills also. And it is not the English
bankers that come over here to borrow
a billion They will never miss meal
nor n clean shirt.
Great Britain's new taxes are around
ten million dollars a week This is
burden in perpetuity, not temporary.
Subscriptions to the war loans Of the
German empire have reached over three
billion dollars.
Who pays?
The laborers must pay every cent Of it,
It eventually all comes from the men who
produce by work.
The capitalist classes will dodge it.
They always do.
It means that for generations an in
tolerable burden is saddled upon you.
That's what adequate defense means
in Europe. That's what crazy patriot
ism" means. That's what It means for
every nation to be prepared to resist an
invasion.
Would it not be cheaper for the next
American Congress to appropriate ten
billion dollars toward establishing world
government than to waste more millions
in initiating the utterly insane policy Of
Europe?
Will you not declare for world govern
ment and against any further advance on
the hell-road Of war-preparedness?
I appeal to you. You are the only
thinking class. You alone approach world
problems with the courage of reason, and
unblinded by claptrap.
Politicians feed upon the wind of catch
phrases. Editors of magazines seem to
see little farther than their noses
through the fog-deas of medievalism.
Statesmen seem to have no vision.
But to you is given glimpse Of
humanity. You are world citizens. II is
you and your brethren whose corpses
stink in the trenches. II is from your
knotted muscles the huge billion-sums OF
tax must be wrung. II is your offspring
for which the after-furies Of battle wait
poverty, hunger, cold, prostitution,
crime.
II you can think and act now, what
will IL not save YOU in the future7