The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1915-05-21
THE CAUSE OF THE EURO
PEAN WAR
War and Rebellions Will Continue
So Long AS Men Do Not Get
All They Produce
BY A. B. du PONT

MS WlIe, ana tnereDy lgnlted IuSe,
which, in burning, has caused the ex-
plosion of thousands of tons of am
munition, killing and manning hun
dreds of thousands of men; and the
fuse still burns, and it's burning may
ultimately cause the destruction Of
the lives of hundreds of thousands of
other men. Nay! 1t will cause the
destruction of the lives of more than
a million men, women, and children.
Not one of these people who have
been killed. or who are going to be
killed, has desired that any one of his
fellowmen be killed.
What has caused and is causing this
destruction of life? The fuse! Why
does not some one extinguish or de-
stroy it? Is it not because the ma
jority of men who live in the countries
now at war fear the burning of the
fuse less than they fear it's extin-
guishment? Why was the fuse con-
structed and why is it being extended?
Certainly it is not for the purpose of
killing men, women and children. 1t
must be for some other purpose
some purpose that the majority of
men believe will result in so great a
benefit to them that they are willing
to face the risk to their lives that is
entailed by the construction and the
maintaining of the fuse and all the
war equipment connected Herewith.
There can be only one reason that
can justify men to carry on war, and
it is that they believe by means of it,
life and happiness in the future can be
sustained by lessening expenditure
of effort 1t is, therefore, pertinent
to inquire what efforts are required
of men to sustain life and happiness,
and whether there is not a better way
to permit these efforts to be applied
than through the terrible destruction
of life and happiness that is occurring
in Europe
Life of man is, and always will be
sustained by the consumption of the
product of the application of labor to
materials, directed by intelligence;
and his happiness is wholly dependent
upon the extent that the qualification
of his physical and mental appetites
dc hn hfrr To HI cd ~ 4
mind in obtaining the cause of the
qualification
Therefore, the problem of man is to !
find a way to satisfy, as nearly as pos
sible, his appetites with the expendi-
ture of the least possible effort
Human experience has proved that
the least effort is required of men to-
wards satisfying their appetites when
the labor of some is applied to produce
one kind of product and of others TO
produce other kinds, and these pro
ducts are exchanged.
How, then, is it possible that men |
will cause the destruction of potential |
labor and materials by war?
Is it for the reason that their ap-
petites are satisfied? No!
Is it for the reason that there is not
enough upon or in the earth
to which potential labor can be ap-
piled in order to create products that
would tend to satisfy their appetites?
No.
Therefore, it must be that man has
not enough intelligence, or does not
use it sufficiently
Is it not absurd that almost all Of |
the inhabitants of Europe are divided |
into two great factions, both striving
to their utmost to destroy not only
the products of labor that they could |
exchange, but to destroy life (poten- |
tial labor. the product-use Of which |.
could be exchanged, and thereby also
help satisfy the appetites Of the con
tenders?
There can be only one explanation
for this folly, and it is that the con-
tenders believe that if they had not
started the war, or if they now stop
it, they would have less chance of hav-
ing their appetites satisfied than by
the war continuing.
Manifestly there can be only two
reasons that could have induced any
of the nations now at war to engage
in it, and these are that each nation
believed either that it would gain ad-
vantage to its inhabitants at the ex-
pense of the inhabitants of other ma
tions, or that an existing advantage
that it's inhabitants enjoyed would be
taken from them.
What is it that the inhabitants of
one country want that belongs to the
Inhabitants of another country?
1t is not the possession OF persons.