The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-12-02
TREND OF THE TIMES.

Two striking facts are now re- ported from Great Britain. It is likely that the war has something to do with both. Neither seem to he related to the other, yet there IS 2 closer connection than would aP- pear on the surface. One of these is tn announced attitude of George Berss ard Shaw to christianity, and the other the position take by the con scientious objectors to military serV- ice and the activities of the No-Con- scription League.
 The latter movement is embracing not less than twenty thousand of the ablest men of Great Britain. They fatlv refuse to aid or aDet the pro- secution of the war. They reject the attempt of the government to make them serve without being placed mon the firing hne, by serving Ill the Nou-Combatants regiment as q greater insult than forced military service on the firing line, being by implication an attempt to prove tha it was their physical cowardice and not their moral scruples which pre- vented them from serving.
 These men are being arrested and dealt with in a manner unheard of heretofore Crulety of the most refined type is the main character. istic of the punitive treatment meted out to the passive resistance of this man or that who refuses to serve: "Nauy of the men so arrested have been kept in solitary confinement for weeks. Some in irons, some with a food allowance of eight ounces of bread and two cups of water daily, not to mention severer torture.
 One of them recently was fined for issuing pamphlet against these tortures and in his defense he said among other things: we wish to secure the recognition of the fact that such men cannot be forced to 0Snt, that lHt oldIC o"Si' ~
 cognize their right to their prin- ciples. quite regardless of whether those principles are right or wrong. The recognition of liberty in various directions has always come onl! after a struggle. The struggle to secure liberty for those who think it wrong to fight is now at US height The persecution which these men have endured has enorm- ouslv increased their moral weight. It illustrates the invincible power of that better way of passive resist ance which pacifcists believe to be stronger than all the armies and navies of the world. Men inspired bv Faith and free from the domln- ion of fear are unconquerable. Over and over again in the worlds his tory this has been proved. The au- thorities have forgotten it, but 1t is heinz proved over and over again bcfore their astonished eyes I would say that whether l am con victed or acquitted matters little. Put it is not only l that am Ill the dock. it is the whole tradition or H. bertv which our ancestors built up through centuries of struggle ana sacrifce Other nations may sur pass us in other respects, but the tradition of liberty has been the su" preme good that we in this coun- try have preserved more than any thing else, and for that liberty or the individual I now stand". Russel who was a college professor was convicted and suffered punishment.
 Yet everything that he says, IS true. Men must be prepared to de- fend their liberties and their .prin- ciples at all risks if it is to remain, and unless there is an implicit faith in the cause which they spouse and the principles that guide them. they will be certainly overcome, If not, nothing can conquer them.
 Turning now to the picturesque attitude towards christianity which Bernard Shaw has taken up, 1t IS in order to say that it is picturesque only because it is taken up by Shaw. He asks that christianity be given a fair trial, and he says himself that if we are to make any sort of progress we must.