Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-04-01

Sir: am not pro-German, nor for peace at any price. was born in
France. am of French descent, and strongly proAny in all my sympa-
thes. I believe that the German government has been the main aggres-
sor. I believe it prepared for and forced the war; that it has carried it on
with stupid brutality. Above all, l SET in German mitarism a blight
upon civilization.
have tried to look a. this peace and war question from every angle. I
have been puzzled and doubtful at all times of my own mental processes in
regard to it. Frankly, I have come to the end of my faith in the whole
legaistic and natonalstic aspect of the question. feel that we cannot
square our national rights with the universal wrongs that have arisen out
|of the war: I am only sure and clear about the general primitive and
human elements of the crisis. And these, IS it seem to me, have not
1been stated widely.
The war has grown into a question larger than this Or any nations
individual rights or local considerations of honor. The war is different
from anything that, so far as we know, has ever happened before. Large
ly on account of the inventions of civilization, the war has developed into
a new and immeasurab1e disaster to humanity sweeping, widespread
epidemic, for which there is no precedent in history. 1t is so terrible al
Ireadv. so sinister in its possibilities and so virulent in it's spread over the
Jearh that it is unparalleled, a law unto itself. Manmade laws, rules, ira
|dtons and rights fall before the common need Of humanity to bring this.
eatacysm to close. If we are to have democracy, brotherhood, Chris
tAnity or any civilization worth living in, some nation, for the sake of
these things and in the nan of stricken world, must be human enough,
great enough, brave enough and humble enough to say This thing shall
spread no farther, whatever may be the cost to us"
No personal consideration, no pratng about international rights and
laws, no talk about Commercial. losses o gains is tolerable at this time of
the worlds appalling necessity: So far has the condagraion burned;
here it must cease. The nation that now adds to war for any purpose
short of defense against actual invasion is not a brave nation. No honor
that at this time loves itself better than humanity is true honor. No law
that stands between u and the higher law of helping humanity in distress
lis worth the paper it is written on.
Today the war is not being fought for definite aims. The be1iger-
ents have not set definite goals, at which they will stop fighting. The dy-
ing mu1ttudes on the fields of battle and the millions of wretched human
beings waiting in sorrow at home do not know what they are fighting and
waiting for. They only know that they have been told to do something
for patriotism and liberty; and that fear and obedience to authority keeps
them at their task. The war may have begun with definite aims, but it
has gone past all that now. The nations are fighting with the primitive
instincts of destruction and aggression, though using every civilized inven-
ton and the organization of twentetheentury society, a we'll as the
primitive weapons of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Of women and chldren-m
order to kill Or cripple the enemy. In fact, nothing but the starvation Of
one of the beligerent groups any longer promises peace between them, in
the embittered, pain-twisted madness of war. Unless some great Power
not a party to the strife can remain beyond the reach OF this madness,
there is little hope for peace, except the peace Of exhaustion and death.
According to best available information, the actual losses, of the war
are almost double those reported by the beligerent governments them
selves. Up to January they were over 100000 in killed, wounded
and missing. Good opinion is that losses among non-combatants due to
violence, disease, increased infant mortality, hunger and other incidenta1s
of war are equal to those among the soldiers. This would bring the
total up to more than forytwo million. In addition to this, the Com
mission for Relief in Belgium reports three and a half million people in
Belgium and two million in France wholly or partially destitute. It re-
ports 50 per cent of the working population of Belgium unemployed, a mil
lion and a half undernorushed children in Belgium, and 100 per cent
more attendance in tuberculosis clinics than before the war. Smallpox
lis raging in Germany, while the French Academy of Medicine reports
that, since the mobilization began, syphilis has increased in France by 50
Der cent. This is the war that we ourselves propose to enter. And let us
face the fact, for sooner or later we will have to shoulder the responsibility
that, if we do enter the war, we shall in all probability prolong it inde6-
niely.
Our entrance into the war will prolong the war; for It will make Ger
many desperate, close the fist of the miltarist government upon the PEG
ole. and hold down the democratic impulses that stand for peace. Our en-
trance into the war will prolong the war, because it will soidhy the
British Governments determination not to make peace until a decisive nc
tory is won, and to offer no terms in the meantime that will not impel Ger
many to fight on to the bitter end.
Our provocatons are great Heaven knows we have every legal ex-
cuse for going to wal, but if we stay out of the war, and maintain our
policy of armed neutrality, as laid down by Washington and Adams 1e
wears ago, and by President Wilson3in his address to Congress IN Febru-
ary 26, it is more than probable that the war viii end. 1t is more than
probable that we can bring about a conference between the Central Pow
es and the Allies before the time set for the great spring hostlites, which,