Goldsboro weekly argus., 1915-11-11
The Great COInnOner Ap-
DeaIS to the Common
People with Resist
less Conclusions

word great implies something more
than bigness. When we speak OF a
great institution or a great movement,
we have in mind something more than
mere size. There have been, think,
greater wars than this, but none that
approached it in bigness. 1t is the
biggest war ever known if we measure
it by the population of the nations at
war-never before have so many peo-
PIE lived in belligerent nations. 1t
is also the biggest war of which his
tory tells if we measure it by the
number of enlisted men who face each
other upon its many battle fields. The
estimates run from twenty-one to
thirty-one millions. Rather than risk
exaggeration, let US take the lowest
estimate; it is sufficient to make the
war impressive. In fact, the number
is so great that the mind can scarcely
comprehend it. Let me translate 1t
into everyday language by comparing
it with our voting population. We
have never cast as many as twenty
one million votes at an election. That
means that if all in every State who
have on a single day exercised the
right of suffrage could be gathered
together in one place, the concourse
vast as it would be, would fall several
millions short of the number now ac-
tuaIlu onoaood in fi0hfinQ
More than two million have been
wounded thus far. If ca any part of
the globe one hundred thousand per
sons were swept to death by pesti-
Ience, or flood, or famine, the world
would stand appalled,; and yet, in 6
little more than a year, more than
| twenty times one hundred thousand
/ have been summoned to meet their
God, and everyone owes his death ID
the deliberate intent and act of a
fe'lowman More than five million
have been wounded-this will give
you some idea of the awful toll that
this awful war is exacting in life and
suffering.
If we measure the war by the de-
structiveness of the implements en-
ployed, nothing so horrible has ever
been known before. They used to be
content to use the earth's surface fol
the maneuvers of war, but now they
have taken possession of the air, ant
thunder bolts more deadly than ti.s
thunder-bolts of Jove fall as if from
the clouds on unsuspecting people
And they have taken possession of thu
oceans depths as well, and death-deai
ing torpedoes rise from out the dark
ness to multiply the perils of the sea
They have substituted a long rang
rife for a short range rifle, BIZ
mouthed gun for a little mouthed gun
dreadnought for a battle ship, AM
super-dreadnought for dread
nought, to which they have added tn
submarine. And they now pour 1iqui
fire on battle lines and suffocate sold
iers in the trenches with poisonou
gases. Inventive genius has been e1
: hausted to find new ways by whic
man can kill his fel1owman!
And the nations which are at wa
are not barbarous nations-they ar
among the most civilized of the earth
y neither are they heaten nations the
y are among the Christian nations of tt
y globe. They all worship the san
"a God: and most of them approach tn;
God through the same Mediator. The
offor thoir c11rrIia1fiopo +o n ooropor
J. Heavenly Father and then rise up
= take each others lives.
10 The trade of the world is derange
and our nation, the greatest of tt
II largest foreign commerce, is sufferir
more than any of the others. Whe
. the war began we we're using the shil
n of other nations largely for the carr
, ing of our merchandise, when, all
once, the very nations whose shi]
we employed became involved in wa
and then one side drove the ships
the other side into our harbors al
compelled them to intern there, an
Or according to international Law, the
fe these ships must remain during t
n war, idle and useless, while we suff
for lack of ships. And the natio
D.. that drove these merchantmen fro
the seas are not under any obligatie
according to International Law,
:. supply vessels to take the place of t
e. ones of which they have deprived
On the contrary, they are at liberty