The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-05-16
SAYS WAR mania
IS BORN IN Us
Israel Zangwill Asserts Great
Infection Is with People
from Nursery.
PUTS BLAME ON CLERGY
n IL
PUTS BLAME ON CLERGY
Writer Declares They Keep Up the
Notion that Warfare Is
Always Holy.
By ISRAEL ZANGwILL.

Vienna met with dancing and revelry to
put the peace of Europe on permanent
foundation. Even the Jews. represented
by deputies looked forward-as the re-
ward of their fratricidal strife in every
camp-to equal rights everywhere.
While the pundits and diplomatists were
still talking, Napoleon escaped from Elba,
but after the little hitch at Waterloo.
the eight powers proceeded with the par
ttion of their world, and the Car of
Russia. the Emperor of Austria and the
King of Prussia entered into holy al
lance so that the peace of Europe and
the principles of Christianity should be
henceforth unbroken.
At more than one peace gathering in
London. informed by even more than the
Niennese enthusiasm for humanity. it has
been my unSrateful role to try to bring
home TO my felIow-members the masni-
tude OF our task, the pettiness of our
equipment and the insufficiency of our
sacrifices.
But there is nothing more binding than
the white light of an ideal. On one Of
these occasions the late Mr.. Stead re-
buked me holly for my ''unbelief': he
had just made a tour of the crowned
heads of Europe and they were princes
of peace, one and all-war was prac-
tically ruled out. Another time it was
the chairman, Lord Shaw. who was stung
into reproof. the shrewd Scotch lord of
appeal rhapsodizinG like a Shelley.
But the most recent and vivid of my
recolections-it is scarcely older than the
warts of seeing Sir Edward Grey and
MIR. Carnegie side by side at public
peace dinner. the fine outstanding English
squire and the shriveled Scotch-Ameri-
can ironmaster. each buoying up the
others dreams and the little octocenar-
ian declaring with shining eyes that he,
Carnegie, would yet live to see the end
of war.
Seeds of War Profuse.
The Congress Of Vienna had at least
the fall of Napoleon for an asset of
hope. But in 1914 the very outbreak
of war was the signal for the outbreak
Of optimism. The War That Will
End War was the title of a precipi- |
tate pamphlet by Mr.. Wells and his
hail to the coming peace on earth
found a hundred echoes. But it is !
characteristic of utopians that in the |
very bankruptcy of their visions they |
find a fresh ground of hope. since a |
crash is at least change. and as yet |
stacnation has been the limit of their |
achievement. The toughest examina-
ton of the facts reveals. however. that |
the seeds of war are scattered over the |
planet 5 profusely as the seeds OF life.
and it needs only the fructification
of a single seed to ergender war. the
notion that we can escape war by some
process other than the eradication of
these seeds from human nature, by
som" diplomatic deXterity. information
al tribunal. or financial demonstration,
is a pathetic illusion.
Most of the germs of war lie indeed
in the spheres of consciousness below
reason. and to eliminate them needs a
transformation of our deepest being |
Mer need not become supermen, but
they must complete their evolution
from the brute. The widely diffused
ardour for world-peace is welcome
sign that this evolution is still in pro-
cess. hut this moral ardour is not &C
companied by any adequate intellectual
grasp of realities. nor is il even moral
enough TO be willing to pay the price
"f peace; no. not even though We have
now learned the price of Wharf.-The
colossal, staggering. sickening price of
modern war.
Until the conquering nations are
ready 10 pool their winnings and di-
vide them among the losers, it is idle
TO expect the millennium. Let us
ralher anaiyze the causes of war so
that in the war against war" we may
know what We are up against.
Heroic Side of War
The first cause of war is the conn
batiNe and sporting clement in man,
relic of his primeval barbarism The c
higher ape We call homo is the brayest J
and fiercest of the beasts But he is
angel as well as beast, and the fight
ing instinct is blended with his noblest
OF impulses of love and self-sacrifice E
He alone is capable of fighting a 5
vision. {
Ii is this heroic side of war which the 4
topians ignore The military manual n
instructs You to twist your bayonet in o
me cnemy's bowels, since mere trans a
liking may not be fatal. What can be b
more revolving? Yet. to overlook that II
the twlstcr is offering his own entrails b
10 the stccl-to dismiss him as a mere a
murderoUs hrute-what can be more I'M NJ
just? Tennyson tells us that it is not m
so difficult TO overthrow a lie, but that a
"A lie which is half a truth is a harder =
lie to fight" ~
War is a lie which is half a truth and k
hence ITS inrincibillty. And it is this h
truthful half which supplies a sound di
basis for all the poetry and romance of sc
war, though these in their turn hide
away the other half-the dirt and dis te
ease the dullness and Ghastliness and b,
the fact that the warrior is butcher as .
we'll as martyr m
AT the front or in the hospitals the tn
'erinlhous, Sangrenous aspects OF 1.-THE of
sport of kings" cannot indeed be OBJ W
scurred, but these ugly realtie. are the Al
secret Of a small minority; their descrip- 70
tons are often euphemistic and even pr
"hen realistic are not realized by the til
vast majority of the nation. dominated 81
as these are by the romantic vision of w
war. and. after a time, under the hyp- III
motto obsession of the dominant romanti- tn
rism and the transformers OF physical &c
impressions. the horrors fade even from la
he minds OF the witnesses The wound til
ed who recover are pleased, and dead
men tell no tales.
The Infection OF War.
As over the torn and blackened fields
II blood the green grass comes back to n,
over and purify, so poetry gathers over ="
ne ghastliest realities, ilumining them ~
With the old glamour. The great ma u
ional storehouse OF war-lyrics and bat
lie pictures find itself enriched by new NJ
treasures. beauty blossoming like roses
inder the manure OF carnage, and the
lext generation Is born into an even Fl
more compelling atmosphere Of combat.
War breeds war as money begets Al
money. Its infection IL with US from the
nursery. 1t is significant that Mr.. Wells,
iimself has not only found his chief lit. o..
rery inspiration In war, but has actual
y placed on the market Q new warl
anne After Armageddon. fought a. It W
las been on land and sea. In air and uni 81