The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1915-12-17
Stupid Cersori11q

DACIFISM cannot be exterminated by official
i edict The postmaster general crosses the line
of reasonable censorship OF the United States mails,
under the existing laws in placing the ban upon some
writing by lack London attacking the soldiers call
ing. The complaints of the military censorships IN
Europe are very bitter and doubtless they are IN
part we'll founded if the countries over there
are at war. But the United States is at peace and
American citizens should not be muzzled in the SIN
expression of their views concerning the theory
and practice of fighting
Mr. Bureson DEGREES that the following anal isis
of soldering by Mr.. London, entitled "A good SOL
der shall not be allowed the privileges of the United
States mails
Young man, the lowest aim in your life is to be
"a good soldier The good soldier never tries to
distinguish right from wrong He never thinks,
never reasons; he only obeys. If he is ordered
to fire on his fellow-CitizenS, on his friends, on
his neghbors, his relatives, he obeys without
hesitation. If he is ordered to fire down a
crowded street when the poor are camorlng tor
bread he obeyS and the gray hairs OF age
stained with red and the life tide gushing from
the breasts of women, feeling neither remorse
nor sympathy. If he is ordered off as one of a
firing squad to execute hero or benefactor, he
fires without hesitation, though he knows the bull
let will pierce the noblest heart that ever beat IN
human breast
A good soldier is a blind, heartless soulless,
murderouS machine. He is not a~man. lie is
not even a brute for brues only kill in self-de
Tense All that is human in him. all that is divine
in him. all that constitutes the man. has been
sworn away when he took the enlistment roll
His mind, conscience, aye, his soul, are IN keep
ing of his officer.
No man can fall lower than sOldier-it is a
depth beneath which cannot 60
The tone of that is to be resented, no doubt. The
picture of the soldier at his best in his nobest Ao
ments is not presented. One sees outlined only the
soldier who takes his place in firing squad to shoe
the Edith Cavels The soldier who obeys implicitly
from sense of moral duty who leaps forward eX
ultany to the assault that must cost his life because
he is burning with the passion OF selt-sacrlhce to
home and country-this type of soldier, and it IS the
American type, is certainly ignored by Jack Londor
and his extreme paciFst friends.
- Yet nothing is more common than violent Language
in denuncation of war War is hell" "War is or
ganized massacre" The battle sheer murder
1.-THE soldiers fought like hends" WAR turns thu
combatants into savages." One cannot easily mattel
the writers in every language who have sought to de
scribe the atrocities of and the beaSty effect o.
fighting upon the warriors of every nation and CLINE
In describing good soldier as "a blind heartless
soulless murderous machine" Jack London express
ed in his own downright way what has been said
thousand times in all lteraturcs. The poet expressed
much the same idea who wrote, Theirs not to reason
why; theirs but. to do and die
The postmaster general thinks the Springfield Re
publican, will have merry time supPreSsng lltera
lure modern or classical which paints black the sol
diers calling He cannot hope, surely to russianlz
America by censorng utteranCeS concerning wa
either in the abstract or the Such expires
sions harm nobody least of all the soldiers whom w
must have when we need them. Mr.. BureSon j.
stupid--comically stupid and is only increasing TIN
circulation Of Jack London.